29th June 2009

The Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) is at it's best. If you come across it growing it's worth bending low to smell the sweet scent given off by the flowers.

Buy some seeds and sow it in a bed in the garden, the flowers attract many beneficial insects to the sweet nectar, including Bumble Bees who need all the help we can give them. An added bonus with clover is that the roots have Nitrogen fixing bacteria inhabiting them. The bacteria take Nitrogen out of the air and form nodules on the root of clover. When the plant dies the nodules are left in the ground releasing the stored Nitrogen that other plants can use to grow strongly.

Red Clover growing alongside Vetch in the bank. Vetch is also another Nitrogen fixer, it too has nodules form on it's roots that add to the Nitrogen content of the soil.

29th June 2009

29th June 2008