Seeds

With the help of others, our foundation has been handing out seed bags to many people in many places. We hope you where one of them so together with us, you can help the bees by providing them with more and better food to eat. All the seeds we have given out are organic/biological and they are great for honey- and solitary bees but also butterflies and other pollinating insects.

The label of your seed bag might mention Buckwheat as it was the plant we are strongly promoting but almost all bags contain a mix of the following flowers:

Borage (Borago officinalis), Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), Marigold (Calendula officinalis), White mustard (Sinapis alba), Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), Caraway (Carum carvi), Centaurea jacea (Centaurea jacea), Cheeseplant (Malva neglecta), Dill (Anethum graveolens) and Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) Pictures of some of the plants can be seen on our Facebook album.

Planting instructions

You can plant the seeds in your garden, a flower pot or even somewhere in your neighbourhood. But make sure the soil has been cleared of weeds and grass so they have time and room to grow without being overgrown. Plant them between the beginning of May and mid July so that they will flower when the bees need them the most and cover them with a few millimeters of soil, press gently and add some water. Leave a few fingers between each seeds so they have enough room to grow. The bag you have received will be good for a bit over one square meter. The plants like a quite sunny environment but as long as they are outside and watered enough they will grow so plant them anywhere you can. The plants will become about 15 to 40cm high and make the bees around really happy.

The flowers are all one year plants so at after they have flowered you can collect the seeds and plant them again somewhere the next year, that way the flowers keep on spreading with your help.

Enjoy planting, watching the flowers grow an seeing the bees come to visit!

As we are still great lovers of the Buckwheat plant we have left the description below here for those who are interested.

Help the bees, plant: BUCKWHEAT – Fagopyrum esculentum

At the moment we are spreading small bags of BIOLOGICAL Buckwheat seeds in The Netherlands and in Belgium to support the bees. Buckwheat has a 5 star (the highest) rating on nectar value and a 5 star rating on pollen value, for honeybees. On top of that they can flourish for about 3 weeks.

Buckwheat can be planted  in: MAY / JUNE / JULY / AUGUST.So don’t wait and plant the seeds right away, so the bees can still enjoy them this year.

It is a yearly plant so plant them today and in about 8 weeks you will be able to harvest new Buckwheat seeds to plant again next year.

Planting instructions

It’s easy to grow, harvest, and process; it prospers on soils too poor for other crops. So plant in poor, sandy and/or acid soil, and keep it humid.  Make some soil loose, spread the seeds leaving about 2 fingers between seeds and cover everything with some soil so the seeds are about 1 cm underground. For 1 flower pot, 20-30 seeds are enough. To grow as a crop, you need 60-100kg per ha. and one kilo contains ± 45.000 seeds.

Buckwheat is not susceptible to any major disease or pest problems. On top of all that, buckwheat is an excellent smother crop for weed control, a superb green manure crop, and a legendary nectar source for honeybees. It is one of the few crops that can be raised in your garden for making your own bread or pancake flour. Buckwheat is one of the best sources of high quality protein in the plant kingdom.

Use

After blossoming triangular sees appear, much like the fruit of a beech tree, beechnuts. Seeds are grounded to flower, yet buckwheat is not a grain. Buckwheat is a ‘psuedograin’: the seeds, the flower and other products derived from bucketwheat does not contain gluten, yet a lot Magnesium, Potassium and phosphorus. Roosted, buckwheat seeds are called ‘kasha’ and are known from East-European kitchen. Buckwheat is nutritious and easy digestible.

You can also keep seeds to sow buckwheat again next year. Keep the seeds in a dry place, because they mold easily.Nowadays Buckwheat is also grown for medicine. Therapeutic efficacyie has only recently been discovered. Research shows that it has one of the highest amount of flavonoids and in 1999 buckwheat was chosen as medicinal plant of the year.