A friend of mine has started keeping chickens in her small south east London garden.
I think she harbours plans of big country houses and estates that stretch for miles. This being south east london, not rolling Sussex has meant the chickens live a very happy urban life in an chicken igloo, and although have done a fair bit of damage to the garden (they just won’t stop pecking!) provide a very happy example of country city living.
Urban/country dreams were further brought to my attention recently, when I heard about Backyard Beekeeping (bee keeping in the city). Apparently some clever entreprenurs have been using all that unused roof space and keeping coloneys of bees up on high. Becuase London has such a large biodiversity with many differnet plants and insects, the flavour of the honey is supposed to bee (sorry) amazing. Amazingly, pollution appears to have no effect upon them.
You might also be interested to know that Fortnum and Mason's have started keeping bees on their roof and making honey to sell in their shop.
We all know how important bees are to a stable ecosytem and essential to human survival, so why not encourage these amazing insects into your garden with lovely smelling flowers like hebes and foxgloves.
You could even provide a home for them with a ceramic bumble bee nester for only £16.50 (or free with 5,300 points) or an FSC wooden one for £17.50 (or free with 5,500 points).
