Bee swarm in Radstock? Help is a minute away.

Radstock is a former coal-mining town on the River Wellow at the edge of the Somerset coalfield, its compact centre surrounded by limestone hillsides that once carried pit-head workings now given over to bramble scrub and hawthorn. The Wellow Brook valley below the town carries a ribbon of alder and willow, and the limestone hedgerow lanes toward Clandown and Writhlington hold field maple and elder alongside the hawthorn that flowers thickly in May. Mendip Beekeepers cover this area from their base at BA3.

The season opens on blackthorn and willow along the Avon riverside at Saltford and Keynsham, followed by hawthorn and apple blossom through the Chew valley orchards in May. Lime is the defining June flow in Bath — the plane trees of Great Pulteney Street, the lime avenues of Royal Victoria Park and the Prior Park landscape garden are particularly productive. Mendip-fringe limestone grasslands around Chew Magna, Bishop Sutton and Clutton carry wild thyme, knapweed and marjoram from June into July. Bramble is dense on the coal-measure slopes above Radstock, Midsomer Norton and Timsbury; willowherb and himalayan balsam flush the Avon towpath below Saltford and Keynsham through August. Ivy on Bath stone walls and village churchyards closes the year into October.