Bee swarm in Saltford? Help is a minute away.

Saltford is a village on the Avon between Bath and Keynsham, with a marina and a stretch of riverside that includes the oldest continuously inhabited house in England. Apple and pear orchards survive on the terraced gardens along the Avon corridor, and the riverside willows and alder from Kelston to Swineford provide a sustained forage through spring and early summer. The Bird in Hand Lock gardens and the towpath vegetation give bees additional cover along the navigation.

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.