Hello. Welcome to my garden and an autumnal tour of my wildlife pond! My pond doesn’t appear as beautiful in autumn as it does in late spring and summertime. None of my aquatic plants are in flower today, so you could be forgiven for believing that as most of the plants are dying back and there aren’t any flowers around, that there’s not much life here now.
Grasses form a fundamental part of many gardens. The seed heads of ornamental grasses take on a magical quality as they shine in September’s golden sunlight. September is a superb time to plant ornamental grasses, like: Deschampsia, Festuca, Heliotrichon, and Stipa.
Has your garden been hosting family sports tournaments this summer? If your grass is worn through in places, it’s the perfect time to fill in those bare patches.
I am so grateful for my little pond; this small area of water attracts many insects to our garden. As well as planting up my pond with aquatic plants that live in water, I’ve planted the narrow border around my pond with garden plants that will attract bees, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, and other insects. If you’re interested in growing plants for bees and butterflies, you won’t need a pond or a boggy area of ground to grow these garden plants – they grow in regular garden soil – my plants are growing in free draining, sandy soil; so I’ve chosen mostly drought tolerant plants.
Summer’s golden sunshine warms our gardens and gladdens our hearts, it’s sublime! Make time to sow seeds now to enjoy stunning flowers next spring and delicious vegetables over the coming months.
Cornflowers (also known by their botanical name, Centaurea cyanus) attract a wide range of bees and butterflies; these rosette shaped blooms make great cut flowers, too. If you’re not a fan of the traditional blue cornflower, take your pick from the white, pink, cerise, lilac, purple, and (almost) black flowered forms available.
I adore spending time immersed in nature, studying plants and butterflies. Today I wanted to tell you about the Big Butterfly Counts I’ve taken at Bookham Common, in Surrey.
Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count runs from Friday the 17th July 2020 until Sunday 9th August 2020 – so you still have plenty of time to join in and enjoy taking your own Butterfly Count!
Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count runs from Friday the 17th July 2020 until Sunday 9th August 2020. A butterfly Count lasts for 15 minutes, it’s a fun, relaxing and easy thing to do. You don’t need to know anything about butterflies to take part.
Why count butterflies?The information gathered from all the Butterfly Counts across the nation, will help Butterfly Conservation identify the species of butterflies and day flying moths that are becoming more scarce.
The reason we created our wildlife pond was to support and encourage wildlife. I’d love to be able to tell you about every creature that has ever visited my pond, but I don’t manage to spend as much time here as I would like and I’m not the fastest mover, so I’ve only managed to capture a fraction of the wildlife that has visited this area of my garden.
Since I first told you about my Vegepod much has changed. Back in 2018, my Vegepod was set up in an area of my garden that enjoyed partial shade, but after trialling the Vegepod in this fairly beneficial position (vegetables thrive when they’re grown in sunny and partially shaded sites), I decided to move my Vegepod to a more shaded area of my garden, to see what I could grow successfully inside my Vegepod with more challenging growing conditions.
Meadows present a natural, seemingly effortless beauty, with an undeniable allure. For the most part, meadow guardians save much of the energy that gardeners spend repeatedly mowing and maintaining traditional lawns. Nevertheless, meadows are not an easy option; creating a meadow requires endeavour, careful planning, and time, to ensure success.
Perennial meadow plantsOur native British, perennial meadow plants flourish in poor soils, where they grow contentedly alongside sedately-growing, fine-leaved grasses.
Time seems to pass so quickly in the summertime. I have written this post, simply to remind you, that you have just a few days left to take a Butterfly Count, for the Butterfly Conservation Big Butterfly Count 2019.
Taking a Butterfly Count is one of my favourite summer activities. Butterfly counts are free and they’re great fun to do, too!
Butterfly Conservation are a registered charity, who work to protect British butterflies and moths. Over the next few weeks, Butterfly Conservation are hoping that members of the public will take 15 minutes out of their day, to take note of the butterfly and moth species they see around them. The charity hope that Butterfly Count participants will send them the details of their observations, as Butterfly Conservation use this valuable data to help them gauge the numbers of UK butterflies.
Sowing seeds is a wonderfully cost-effective way to garden. Many hardy annual plants can be grown from seed this month, providing us with a quick and easy way to fill our gardens with beautiful flowers, in a wide range of colours and forms.
Many annual plants provide a valuable source of nectar, pollen, and food for insects.
April is a magical time in the garden. This month offers us so many wonderful opportunities. There are so many seeds you can sow now, so whether you favour growing vegetables, herbs, fruit, or flowers, don’t miss this chance to grow the plants that hold a special place in your heart.
Viola tricolorViola tricolor, often known as ‘Heart’s Ease’ is a dainty, yet easy to grow plant, which produces edible and very pretty, purple, yellow, and white flowers that have an attractive painterly quality.
I love growing vegetables, it’s a truly wonderful, soul enriching experience to grow your own food! Sadly an increasing number of us are without the luxury of a garden or allotment and have nowhere to grow vegetables, herbs, fruit, or flowers; while a great many others struggle to garden in small, often paved spaces, without any access to the soil.
The Butterfly Conservation Big Butterfly Count runs from the 20th July 2018, until the 12th August 2018. During this time, Butterfly Conservation – a registered charity who work to protect British butterflies and moths, are asking members of the public to take 15 minutes out of their day, to take note of the butterfly and moth species they see around them.
April is such a magical time of year! It’s quite simply awe inspiring to see the landscape being painted by mother nature in every beautiful shade of green, as more leaves unfurl and the view becomes ever greener each day. I love to be outside, surrounded by the birds singing and bees buzzing.
When you’ve lost someone you love, it’s natural to want to arrange a fitting memorial and to plan a meaningful tribute in their memory. Memorials of any kind are such a personal choice, but I want to help you by sharing some information and ideas of ways that you could leave a lasting legacy, one that will beautifully celebrate the life of someone close to your heart, whilst being kind to the environment.
I love our planet, I love plants and nature. I want to protect our environment. I want to live more sustainably. Sustainability is not a new desire for me, it is something that I have always aspired to. Firstly though I must tell you that I am far from perfect, I make mistakes and I am always learning. I want to improve, I want to make changes to live more sustainably and to live ethically.
The Heritage Open Days are four very special days of the year, where you can experience local history, culture, and architecture, and visit special places which are normally closed to the public, as well as enjoying free entry to places that charge an admission fee.
The 2017 Heritage Open Days will be held from Thursday 7th September 2017 to Sunday 10th September 2017.
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, supported by Viking Cruises, is the world’s largest annual flower show! This family orientated Show covers 34 acres of ground, occupying both sides of the Long Water, in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace.
This year Garden Designer Juliet Sargeant has designed the RHS Kitchen Garden, which has been created to showcase a number of innovative methods used to grow edible plants.
