Butterfly Conservation report that in the UK, long-term trends show that 80% of our butterfly species have decreased in abundance or distribution – or both – since the 1970s. Do you see many butterflies and moths in your garden? I hope to inspire everyone to help butterflies and moths. Please don’t allow any pesticides, insecticides, or herbicides to be used on your garden, allotment, or indeed on any area in your locality, as these products obliterate our bees, butterflies, and moths.
Hello, and welcome to my wildlife pond in October.
I’ve been very fortunate – the wish I made for autumn sunshine (I expressed this hope at the end of my last update) came true! September blessed us with glorious warm weather and uplifting sunshine; it was so hot on a couple of days that it felt like mid-summer!
Hello, and welcome to my wildlife pond at the end of August. I find peace and solace in nature and I love spending time by our wildlife pond. Usually my visits are fleeting, lasting just a few minutes, but these short burst of connection with plants and wildlife revitalise and recharge me, instantly eliminating all the stresses of life.
Hello, and welcome to my wildlife pond in midsummer. I’ve got so much to show you, as this area of my garden is currently full of plants at all stages of growth. I can’t wait for you to see the flowers, but what you can’t see is the scent. I’ve only grown a few plants with perfumed flowers in this area, but they produce strongly scented flowers that fill this part of my garden with fragrance.
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.
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.
I love hedgehogs! Hedgehogs are so endearing and entertaining. Every time I have encountered a hedgehog has been such a special and uplifting moment; each hedgehog I have seen shuffling along or snuffling about has touched my heart, lifted my spirits and brightened my day.
Sadly, nowadays there are many threats to hedgehogs – hedgehogs are in danger as they try to cross our busy roads, but even away from the roads, hedgehogs face many dangers in our own gardens, because of these dangers, hedgehogs are becoming more scarce.
The end of summer is often a magical time bathed in golden light and sunshine. Here’s hoping the month ahead is a lovely time, there’s certainly a lot to do to keep you busy!
It’s the perfect time to prepare and sow new lawns. It’s important to remove all weeds, particularly perennial weeds, before you start your lawn preparation. It’s the perfect time to evaluate your lawn and sow grass seed in any bare patches or lay turf if needed.
The end of summer is often a magical time, bathed in golden light and sunshine. There’s certainly a lots of lovely things you could do in the garden, or at your allotment during the month ahead!
Vine weevils are a real pain, especially if you’ve got lots of container grown plants. The adult vine weevils damage plant leaves, leaving a notch-shaped, irregular edge to the leaves, resulting in a rather ragged looking, tatty plant.
This time of year is so evocative and reflective, with morning mist and an array of autumn colour only adding to the beauty of the garden. With shorter days, time is of the essence; there is much to do and enjoy in your garden this month!
It’s the ideal time to plant any beautiful, hardy plants that you’ve had your eye on at your local nursery or garden centre.
This time of year is so evocative and reflective, with morning mist and an array of autumn colour only adding to the beauty of the garden. With shorter days, time is of the essence: there is much to do, and enjoy in your garden this month!
If your fences are rather tatty or wobbly, have you considered planting a hedge? Hedges can be a very attractive feature of the garden, they also provide a much needed home for wildlife, and are more able to survive the perils of the winter storms than a fence.
