A Walk on the Wild Side

 

Had a lovely day yesterday running my "Wildlife Friendly Gardening" course. I have been so lucky this summer, for the weather to have been so poor, my course days have been lovely. The weather was beautiful for this time of year and the butterflies were amazing - I've never seen anything like it....the beds were aflutter with Tortoiseshells large and small. There were also Red Admirals and Peacocks although to a lesser extent.

We were making insect houses with some hollow stems from the garden and it put me in the notion for rereading Sticky Wicket. It's such a good book - so informative and inspirational....Pam Lewis is the doyenne of wildlife gardening.

So now that I'm in a wildlife friendly kind of mood, I'd thought I'd share some simple tips for helping the wildlife in your garden.....
 

• A pile of old logs in a corner will provide an ideal habitat for many insects, especially beetles, and will also attract frogs, even newts in damp areas.
• A mini insect house can be made easily by tying together hollow stems and placing in a sheltered corner or pushed into the bottom of a hedge.
• Water is essential for birds in the garden - a small shallow container raised off the ground will suffice and a further container filled with a mix of fine soil and sharp sand will be appreciated as a dust bath to clean their feathers/
• Grassess and bamboos make fantastic winter shelter for wildlife including wild bees and ladybirds.

Happy Gardening!

Winding Down

Just relaxing after a hectic week preparing flowers for a lovely bride and groom.

Pre wedding chaos in the barn...promise..more pics to follow.

 

Can certainly feel the garden winding down and the poor bees are starting to look rather bedraggled. I hate that they have such a short lifespan.

Plenty of annuals still doing their stuff - the cosmos and snapdragons are flowering abundantly, as long as I keep deadheading they should flower for a while longer (providing the gales hold off). The bees are especially loving the sedum and verbena flowers but also the single dahlias and cosmos.

 

I love the warmer colours at this time of year - my favourite of the moment - crocosmia "Honey Angels"...a beautiful soft buttery yellow. I'm looking forward to spending a week in the garden...just me and the dog - will keep you informed of our "progress"! x 

Butterflies & Blooms

 

The butterflies and bees are everywhere - it has been pleasantly warm the last few days although we had a windy spell which set the flowers adrift. The cosmos and snapdragons are flowering their hearts out, as are the dahlias - I'm just sorry that I didn't plant more of them this year. That's the thing about leaving the dahlias in the ground - you don't know which ones will survive and then you are left with gaps. I suppose I should start a few more off in the tunnel in spring to replace the ones that don't come up. Two years ago I grew dahlia Cactus Mixed from seed and they were lovely....I think I'll try them again next spring.

 

Last week I started all of my hardy annuals in the tunnel (ammi, nigella, cornflowers,sweet sultan, gyp elegans, clary sage), as opposed to waiting until spring - it worked well last year for the ammi but I didn't get round to trying any others. The trouble is that the beds are still full of this years annuals so I will probably have to just pot on and leave at the back of the tunnel - this worked fine for the ammi but may not do for the rest - you are always learning with gardening and nothing is straightforward!

 

 

Wildlife

Enjoying the lovely weather in the garden - great to be able to work the beds without squelching through the mud. Still frantically deadheading to keep the flowers coming. It's amazing to see how a short spell of warm settled weather brings an abundance of wildlife into the garden....are they always there just hiding in the banks and hedges? Bees, butterflies, hoverflies, ladybirds and grasshoppers everywhere...I never feel alone!