Catherine has been developing a wildflower bed in our back garden. It is based on about 10cm of poor soil on top of the cinder of an old tennis court. During the last week, I did a quick audit of what is growing, plus a few insects that I spotted. PlantsBlack KnapweedBroadleafed DockCatchweed Bedstraw (cleavers)Common […]
Bee friendly spring flowers
Gooseberries Gone!
For the first time ever I have lost most of my gooseberry crop to birds. Not only have they taken most of the gooseberries they have broken many of the branches. I grow my gooseberries as cordons so that it is easier to deal with sawfly, lets more air in to reduce the chance of […]
Speedwell
The edge of one of our wild areas, where it meets the grass path, hosts a beautiful speedwell. I think this one is the birds-eye speedwell. Speedwell is also known as Paul’s Bettony and is used as a medicinal herb. A long blooming, easy to care for perennial, Speedwell is prized as a garden flower […]
Small Tortoiseshell catterpillars
Although I leave a lot of nettles to grow in my hedge and other wilder areas of the garden I rarely see any catterpillars on them. Just down the road from our house is an expanse of nettles growing under oak and chestnut trees and this week there have been loads of catterpillars on them. […]
Honesty
This year we have had a lot of Honesty appear in the woodland area of our garden. This was one of my mother’s favourite wild flowers. Honesty is popular with insects and is often planted under fruit trees to encourage bees and fruiting bushes. In the US it is known as the “silver dollar” plant […]
Gooseberries and sawfly
After being reasonably successful last year with our gooseberries – we sheet mulched under the plants to stop sawfly – we are going to experiment with Poached Egg Plant this year. I came across this as a recommendation a few years ago and we now have enough plants to try them out under the gooseberries. […]
Spring Blossom
Grey Dagger Moth Caterpillar
I was pruning back some of the lower branches of an oak tree in our hedge this morning in order to let in a bit more light and to provide some more firewood. When I took a break for a cup of tea I found this little fellow on my arm: It is a […]
Love grows where my Rosemary goes
If you’ve met her, you’ll never forget her And nobody knows like me In the last few days I have kept coming across articles about how the herb Rosemary can improve your memory. Some scientists claim that it can improve your memory by up to 75% though how you measure that I don’t know. […]