I’ve wanted a bird bath for the garden for a long time, but I’ve never found one I liked. They’re usually great gothic monstrosities, or horribly twee, or just plain ugly. But last year we had an unfortunate incident where a fledgling got stuck in a collection of upturned pots that had filled with water, […]![]()
Bathrooms for birds
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Conkers and spiders and wonderful trees
The morning after last week’s storms, our morning walk was littered with ‘conkers’, the large and shiny seeds of the Horse Chesnut (Aesculus hippocastanum). Ryan started picking some of the nicer ones up. “The people at work”, he said, “have been discussing whether or not conkers repel spiders. I’m going to try it.” The idea […]![]()
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It’s time to think about nest boxes
A note caught my eye the other day that now is a good time to think about adding nest boxes to your garden, if you want to offer accommodation to garden birds this year! Ryan and I were doing a bit of bird watching in the garden today and it’s clear that the blackbirds and […]![]()
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Living with mammals and trees
Since we started feeding the birds in this garden, Ryan and I have been peacefully co-existing with a squirrel, who managed to find a (very entertaining) way to help himself to the bird seed. He is bold as brass, and we enjoy watching his antics. He’s easily recognisable, due to a tatty tail. Towards the […]![]()
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How to attract butterflies in a kitchen garden
For the last couple of years, two dwarf buddleja ‘Buzz’ bushes have been attracting butterflies into my front garden. This year, they’re gone. Removing them was not a decision I took lightly, but I wanted that space for fruit. However, insect populations are crashing, and since we and the rest of the ecosystem rely on […]![]()
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How to grow a banquet for British bats
If we look out of our patio windows at dusk, we are sometimes lucky enough to spot a bat zooming around above the houses. We call it Cricket, although – to be fair – Cricket could be multiple individuals. It flies so fast it’s hard to keep track. In Feral, George Monbiot talks about the […]![]()
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Back to my roots
After a week trapped inside by work, on Saturday morning I happily pottered around the garden for several hours. I started in the front garden, cutting back the comfrey and stuffing it into buckets to make liquid feed, since the flowers have faded to the point where the bees are no longer interested. I also […]![]()
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The elephant (hawk moth) in the garden
I wilt faster than my plants in the heat, so I haven’t been spending much time in the garden during this heatwave. Most nights we get the hosepipe out and water, to stop plants shrivelling from drought. We haven’t had any significant rain in weeks, and there’s none forecast (although we might be treated to […]![]()
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Insect Armageddon
National Nest Box Week starts tomorrow. This annual event encourages us to head out and hang up a new nest box, so that our favourite garden birds have somewhere to raise a family. It’s one thing that may help slow their decline. Whilst we have been bombarded with messages about helping the birds for a […]![]()
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The Hive: no. 3
World Bee Day seems like a good day to have a bee-related edition of The Hive, my round-up of positive (solarpunk) eco news stories. The UN designated 20 May as World Bee Day in 2017, to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development. A 7-mile-long ‘bee corridor‘ […]![]()
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More Pages to Explore .....
