pollinators

Butterflies are one of the most charismatic of all garden visitors, with their vividly coloured wings and elegant flight arcs. Species like Red Admiral, Peacock … Read more

The vegetable garden is still pretty quiet this week, so I thought we would return to ornamental gardening and look at some of the plans for my garden and some i … Read more

As I mentioned in my mail the week before last, I have a lot planned for the garden this year and just to prove it wasn't a load of old waffle I include some pho … Read more

The Painted Lady is a very interesting butterfly due to the vast migratory path that it traces and the fact that record numbers have been reported in the UK and … Read more

I thought we'd do one last 'Friday Facts' on unsung pollinator heroes before moving on to another subject next week. Today I am taking a quick look at moths as t … Read more

This Friday I thought we'd continue looking at pollinators as we had such a good response from our first 'Friday Facts' on solitary bees. Solitary bees tend to b … Read more

Green Manures Green manures are 'crops' which are sown to cover bare soil and do a number of jobs depending on the species like protecting soil, storing nitroge … Read more

I don't know whether you know this already but of the 267 species of bee in the U.K. and Ireland, 90% of them are solitary bees. Solitary bees don't produce … Read more

I mentioned a couple of mails ago that we would be adding a new flowering plant section to our website but as usual I am a bit behind. We have been growing some … Read more

It is rare you come out of a pub with anything useful, but it was a chance encounter in a local hostelry which led to a complete transformation in my garden … Read more

I rarely get out these days but myself and Niall always try to squeeze in a relaxing pint on a Friday evening. Pubs whether you like or loath them are great p … Read more

As I've mentioned in my bee article I have accidentally ended up with a hive of bees. This is all fine and well but clearly I need to learn a lot more about t … Read more