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Good suggestion, thanks, I have actually retired now but, coincidentally, I have been doing volunteer gardening at my local church for quite a few years. I'm on pruning duty this Saturday
I have been heavily into ecology and conservation since my teens, which were a very long time ago, and have been creating a wildlife garden since 2005. I'm very interested in wildflower meadows and traditional hay meadows in particular and scan Twitter most days for anything relevant.
After I got made redundant recently, I actually tried to get a job with a conservation charity but failed to so, unfortunately. All my work experience is in the technology space. Ah well.
When I was living in France, I watched a professional cyclocross race, and after the race, with the course being very close to my house, I thought I would try to ride the now deserted course. This was in the days when I had no car and cycled everywhere, for transport, on holiday and for leisure, in wind and rain, ice and snow.
I got to the steep section and although it was no longer than 20 yards, froze with fear at the top of it. I just couldn't do it. It had freaked a lot of the pros out too and they had ran down it carrying their bikes, but the winner, well, he didn't hesitate, he cycled straight down it, cool as you like.
Hats off to these professional athletes, they have some guts
Good on you for doing that. I have done that in my back garden. One thing which can really help the wildflowers get established is the (annual) wildflower yellow rattle. That might have been in your seed mix anyway.
Yellow rattle is known as "the meadow maker" because it parasites plants, especially grasses, thinning out the grasses, which otherwise tend to grow so vigorously that they crowd out the wildflowers. Yellow rattle needs half bare earth, half grass and is best sown in the autumn, before November, because it needs prolonged cold to germinate. Thin out the grass a bit, wet the ground, apply the seeds, press them down - no need to cover them with earth. Done.
Sorry to hear that. I planted a native bramble in my garden, for the flowers - some say they are *the* best for bees bar none - and for the fruit. The easiest way to grow your own fruit, I reckon, you just plant the thing, cut it right down, water it when you plant it, then just leave it. OK, they are very prickly and grow very fast, but man alive, the amount of fruit, all with no watering or complex care. I use the fruit to make my own blackberry liqueur, or creme de mure, as the French call it. You can add it to white wine to make a kir, in place of the normal cassis.
I mention all this because a lesson I learned a couple of years ago is that when picking the blackberries, it is advisable to shake the branch you are targeting because wasps also adore the fruit and can get cross if disturbed. I got stung when I tried to pick a berry next to one a wasp was feasting on. Grrr.
While I am here: - Saxondale is superb, I have both series. Wicked stuff!
- Maurice is the best name I have heard for a cat since my mate's neighbour's cat. It was an elderly, cantankerous beast which would hold up traffic by slowly waddling along the road where it lived. He gave no quarter, did Uncle Bertie
It literally takes 20 minutes (15 minutes observing, 5 minutes to enter the results on the website).
My count was a paltry two peacocks, one red admiral and a gatekeeper. Poor considering my garden is rammed wildflowers, trees and bushes. Mind you, I did once see a green hairstreak in my garden and that's the only one I have ever seen, in spite of umpteen visits to Europe's butterfly hotspots.
I checked the Big Butterfly Count map to see if anyone had done one in Loftus Road. Nearly but not quite, someone had submitted results for Wormholt Park.
"I'm going to dig a wildlife pond in my front garden at the end of August, just to do my bit".
Nice one You will actually find that a lot of insects come to it just to drink.
I have had one for a few years but - good news alert - the advice on how deep to make it has changed since I created mine and it's believed that ponds don't need to be any deeper than 30cm. There's some great advice here: https://freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/advice-resources/garden-pond-advice-hub/
One damp loving plant I would recommend growing if you have the right conditions is meadowsweet. The smell of it is divine, like marzipan. It's quite a tall plant but easy to manage, you just cut it back after it's flowered.
You'll doubtless end up with loads of soil from the pond's construction and you could use that to create a - roll on the drums - beetle bank. That's another story entirely, though...
A group of Belgians will be getting a sit in Wimpy in Kilmarnock right now, and a bus load of Icelanders are turning up at Paisley’s Spoons next week.
If you want to get a feel for the parts of the US which support Trump while reading an amusing story about travel, this is a great read. It's not a political tome, it's about Tim Moore's attempts to drive a Ford Model T across the States. He deliberately picks a route which winds through Trump's strongholds. I found it entertaining yet poignant and insightful. Please note that while, at the outset, Tim struggles to understand the appeal of Trump - hence the choice of route - he doesn't poke fun at Trump's followers, he is respectful and keeps an open mind.
Like most of his travel books, it weaves in some history too, in this case, the story of Henry Ford.
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