Two go to Dorset

It’s a while since Outside the Back Door took a holiday and featured somewhere other than southwest London so I thought I’d share with you our experiences outside a back door down in Dorset last month.

We chose the cottage for our Dorset holiday based as much on the view as the location or facilities.  Situated on the Isle of Purbeck, just a mile or two south of Corfe Castle, this cottage offered splendid views across soft green, rolling English countryside.  It really was picture postcard stuff and I’m pleased to say the reality lived up to the photos on the website. 

Our initial reaction was that the garden seemed rather quiet.  We had just left behind a bustling scene of chaotic nesting and feeding activity.  The robins in our hawthorn were busy feeding and were clearly very diligent parents.  Bluetits seemed to be diving in and out of our giant clematis every few minutes.  Here in Dorset, the sky seemed quite empty and the birdsong worryingly absent.  Then on our first evening John spotted movement in the field opposite.  The sun (yes, we did see it!) was just setting making it difficult to identify what we were seeing and then it dawned on us – it was a roe deer grazing.  Well that’s something we don’t normally see at home!  Later on in the week, we actually had two deer strolling around together and deciding which bit of hedge to nibble.  What a treat!

_{Roe deer, Afflington Manor (c) John Malone}

As dusk fell, an outside light on a sensor started flickering on and off.  Given that we were in an old stone property, surrounded by various old barns and farm buildings, could there be bats?  We headed outside with our bat detector and within seconds the echo-location noises of pipistrelles were clicking away.  To be honest, we barely needed a bat detector as we soon had them zooming over our heads.  We do get bats at home but not in the quantity that were wheeling around here.  After all the miserable wet weather we’ve had, we were so lucky that most evenings were dry, if a little chilly, and we could almost set our clocks by the bats emerging – 8.25pm each night.

As the week progressed, we began to realise there were far more birds in the cottage garden that we had first realised.  We adopted the ‘first bird of the day’ approach, seeing what would be first to catch our eye.  It turned out to be quite varied.  The first morning it was a great-spotted woodpecker.  On another day it was the pair of great tits that were clearly nesting just the other side of the fence.  We also seemed to have a robin courting couple as I saw them feeding each other at one point.  Then there were the two goldfinches who seemed to muscle in on the action at the end of the week. A pair of long-tailed tits also seemed to enjoy trying to eat insects from the frame of the conservatory. It was a bit unnerving and we hoped they wouldn’t accidentally injure themselves flying into the glass.

_{Long-tailed tit in search of supper, Afflington Manor (c) John Malone}

One morning whilst debating whether the ‘first bird’ award should go to the goldfinches or the blackbird, we saw more movement in the field opposite.  What had appeared at first glance to be clumps of grass, now seemed to have sprung ears and legs!  By now we were keeping our binoculars to hand and had soon worked out that we had up to three hares prancing around the field.  We went through the inevitable debate – hare or rabbit?  Given that we could see them from quite a distance with the naked eye and that they had brown tipped ears, we concluded hare.  We did hope that we might see them ‘box’ but that proved a step too far.

_{Hare, Afflington Manor (c) John Malone}

Literally just outside the back door, we had a beautiful white cherry tree that was just coming into blossom.  When we did have blue skies, it looked absolutely stunning.  Several large queen bumblebees, and also a few smaller ones, clearly also thought it was stunning and every time we opened the door, we were greeted by the sound of very deep buzzing.  However, it did mean we had to stage a couple of important wildlife rescues.  One of the small and one of the huge bumblebees got a bit carried away and ended up indoors.  A small glass beer tankard and a tourist leaflet proved to be the essential kit for returning them to the wild.  These days bees are so endangered that we didn’t want to be the cause of any accidental deaths!

_{The magic of white blossom against blue skies, Afflington Manor (c) Elizabeth Malone}

This was our second visit to Dorset within the last couple of years.  Whilst this was clearly a very wildlife friendly garden and landscape, we’ve been very struck by how wildlife focused the county seems to be.  I’m sure there are plenty of examples of bad practice in the area as well, but there are some fantastic places to observe wildlife but also verges that positively sell a wildlife friendly message.  And you might be interested to know that the holiday cottage company we booked through, donate to the RSPB for every booking made via the RSPB website.

The last days of summer

I have got rather behind with my Outside the Back Door blogs although they have been published in my church magazine on time! So now attempting to fill in the gaps. This one is from October.

We had nearly put the comfy deckchairs away but, as September drew to a close, the sunshine and warmth briefly returned, drawing me back out onto the sunny side of the patio.

The wildlife was also clearly enjoying this last burst of summer. The first thing I spotted was a dragonfly soaring around the garden. In the low sunlight it was tricky to see what sort. I was about to stroll onto the grass to get a better view but then remembered that it had rained the previous evening and there were now muddy worm casts appearing. The season was changing and no longer could I just stroll across the grass in sandals or slippers, I needed to fetch my old gardening shoes.

_{Ruddy darter dragonfly – I hope! (c) Elizabeth Malone}

My lovely white cosmos ‘Purity’ were still in flower and being backlit by the sun whilst attracting bees. This autumn the garden seems to have been full of fluffy orange carder bees. They clearly love dahlia, cosmos and sunflowers.  They are one of my favourite bees to see around the garden but I wondered why they are called ‘carder’?  Apparently the name derives from the textile industry as they comb material together to form a cover for their nest, much in the same way as thread might be ‘carded’ before being woven.

_{Cosmos Purity (c) Elizabeth Malone}

Slightly less beautiful was the annoying chattering sound of a squirrel. Presumably something was antagonising it. I don’t know where it was sitting but its call was both monotonous and relentless. Perhaps it was complaining that I’d yet to plant my spring bulbs for it to then dig up! I am prepared. My chicken-wire pot covers are at the ready. I am not going to be thwarted by my tufty-tailed neighbour!

There are a still quite a few butterflies around the garden. Sitting out on those September afternoons, I spotted both large and small whites and a pair of red admiral. It was interesting how the press reported an enormous increase in red admiral butterflies this summer, but I can’t say I really noticed it in the garden. However, when we were on holiday in Cambridge and then Suffolk, we literally saw dozens. They seemed to be everywhere.  They also seem to have been more present in our garden in the autumn compared to earlier in the year.  On several warm afternoons we also had a pair of speckled wood butterflies who were constantly dancing around each other in mid-air.  Whilst this always looks very charming, the butterflies are actually establishing territory.

_{Late summer red admiral (c) Elizabeth Malone}

As the breeze increased, the magpies began fluttering around.  I don’t know where they spend summer but our regular pair are now back and will hang around locally until next spring.  If we put the hedgehog food out before dusk, they will be swooping down to steal it.  They treat it like a good gingernut biscuit being dunked in tea!  They pick up a piece of kibble and then drop it into the nearby water bowl to soften it before eating it.  Very clever – never underestimate a magpie!

_{Screen capture of our hedgehogs enjoying their supper (c) Elizabeth Malone}

Talking of hedgehogs, during September we had two new kids on the block. They were quite independent when they arrived but so much smaller than the big adults who have been around all summer. We once read that, to survive the winter, a hedgehog needs to be the size of two grapefruit.  When they first arrived, these two were little more than the size of a decent orange!  However, they have now been eagerly eating their kitten kibble each evening and are clearly growing.  There’s not much more we can do than give them a decent meal each evening and try to encourage someone to take up residence in the des-res that is our as yet unused hedgehog house!  Whilst we might have enjoyed a late blast of summer, nature is definitely preparing for winter.

A bug’s life

I’m writing this at the time of year when sitting outside means dodging a wasp or feeling itchy as ants suddenly develop wings and take flight.  However, it’s also the time of year when anyone driving to their holiday destination used to get ready to clean the car windscreen to remove the splatter of dead insects.  But pause … think … when did you last have to do that?

_{Bee enjoying the cosmos – Summer 2023 (c) Elizabeth Malone}

The decline of insect populations in the UK is now well documented and is certainly something to worry about.  Whilst you might get annoyed by the wasp ruining your picnic, the overall lack of insects around us could cause some serious issues, such as the failure of crops due to the lack of pollination.  So what can be done about this?  And can we, as individuals, make any difference to this massive decline?  From what I’ve observed in our own garden this summer, I do feel the answer is ‘yes’.  Nurtured with wildlife in mind, I think our little patches of ground can do their bit to halt the decline in biodiversity. 

_{Mystery bug! (c) Elizabeth Malone}

For some years now, we’ve been ensuring that any plant we choose to add to the garden has single flowers which make it easy for insects to reach the vital food source stashed away at the centre.  We’ve also deliberately chosen plants that are either ‘bee-friendly’ or ‘pollinator friendly’ such as echinacea, helenium, cosmos, echinops, lavender and verbena to name but a few.  Our garden certainly buzzes away with activity on just about any dry day of the year, and I include the middle of winter in that as our winter flowering shrubs step into the breach when the weather starts to chill.  However, this summer I feel that I’ve seen more insects than usual and insects that I’ve never previously seen, which got me thinking.  Why is this?

_{Red soldier beetle seen in my garden for the first time this year (c) Elizabeth Malone}

This summer has been our third year of participating in the ‘No-Mow-May’ campaign and I think it’s been our most successful attempt so far.  The idea behind No-Mow-May is to let your lawn grow long during May to enable insects to nest and breed amongst the longer grass.  The first year we attempted this, the grass just became messy.  We cut bits back here and there and weren’t really sure what we were doing.  In year two we became a bit more organised and, come the end of May, cut a few swathes around and through the long grass, and we experimented with leaving some longer for longer.  This seemed fortuitous when the summer of 2022 turned into a scorcher and one of drought.  However, soon the grass began to turn into a dust bowl and we even feared the threat of wildfires, especially when park areas in Hampton and Twickenham burned.  This year, with the generous supply of rain and the lower temperatures, the grass has thrived.  It seems to have reached its natural height and flowered, leaving us with a cloud of dusky pink.  Cutting a clear path around it performs the magic trick of making it look planned rather than just ignored.  None of that, however, tells you about what I’ve observed.

_{It’s not just the insects that enjoy No Mow May! (c) Elizabeth Malone}

In early July I spotted my first ever skipper butterflies in the garden.  These small orange and brown butterflies did seem exceptionally plentiful this year.  A camera operator at the Hampton Court Flower Show obviously thought so as they kept homing in on them during the BBC coverage.  Clearly it wasn’t difficult to find them if they were even making it into our garden.  Then on another occasion I saw a couple of meadow brown butterflies in the garden.  As their name suggests, they are usually found in long grassland so clearly they now felt at home in the garden.

_{Small skipper butterfly in my garden – Summer 2023 (c) Elizabeth Malone}

It’s not been just butterflies.  One day I found a luminous green beetle perched on one of our echinacea flowers.  I think I’ve identified it as a rose chafer beetle.  My salvia plants seemed to attract a black and orange beetle which, several days later, appeared to have brought along its friends.  One soon became three.  These turned out to be soldier beetles.  I’m sure I’ve never seen them before.  We also had visits from a couple of lesser stag beetles.  I confess that whilst I don’t mind these on the ground, I dislike seeing them fly!  My final mystery bug might be a thick-legged flower beetle but, if it is, then it’s a female because it’s rather brown and dowdy whereas pictures I’ve seen of the male are iridescent.

_{Rose chafer beetle – Summer 2023 (c) Elizabeth Malone}

As mentioned above, we always have a good selection of bees in the garden but this year I feel we’ve seen more hoverflies.  In the spring we get something called a bee-fly which is quite big and furry and hovers in mid-air about eye level.  We also get what I believe are called ginger hoverflies.  These are a little bit like a miniature wasp but much more attractive.  With their bright orange stripes, they also have the advantage of not stinging, but are happy to graze across the flowers.  I think I’ve seen more of these this year and they’ve been joined by smaller all-black hoverflies which are extremely difficult to photograph and identify. 

_{Ginger hoverfly – Summer 2023 (c) Elizabeth Malone}

As we come towards the end of August, we are going to have to make the decision when to cut all the grass back.  Traditionally I believe meadows are cut at this time of year so may be the Bank Holiday weekend? 

_{Mint moth – Summer 2023 (c) Elizabeth Malone}

BEES – OUR LIFELINE

I’ve written about the importance of bees in several Outside the Back Door posts but they are so vital to our existence that I felt we should remind ourselves about why that is, especially as we move closer to our annual harvest celebrations, and also what we can do to ensure that bees continue to buzz happily outside our back doors.  Did you know that without bees we would also be without raspberries, apples, pears, beans, tomatoes and many other fruit and vegetables.  Equally our countryside would lose many varieties of wildflower.

_{Bees have loved our Chicory Electric Blue this summer (C) Elizabeth Malone}

It is very easy to refer to ‘bees’ when incredibly the UK is currently home to over 250 different species of bee!  The honeybee that we’re all familiar with is just one of those species.  So the vast majority of bees we see in our gardens and parks are those of the other 249 or so varieties!  There are approximately 28 that are commonly seen, including the Garden Bumblebee and the Red-tailed Bumblebee.

_{Red-tailed bumble bee exploring our Verbena Bonariensis (c) Elizabeth Malone}

I’m pleased to say that, even in the drought, our garden has been buzzing with bees although I’m told that this hasn’t been the case everywhere.  I was recently in correspondence with a well-known TV wildlife gardener who was concerned that her Brighton garden was very quiet this year.  On the veg plot, the strawberry flowers attract the spring bees whilst the raspberries draw them in later in the summer.  That said, by the middle of August the mis-named ‘Autumn Bliss’ raspberries were ceasing to flower despite watering so it’s possible that the impact of the drought on bees has yet to come.

_{Raspberries being pollinated (c) Elizabeth Malone}

On the flower side, our lavender has been particularly popular with red-tailed bumblebees during July.  The echinacea have also been a bee magnet and I have two large pots full of tagetes and heliotrope which seem to be providing a bee larder at the moment.  However, it has been scary to see the ever-reliable verbena bonariensis being scorched by the sun.  This plant is usually a favourite with both bees and butterflies and will flower from June through till October with its tiny purple flowers constantly renewing in layers.  The infamous hot day with 40+ degree heat simply burnt some of mine, turning them brown overnight with no sign that they can renew themselves the way they normally do.  This sounds worrying alarm bells.  If the flowers we’re encouraged to plant to be ‘bee-friendly’ can’t survive the heat, what will bees live on?

_{Verbena Bonariensis doing its job (c) Elizabeth Malone}

We do have bees in our garden all year round with plants such as winter honeysuckle, hellebores and winter clematis feeding them even in the coldest months.  In recent years I have become more aware of the different kinds of bee visiting the garden. 

_{Hellebores provide winter sustenance (c) Elizabeth Malone}

For example, in spring our pulmonaria draws in a small, very loud black bee which I think might be a Hairy Footed Flower bee – isn’t that a wonderful name?  Come September our ivy will be alive with what I suspect is the Ivy Mining bee.  How do I know this?  Recently I became acquainted with the WildID series of laminated leaflets produced by the Field Studies Council.  You can purchase these online or drop into the Bushy Park Visitor Centre one weekend and the volunteers will happily sell you some!  Unlike a book, these colourful leaflets simply fold out so that you can see pictures of all the common UK bees laid out before you.  It makes it much easier to identify something than flicking through a book.  I also recommend the butterflies guide as personally I find my butterfly book totally bemusing!

Talking of Bushy Park Ranger, earlier in the summer I was out on one of my Volunteer Ranger duties when my fellow Ranger pointed at some holes in the ground and said, “Ah solitary bees!”  So whilst I might be working on my bee identification skills, I certainly don’t know how to spot a nest when I see one!

As with so much of our wildlife bees do need our help.  The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is working with farmers, local government and other big land owners and managers to ensure bees have access to a greater range of wildflowers. 

1.  Grow plants across the seasons that will sustain bumblebees.

2.  Mow your lawn less and let the wildflowers bloom.

3.  Grow your own fruit, veg and herbs, even if it’s just a pot or two.

4.  Make space for bumblebee nests such as tangled grass, compost heaps.

5.  Tell someone else why bumblebees are important!

Just remember, bumblebees are VIPs – Very Important Pollinators! If you do just one of these things, you will have taken a small action to help biodiversity.

_{Pollen covered bee enjoying our Echinacea (c) Elizabeth Malone}

Fresh October

Fresh October brings the pheasant;
Then to gather nuts is pleasant.

Continuing this years series of blogs based on Sara Coleridge’s poem ‘The Garden Year’, I realised that nuts don’t feature in my garden at all, or at least not deliberately. Over the years I have pulled out many a seedling horse chestnut tree sprouting from a conker buried by an industrious squirrel.

Squirrel posing locally in Bushy Park (c) Elizabeth Malone

We also have a small oak tree in a pot dug up from somewhere in the garden and, again, probably growing from an acorn buried by a squirrel as I’m not aware of any oak trees particularly nearby. Our little tree is thriving but leaving us with the puzzle of what to do with it? Our garden isn’t the right size and scale for a majestic oak! As we live near Oak Avenue Nature Reserve, I’m wondering if I could sneak out in the dead of night and plant it there? With the emphasis next year on planting trees for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, maybe there will be an opportunity?

Our baby oak tree (c) Elizabeth Malone

Whilst we may not have nuts to gather in the garden, this is without doubt the season of seedpods and berries. I watch in trepidation as the gigantic sycamore at the end of the garden casts thousands more ‘helicopter’ seeds in all directions. This tree wasn’t even here 21 years ago! It’s a self-set that has grown up just beyond our fence on Railtrack land which makes it somewhat challenging to get anyone to do anything with it. Once again next spring I will be pulling out hundreds of its offspring.

Sycamore warning! (C) Elizabeth Malone

Glancing out of the window to the patio, I can see that the berries on the black elder, Sambucus Nigra Black Lace, have already been devoured by the birds.  Berries from our main elder tree will probably have been eaten by pigeons but I suspect that the black elder berries have been snapped up by the flock of sparrows that seem to have adopted our garden over the summer.  Most afternoons between 8 and 12 of them descend and hide in the adjacent hedge.  For the next half hour or so there will be the sound of wingbeats as they ‘bounce’ up and down and in and out of the various bushes dining on a selection of insects, berries and seeds.  They are very entertaining to watch but also really distracting if you’re trying to concentrate on something!

Sambucca Nigra Black Lace against visit autumn sky (c) Elizabeth Malone

Underneath our bird feeders and therefore relatively low to the ground, we have a pyracantha will brilliant orange berries. These are at pigeon-height and will gradually disappear one-by-one of the coming weeks. From there the pigeons will then move on to the cotoneaster berries in the front garden which will mean we startle them every time we open the front door! I was going to suggest that it would be easier for the pigeons to progress to the hawthorn berries just above them. (Our bird feeders hang in the hawthorn tree which is less easily climbed by our cats!) However, I’ve just realised how few berries are actually left on the tree which implies that they’ve not been slow in coming forward to eat them. There’s a whole winter to go yet but they clearly don’t believe in being abstemious and saving some for later!

Prickly pyracantha (c) Elizabeth Malone

Green holly berries seem to be in abundance. Does this mean we’re in for a hard winter? I’m not quite sure when they turn from green to red, presumably when the temperature starts to drop? Of course as soon as they are red, then the birds will be ready to eat these too, leaving us to hunt around in mid-December looking for any that might still be available to decorate the house.

Now the holly bears a berry as green as the grass (c) Elizabeth Malone

What is becoming clear as I write this is just how important all these berries and seeds are to our wildlife. One plant that many of us have in our gardens, that grows wild in our churchyards and open spaces and yet is often reviled, is ivy. We were recently on holiday in Ramsgate in Kent where the seafront esplanade was lined by a mile or more of ivy. The sheer number of insects buzzing and hovering around the flowers was truly astonishing. To see this would make you question whether the UK’s insect life really is under threat? Although if any of you have done the ‘splat test’ on your car number plates this summer, you will know that this is a serious problem. (Our number plates remained almost spotless on journeys to Dorset in June and Kent in September). We have a lot of ivy in the garden. In one corner a whole range of birds must nest in it. We can’t see properly but every spring we’re aware of regular flitting to and fro. In the autumn, late bees will flock to it as one of the last flowering plants around and on a sunny day there is a constant stream of hoverflies skimming over it. In the depths of winter its shiny black berries will provide essential food for birds as well as decorating the house for Christmas. Yes, ivy can become too big for its boots at times but it’s easily pulled back to something more manageable and we wouldn’t be without it.

Garden ivy and hoverfly (c) Elizabeth Malone

July brings …

Hot July brings cooling showers,

Apricots, and gillyflowers.

Gillyflowers?  I can hear you all asking, what are they?  Well apparently they are several things.  They can be wallflowers or sweet Williams, and back in Shakespeare’s day, the name was used to refer to carnations.  More recently, the term has been linked to ‘pinks’ or dianthus which I’d never grown until this spring.

Two years’ ago we were visiting the lovely garden of Broughton House in Kirkudbright in Dumfries when John spotted this small, perfectly formed pink flower.  Foolishly we didn’t ask what it was and assumed that, as it was a type of dianthus, it would be easy to find somewhere – ha, ha!  We’ve never yet managed to track it down.

Mystery dianthus at Broughton House (c) John Malone

Inspired by this, we have picked up pots of dianthus in garden centres on and off and flicked through catalogues, but never actually committed to buying any until this spring when two pots accompanied us home from Wisley one day.  It was May – cold, a bit damp, and generally grey and miserable.  The plants were put to one side for potting up later as I wanted them to replace winter violas that were still flowering but about to die back.  Stupidly I took my eye off the ball.  The weather changed rapidly on the bank holiday weekend and the poor plants were fried!  I dunked them into a bowl of water and slowly over the course of the next couple of days they picked up but they still bear the scars.  Many of the leaves are still scorched brown and we’ve lost one flush of flowers.  So let that be a lesson to us as “hot July” approaches and, judging by recent years, we’re unlikely to get many “cooling showers”!

Dianthus – nearly fried! (c) Elizabeth Malone

Pinks, or dianthus, are quite scented but it’s a smell that I can’t quite make up my mind whether I like or not.  It’s quite spicy.  Often described as ‘clove-like’, I’m not sure I can smell that connection.  However, that did set me off thinking about scent in our garden.  As long-standing readers of this column will know, I do plant a lot for wildlife, especially for bees and butterflies, and although scent has a role to play here, most of my ‘plants for pollinators’ were chosen more for their flower shape than their scent.  For example, the flowers that have been attracting dozens of bees during June have been the poppies.  The buzzing of the bees reverberates around the flower head as they bury themselves deep down in the centre of the bloom, causing the petals to almost rattle.  However, to the best of my knowledge, poppies are unscented.  That said, the lavender is about to take centre stage and that is extremely fragrant.  It will soon be covered in bees but I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen butterflies head towards it.

Beauty of Livermere attacting bees (c) John Malone

Butterflies tend to prefer to perch on top of flat, open flowers.  They love the echinacea, another unscented plant, and also the verbena bonariensis.  Verbena is deceptive.  You could be forgiven for thinking that it is another flat flowerhead until you look carefully and you will see that the flower is made up of dozens upon dozens of tiny little tubes of nectar. Looking back through my photos, I realise the verbena is loved by bees, hoverflies and dragonflies as well as butterflies!

Large White enjoying Verbena Bonariensis last summer (c) Elizabeth Malone

It will be interesting to see how the summer progresses but currently I’m worried about butterflies in south-west London.  We saw quite a few in the garden in April – small whites, holly blues, commas, brimstones and the occasional peacock, but on the warm days in June we hardly saw a thing.  Has that been the effect of that long, cold May?  Last year we were lucky enough to see both a cinnabar moth and a Jersey tiger in the garden, in fact the Jersey tiger seemed to be everywhere.  We saw it in Crane Park and also in a local hedgerow but so far, nothing out of the ordinary this summer. 

A Jersey Tiger enjoying the nettles of Crane Park last summer (c) Elizabeth Malone

One of my experiments to attract more insects to the garden has been the sowing of a wildflower bed.  Returning to my original theme of scent, it’s interesting to note that it didn’t play a part in my plan.  Having never grown wildflowers before, I decided not to go mad and dig up the lawn but instead to sow some seed into a large re-usable gro-sack.  Instead of filling the sack with the obvious multi-purpose compost, I bought topsoil and mixed it with old spent compost and lots of grit in order to downgrade the quality of the planting medium.  Wildflowers, after all, don’t need to be pampered!  I then simply scattered over a packet of mixed seed and waited.  Initially I was annoyed by it as the sack sagged badly under the weight of the soil and it didn’t look particularly attractive but it is now flowering.  The only thing is, I’m not sure what the flowers are that have emerged!  I’m also not sure how well it’s doing on attracting insects – I’ve seen just one hoverfly so far!

My first wildflowers (c) Elizabeth Malone

If you’ve been wondering whether I’m going to mention apricots somewhere in this article, I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you.  We have fruit trees but not apricots.  We also have a lot of fruit and I can assure you that one of the things that is most attractive to bees is raspberries.  My advice is pick with care!!

All creatures great and small

Health warning – I’m about to be controversial this month!  How do you like your verges?  Those strips of ground along the sides of pavements, roads and around car parks?  Do you look for bowling green perfection?  Are you happy with rough and ready?  Or would you like to see something attractive but relaxed and informal, not too neat?  This year I’ve been focusing Outside the Back Door on what we can all do in our gardens and back yards to improve our environment and do our little bit for the climate crisis but this month I want to look slightly further afield.  Not too far, probably just as far as the top of the road.

Wildflower meadow at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington (c) Elizabeth Malone

One effect of the Coronavirus lockdown was councils having to re-prioritise tasks and budgets.  In many cases the need to trim verges around the boroughs fell to the bottom of the list.  In my own borough, the debate escalated recently as “enraged of RIchmond” took to social media to complain that standards were slipping and how ghastly it was to see all these wild flowers blooming around verges and attracting, shock, horror, insects!  As you might imagine, those of a different persuasion equally fought their corner, arguing the case strongly for this more relaxed, environmentally friendly approach – an approach which, in fairness, has already been deliberately adopted by some local authorities.  

Hampton Cemetery in Spring 2020 (c) Elizabeth Malone

With so many appreciating getting closer to nature during lockdown, or rather nature getting closer to them, the role played by our in-between spaces, such as verges, can’t be ignored.  If we’re to hear more birdsong, we need to ensure plenty of insects around for birds to feed on – they can’t live on our nut and seed feeders alone!  And if we want to be dazzled by beautiful butterflies, we must provide the nectar to sustain them.  Our rougher, more unkempt verges can bloom and become a really important source of food.

Cabbage whites particularly like verbena it seems (c) Elizabeth Malone

Insects must surely be the most reviled of all God’s creatures?  I’m the first to admit that I will run a mile from a wasp and can only remove spiders up to a certain dimension!  I’ve only been stung by a bee once (I hope I don’t regret writing that!) and it was a painful experience.  Thankfully it’s not put me off encouraging bees into the garden.  Any plant I buy these days comes with the ‘bee friendly’ tag.  Scientists have shown that without bees we couldn’t survive.  So imagine my concern when, during that very hot spell towards the end of June, I kept finding large bumblebees dying on my lawn.  At the time our ‘lawn’ was a mass of clover as we’d stopped cutting due to the drought.  Every day we were finding one or two bees staggering across the flower heads and then they would just stop, literally dead in their tracks.  It was so sad to see.  I was so concerned that I contacted the local Wildlife Trust who introduced me to a new Facebook group called Nature in Richmond.  There I found other people reporting the same thing but also bee ‘experts’ who explained that the UK’s bumblebee populations are moving north due to warmer summers in the south of England as a result of climate change.  

Bees fighting over the echinacea in our garden (c) Elizabeth Malone

Joining this Facebook group has been a revelation.  You can post a photograph of just about anything wildlife related and someone is likely to know the answer.  Apart from recognising their importance, I confess I know almost nothing about insects but I have been delighted to post a photo of, for example, a hoverfly and to have it identified as a ‘marmalade hoverfly’.  Another colourful mystery was a red-belted clear-wing moth!  I’ve discovered that sightings such as this also get logged by the South-West London Environmental Network and added to their Biodiversity Record.  So whilst it’s a great source of information (and of some fabulous photography I should add), it’s also rewarding to know that we’re contributing to understanding the nature around us.

Red-belted clearwing moth in our garden as identified by the local nature group
(c) Elizabeth Malone

So whilst we’re on the topic of insects, let’s not forget the butterflies and my impression is that it has been a good summer for them.  I’ve carried out one or two butterfly counts in the garden and uploaded them to the Butterfly Conservation Trust who run this annual survey.  Across the summer I’m delighted to have seen large and small whites, commas, peacocks, red admirals, holly blues, brimstones, speckled wood and an abundance of gatekeepers.  However, a couple of weeks ago I saw a flash of orange followed by a flash of black and white that settled on the crab apple tree.  Before I could take a closer look it had fluttered away.  I went to get the camera but by then it had vanished.  A few days later I was walking in Crane Park and saw the same thing.  This time it was more obliging and settled on a convenient nettle patch ready to be photographed – a Jersey Tiger!  I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen one of these before and I’m delighted to say that I’ve seen another since in a local road where there is an unkempt verge, full of nettles (and sadly dumped rubbish).  Butterflies love nettles and wild flowers that are rich in nectar.  They are also a very important indicator of the health of our environment.  So it’s back to those grass verges again.

Jersey Tiger butterfly on hydrangea leaves in our garden August 2020 (c) Elizabeth Malone

Sounds of silence

Flapping, squeaking, buzzing … and not a jet engine to be heard!

I have lived my life underneath the Heathrow flight path. At my parents’ house, we used to look forward to a foggy day when the skies would fall silent but, since landing became more automated, even that ceased to be the case. Our current house was chosen for the fact that it generally falls between flight paths and doesn’t get planes directly overhead – hoorah! That said, there’s always the odd day when it feels like air traffic control have you in their sights. We do have the railway line, however, but since the Coronavirus lockdown began, trains have started later, finished earlier and they are shorter so they pass by more quickly.

Intense blue above us (c) Elizabeth Malone

So I look up to the part blue / part cloudy white sky and instead of vapour trails, I can see a swallow circling … or is it a swift? I always find it hard to spot the difference at a distance so we tend to hedge our bets and refer to the ‘swillows’! It’s not a particularly full sky today in terms of birds but then it’s May. Most birds have more important things to be doing right now than swooping across our skies. That said, isn’t it blue? Apparently it’s not just our eyes deceiving us or our imaginations romanticising this new ‘lockdown’ world, it really is ‘bluer’ due to the lack of pollution. The blue skies have provided an intense backdrop to what has been a very beautiful spring.

Cotinus coggyria ‘Royal Purple’ against blue sky (c) Elizabeth Malone

The squeaking is incessant. It has been a huge week for fledglings. This picture doesn’t really tell the story. The lawn was covered in greedy young starlings demanding food and our sparrow family who have kept us entertained all week. The sparrows seem to have taken home-schooling to heart and we observe daily lessons such as how to approach a squirrel-protected bird-feeder!

A handful of greedy young starlings – the rest were hiding behind the bushes!

There’s also a lot of flapping going on. That would be the wood pigeons and magpies sorting themselves out, some in our birch tree and some on the roof of the house at the end of the garden. This is interspersed with the ‘woo-woo’ of the collar doves.

Magpie at sunset in our birch tree (c) Elizabeth Malone

Seconds ago I had to duck! A formidable buzzing passed by my right ear as a giant bumble bee made its way towards the cotoneaster. The flowers of this plant might be tiny but the bees absolutely love it. We used to have the food-waste bin positioned near the prostrate cotoneaster in our front garden but that meant stepping very near the humming masses each time we used it. We concluded that it was prudent to move the bin!

Tiny flowers of the cotoneaster (c) Elizabeth Malone

I can also hear the relaxing sound of running water. Next door’s fountain is trickling into their pond, which reminds me that we’ve not yet turned on our fountain this spring. Something to do later. The sound of the trickling water is also hiding that inevitable summer noise – the whine of a lawnmower! Clearly no one has mentioned that it’s supposed to be ‘no mow May’ around here!

Time to turn on our own pond fountain! (C) Elizabeth Malone

Finally, I can hear the blackbird, surely one of the most beautiful bird songs. I know a mistle-thrust would probably be even more lyrical but this is south-west London, we can’t have everything you now! And as if to remind me that not all bird-song is necessarily beautiful, I can hear a bevvy of parakeets heading our way!

Good afternoon blackbird!

And good evening blackbird!

The power of ponds

Water is an essential feature of any wildlife garden and for most of us that means a pond. If you are looking to make your garden, terrace or even balcony, more environmentally friendly, you can’t go far wrong in adding a splash of water.

Our pond in spring time (c) Elizabeth Malone

When we moved here twenty years ago, there was a willow tree by the pergola. The pergola had been carefully positioned by the previous owners so that it caught the evening sun in the summer and was therefore a lovely place to wind down at the end of the day with a glass of something cold in your hand. Sitting in the pergola and by the willow tree, we quickly realised that this area was begging for a pond. It is perhaps ironic that the willow tree subsequently died but we have never regretted the decision to build the pond.

Pond and pergola (c) John Malone

Before embarking on the pond we had tested the water (apologies for the terrible pun!) by plugging the drainage hole in a large ceramic pot, filling it with water and adding a water lily. It actually worked really well and was a delight to look at. I’d really recommend this for anyone who either doesn’t have the space for a pond or who just wants to add a bit more water to their garden.

Our increasingly giant water lily! (C) John Malone

Without a shadow of doubt, our pond is teeming with wildlife. As I write this, it is a glorious sunny spring day and red damselflies are emerging, skimming the water, perching on marigold leaves and quickly finding a mate. I’ve also counted six newts. On a day like this they love to just float in the sunshine. Sadly we didn’t have any frogspawn this year. We did have a lonely frog who turned up and waited patiently for its mate but clearly to no avail. We are really missing the tadpoles as they devour the green weed in the pond and keep the water clear. Instead I am having to mess around, trying to extract it with a hoe or any other device that seems to work. I’ve tried scooping with a net but trying to clean out the net before making the next scoop, is really frustrating! There are also water snails – where did they come from? Everyone always says build a pond and the wildlife will come. This is so true.

Tadpoles last spring (c) Elizabeth Malone

Creating a pond needn’t be complicated but a little extra thought will help develop a really good wildlife haven. For example, ensuring that there are plants with tall, strappy leaves enables damselflies and dragonflies to emerge from the water and dry off after shedding their skin. You need plants that will maintain oxygen levels to enable frogs and newts to survive. You should also always include a way out for any creature that accidentally falls in. Most people have hedgehogs in mind when they say this but your cat might appreciate it too! Fortunately we have only ended up with a soggy moggy on about three occasions!

Dragonfly emerging (c) John Malone

As well as being a wildlife home, the pond also helps to sustain a variety of other creatures. The birds love to bathe here as well as drink and we frequently see bees and wasps refreshing themselves. The heron, however, is one of our less welcome visitors as it is probably the reason why we don’t have frogspawn. From our observations, there is nothing better that a heron likes for breakfast than a nice juicy frog! A bit like foxes, I think we have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the heron. They are so intriguing to watch. The first time I saw one standing by our pond early one morning, my first thought was that someone was playing a joke on me and had stuck a plastic one in the garden … but then it moved its head slightly!

Bee taking advantage of the marsh marigolds (c) John Malone

As we originally envisaged, sitting next to the pond is a really restful experience, watching the wildlife and listening the trickling water (on the occasions when we do remember to turn on the fountain!) and I would recommend to anyone adding a pond to your garden to enhance the environment, not just for the wildlife, but for you as well.

The relaxing sound of trickling water (c) Elizabeth Malone

Planting on the wild side

In this second Outside the Back Door focusing on the climate crisis, I’m going to think about what we mean by wildlife gardening and the small things we can do to help wildlife in our local area.  This is a huge topic so, as spring is approaching, I’m going to start with planting for wildlife.

Moth or butterfly?  (c) John Malone

There was a time when the term ’wildlife gardening’ was often laughed at as an excuse not to do anything and just let your plot get on and do its own thing, ie. just become its own little jungle.  As the contribution of gardens towards the environment has become more valued, so wildlife gardening has become more recognised as something that isn’t a jungle or neglected space.  An effective wildlife garden is one that is carefully crafted to ensure a range of different species are both protected and encouraged.

Planting for wildlife is something we can all do on any scale, whether we’re talking acres or just a pot outside the back door.  For example, I personally dislike frilly, double flowers and, as it turns out, this is a good thing for wildlife.  Bees and butterflies simply can’t get at the nectar hidden in double-flowered varieties and many have been so carefully bred that they are very low in nectar anyhow.  What butterflies and bees really enjoy are nice wide-open flowers that make their lives easier, things like echinacea or dahlias, both of which will grow happily in a pot if you don’t have the space for a border.  So if nothing else this spring, make a pledge to plant single rather than double-flowered plants.

Peacock butterfly on echinacea (c) John Malone

Bees are happier to work a bit harder for their food but also are designed to delve into flowers in the way that butterflies are not.  So bees are equally in their element crawling deep into flowers such as foxgloves and penstemons.  I like foxgloves but I’m worried about them being poisonous to cats, especially as Roly (our brown tabby) has a nasty habit of eating plants!  However, last year I couldn’t resist sowing some of the free seeds that came with Gardeners’ World Magazine but I have planted the seedlings down the far end of our garden where Roly doesn’t venture.  So I hope he’ll be safe whilst I and the bees get to enjoy some apricot coloured flowers.

RolyPoly the plant eating terror!  (c) Elizabeth Malone

Planting for wildlife also needs to be an all-year-round.  As our winters are becoming milder, we are seeing an increasing number of bees in our garden in the depths of December and January so growing winter flowering plants that can sustain them over this period is equally important.  Our winter flowering honeysuckle has been our best investment in this respect.  It smells wonderful, looks wonderful, the bees love it and, to our surprise, it also reproduces very easily!  We discovered that it had layered itself and so we now have a second bush down the far end of our garden.  A few friends have expressed interest so we’re layering this one again to produce a few more plants to share around.

Bee on winter honeysuckle (c) John Malone

Hellebores are another winter favourite with the bees, both the Christmas and Lenten rose varieties.  We have two beautiful Christmas roses (thank you to Sandra for one!) and dozens, or is that hundreds, of the Lenten variety as so many have self-seeded.  I love turning up the flower heads to see whether they are plain or speckled.  Other winter flowing plants favoured by bees include clematis and viburnum which bridge that gap before the bulbs start coming into their own.

Bees will sneak under the drooping heads (c) John Malone

I’ve not yet mentioned ivy.  I recall my grandmother hating ivy, regarding it as a weed that was out to do evil such as destroy the brickwork!  However, ivy is one of the most valuable plants for wildlife.  Bees both feed on it and live in it, as do moths and butterflies, and birds of course.  I confess that I haven’t always been enamoured of ivy but I’ve come to appreciate it more recently, becoming aware of just how alive it is.

Ivy (c) Elizabeth Malone

When thinking about what to plant to encourage wildlife, it’s very easy to forget about fruit and vegetables.  It probably sounds blindingly obvious now that I’ve written that as we all know that we need bees and insects to pollinate our crops.  That said, I am the first to acknowledge that we planted raspberry canes for fruit and not for the entertainment of the local bee population!  The bees, however, absolutely adore the raspberries, and the strawberries.  The plants can literally be buzzing all summer long.

Bee on raspberry flower (c) John Malone

The other essential of a wildlife garden is some form of water, whether it be a pond or simple bird bath.  You can’t, however, plant up a bird bath in the way you can a pond!  Whilst pond plants provide shade for frogs and newts, they also act as a launchpad into life for dragonflies and damselflies who emerge from the water, shed their outer skins and then perch in the sunshine drying off their newly found wings before taking flight.

Recently emergent dragonfly waiting to take off (c) John Malone

Now that it’s March, the garden centres are gearing up for their busiest time of year.  So why not head out there and start acquiring some really wildlife friendly plants?  Here’s a quick shopping list for you:  alliums, geranium, cotoneaster, cornflower, lavender … I could go on but probably easier to either go to the RHS website and download their comprehensive list or simply look out for the ‘Perfect for Polinators’ logo on any plants you buy.

Echinops – loved by bees! (c) John Malone