Time for proper gardening……

It’s great to be home again and to see the changes in the garden in just two weeks. There are butterflies now – tatty small tortoiseshell and peacock – and lots of massive queen bumblebees searching for nest sites. They should be pretty successful in that regard as many of the wilder areas in the garden are a mass of vole and mice runs and holes. In spite of the sunny and warm weather we still have ‘winter’ birds here including bramblings and fieldfares, and yesterday – a lesser redpoll – a first for the garden. If the week ahead stays mild and dry I will be sowing vegetable and flower seeds including broad beans, sweet peas and parsnips, and preparing the greenhouse for early salad crops. Real gardening!

About wildlifegardening

Jenny Steel was a Plant Ecologist at Oxford University before becoming a writer. She has more than 20 years experience of writing about and teaching ecology, natural history and wildlife gardening. She is also a photographer, journalist and former plant nursery owner, and a lecturer and tutor in adult education. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television programmes including Gardener’s World with Alan Titchmarsh, and she presented a series of items on the BBC 2 gardening show, How Does Your Garden Grow. She has worked with and written for a variety of organisations including the Royal Horticultural Society, Natural England, Atropos, Ernest Charles, the Adult Residential Colleges Association (ARCA), Haiths, Usborne Books, Complete Gardens, Oxfordshire County Council, the charity Growing Native and several of the Wildlife Trusts. She is also the Garden Bird Guru for the wild bird food company JustAddBirds of which she was a co-founder. The Emmy Award winning film company Panache Productions are currently making a film about her wildlife garden in South Shropshire. She has written 10 books on wildlife gardening. Her website can be found at www.wildlife-gardening.co.uk and her bird food company at www.JustAddBirds.co.uk

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