Wildflower Garden: April 2021
April has been a challenging month weather-wise, with Saharan dust blown away by polar winds that gave way to a lengthy dry spell which has left many plants in the garden with a noticeable purplish tinge of distress to their leaves.
- Written by Duncan Burford
Wildflower Garden: March 2021
The advent of spring finds me crouched over, rummaging through the grass on a pleasantly bright and mild day, whilst a wren trills exuberantly from the nearby hedgerow and a red-tailed bumblebee drones around me searching for early sources of nectar.
- Written by Duncan Burford
Wildflower Garden: February 2021
With the weather intent on alternately freezing and drenching us, it’s something of a relief for me that February is a quiet month for a wildflower garden. Only in this last week am I beginning to see the first cotyledons of hope sprouting among the grasses, but it’s impossible to tell what’s growing at such an early stage. All of this gives me an opportunity to fill in some details about the history of the project:
- Written by Duncan Burford
Wildflower Garden
Welcome to the inaugural blog for the newly dedicated Hamilton Lane wildflower garden. The aim of this project is to grow a range of native flowers and fine grasses that will provide year round food and / or shelter for a diverse array of species from invertebrates to mammals.
This is very much a work in progress and creating a meadow-like habitat on an allotment site poses many challenges. What’s more I am learning as I go, so I’ll be making a monthly diary of what’s worked and what hasn’t, as well as talking about what’s growing and who’s visiting. I’ll probably also leave a few comments about wildlife and conservation in general along the way.
You may be wondering why we need a wildflower garden when there are already so many marvellous blooms on display at Hamilton Lane. Well, one crucial difference is that this habitat will be providing food for the larval stages of creatures such as the butterflies and moths that don’t like munching prized vegetables and another is that the relatively undisturbed earth allows a bit of peace for the many creatures such as grasshoppers that spend the winter in the soil as eggs or pupae.
There are so many more wildlife benefits to the wildflower garden, but I’d better not ramble on, so I’ll discuss them all in future instalments as the seasons unfold.
- Written by Duncan Burford
