We need to use every inch of concrete and tarmac to grow plants and return ourselves to the green planet!
Royal Horticultural Society hopes punters will be inspired by Salford winner of pub garden competition
— Read on www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/19/pub-shrub-landlords-asked-to-plant-up-their-patios-to-help-wildlife
It’s cool and wet and the beech leaves have just unfurled.
Under the trees the woodland flowers are making the best of the sunlight before the green canopy closes over for the summer.
There are ransoms ( wild garlic) and marsh marigolds along the stream , the garlic mustard would tempt orange tip butterflies out, if only the rain would stop! There are vetchlings and cinq foils and easily overlooked there is Herb Paris ( Paris quadrifolia ) flowering in the shade.
I really like this plant for its unassuming nature and its curious symmetry.
It is difficult to photograph, but botanical illustrations do it much more justice. Only an artist can show all the aspects of this odd plant at once. It is also called true lovers’ knot and the equality of the leaves and petals made it a symbol of harmonious marriage, which is another reason to appreciate it.
The name refers not to the French capital nor to the Paris of classical mythology, but comes from the Latin “pars” meaning equal and refers to the equal number of simple leaves and yellow stamens.
It grows in calcareous woods, but takes a long time to establish. It is therefore a very good sign of undisturbed ancient woodlands and is used by botanists as an indicator species.
The inconspicuous flowers are obviously not attractive to bees and it appears to be wind or fly pollinated. It slowly spreads through rhizomes, which explains its rarity and love of undisturbed soil.
Sometimes the less showy is the most persistent and faithful !
Analysis of 600 gardens shows wilder lawns feed caterpillars and create breeding habitat
— Read on www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/19/letting-grass-grow-long-boosts-butterfly-numbers-uk-study-proves
It must be spring. Every time I open the compost bin when the sun is out I find smooth, shiny slow worms.
These wonderful legless lizards love the heat generated by my decomposing potato and apple peelings and when the time is right they coil around each other and do what you do in the spring!
They take their time and can be together for hours. Unfortunately, me dropping vegetable pairings on their head can disturb the romance and if they feel really threatened they will shed a wriggling tail to put the predator off their train as they disappeared head down into the warm compost.
The weather has taken a sharp turn to cold in the last days and there has been snow on the tree line visible from our window that marks the French , Swiss border. I am sure they are fine deep in the compost bin, staying warm and maybe even making very slow, slow worm woopie!
The tree all but vanished in the 1970s. Now, thanks to two amateur nature lovers, it may soon grace our landscapes again
— Read on www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/14/english-elm-hybrids-disease-busting
Some moths all seem to emerge on the same night and last night was the turn of the beautiful Swallow Prominent . In French they are called Porcelains which mimics their colouring, but I like Swallow Prominent, as their arrival always seems to coincide with the arrival of the first swallow!
National competition has goal of helping Netherlands reach environmental targets by removing garden paving
— Read on www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/04/we-need-to-accept-the-weeds-dutch-towns-compete-to-remove-the-most-garden-paving
There has been an awful fashion of seeing a garden as just another room and this has encouraged us to pave it over or to bury it under decking.
This is simply terrible.
Paved over land cannot absorb water and it cannot sustain plants and all the other creatures we share our world with.
“You’re a happier person when you live in a green surrounding, so every slab you flip is 900 square centimetres of potential happiness. You’re also healthier and, if that’s not enough, there are the big problems we are facing with climate change.”
This quotation comes from a wonderful Dutch movement to dig up your paving slabs and to let the garden and life come back.
We cannot change everything that is wrong with the world but we can start in our own back yard by flipping over the pavement stones and letting the garden back in.
Let your garden go free!
I have started with my own back garden. I have a big, pointless patio that is actually used only once a year maximum. I have to spray clean it twice a year and sweep it every other day in the summer.
I have started lifting paving stones and covering the sand in compost from my own bins . Plants are already stretching out into the new space and seedlings are growing despite the rain.
Do read the article from Holland and the video is very funny!
Happy flipping !
It has been a cold wet Easter here and the storks have wind ruffled feathers.
I know how they feel as they hunker down on their nests waiting for the warmer weather . These nests are right in front of the local church and the the trees are specially trimmed each autumn to ensure that the birds have a safe easily accessible platform for their nest in the spring, before the leaves appear.
The storks all sat close on their nests as the congregation came out to admire them on a windy Easter Sunday morning.
Catocala fraxini was discovered at Cliveden House in Berkshire and is coveted by enthusiasts
— Read on www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/03/monster-of-the-moth-world-why-clifden-nonpareil-is-ultimate-prize-for-collectors
Cathy's real country garden 
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