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WINTER INTEREST

.. berries



.. grasses



.. seedheads

.

water - important for any individual living thing.



berries - important to encourage birds and wildlife into the garden.


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Flowers, leaves and berries of the Hypericum.

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COMMA

The beautiful Comma butterfly, with its crinkle edges, is often spotted at this time of year building up fat supplies on nectar.

One plant they favour is nettle, of which I leave in a wild patch, in a mainly undisturbed part of the garden.

Verbena Bonariensis, a plant I love for encouraging all species of butterfly, and the Hummingbird Hawkmoth. A plant I loathe when it comes to pulling up hundreds of self-seedlings, in early Summer!

The Comma will hibernate upside down, camouflaged on a tree trunk, or amongst decaying leaves.

Click on Butterfly Conservation, to visit their informative website, teamed with great photos.

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PAINTED LADY

This beautiful butterfly migrates from North Africa. We have seen a large population this year. They don't hibernate over winter in this country, and in autumn some will make the long journey home, and the ones remaining will die.

A plant they seem to love is verbena bonariensis. I counted nine on these plants at one given time yesterday!



Look at me, from a different angle!

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BERBERIS

Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea loses its leaves in winter but looks amazing at this time of year with its coat of attractive purple/green leaves and delicate yellow umbels.

A year or so back we gave this shrub a severe prune, but has returned to reign supreme!



This prickly shrub provides berries for birds through autumn to winter and makes great ground cover and a safe nesting site too. Bees will be attracted to the flowers.

A good value for money shrub which will provide interest in the garden all year round. Does need a prune once in a while to keep at a desired height and a good shape.

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SPARE A THOUGHT FOR WILDLIFE

Back in January, Anna from Half An Acre invited me to write a short article to appear in the current edition of UK Handmade, a downloadable quarterly magazine. The content to be appropriate for the Spring season, tied in with the decline of insects and birdlife in UK gardens and how we might help.

'Spare a thought for wildlife and make space for nature in your garden. A large area isn’t essential, as in just a metre square a small wildlife sanctuary can be created.

Just by providing a feeding station and birdbath, or planting a tree or shrub will supply garden birds with food and water, nesting area and a safe haven free from predators, such as the neighbour’s cat!

A woodpile in a quiet area will attract beetles and many other insects, who will explore the nooks and crannies that appear once the wood starts to decompose. Frogs, toads and hedgehogs will discover the warm, dry space underneath, to hibernate until warmer weather arrives.

Encourage a small patch of stinging nettles, maybe a weed to us, but a great food source for ladybirds and butterflies. The latter will lay eggs on the leaves, which in turn provides food for any lodging hedgehog.

An old branch left amongst ivy makes a great perch for wrens, who love to bustle through the leaves looking for insects, and robins will use it too. Ivy produces berries, which one-by-one will be picked off by a hungry blackbird or thrush.

It’s easy, and by going wild, you too can help conserve the wonderful wildlife we have around us.'

An edited version of the above appears in the magazine on Page 30.

I have often wondered how I'd feel to have my own column. Thanks to Anna, now I kind of know!

See also Diana at Pebbledash for a delicious nettle soup recipe. A great way to encourage humans into your home!

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DEAD WOOD

Wood piles around the garden are a perfect home for hibernating frogs, toads and newts, as well as insects like woodlice. I do wonder which insect may take up residence in the hollow stems of grass.



Areas of the garden are given up to ivy! Our garden is like a bowl, with banking all around. Although it could be said the ivy has somewhat taken over in parts, it does hold the bank together, and it encourages lots of wildlife too.



I leave an old branch or two amidst the foliage, they make a really good perch for robins, wrens and blackbirds.



This is a tree stump, and where it is slowly rotting down, great crevices have appeared, a perfect place for the stag beetle to lay its eggs, and where their larvae will spend up to seven years inside. Adult stag beetles are short-lived and more often die after mating.

The stag beetle is Britain's largest native ground-dwelling beetle and generally seen in Southern England. I have been lucky enough to spot them in my garden, and last year I saw a large one in flight.

These insects are in decline, click here to see how you can encourage them into your garden.

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BUDDLEIA

The Butterfly Bush, a very much maligned and misunderstood deciduous shrub. Why, because it effortlessly self seeds on development land and derelict sites, through cracks and bricks in buildings, and along our railway lines and sidings.

A thug to some perhaps, but contrary to belief the form of Buddleia I have in my garden is no problem at all, and its dark pink flowers on arching stems are a welcome edition to any garden in late summer.

Every year, an established bush will need a hard cut back to 3 or 4 buds in early Spring.



Named after the Reverend Adam Buddle (1660-1715), the nectar rich flower spikes are loved by butterflies and other insects.

Silhouettes of a Comma and Red Admiral butterfly, or two fairies, you decide?

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WINTER BERRIES

This time of year can be good in the garden for us, although this time of the year can be especially good in the garden for birds, as a gourmet menu awaits them; the more discerning residents will choose the red berries first, then onto the orange ones and then the yellow, if they are really peckish!

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VERBENA BONARIENSIS

I first took notice of this plant when I saw Alan T using it on one of his gardening programmes, I loved the way it acted as a screen but that you could also see through it as well. Since introducing it into my garden, originally sowing by seed and potting on to make my own plants, I have developed a love/hate relationship with it; I love it because it encourages lots of butterflies, bees and even the hummingbird hawk moth, I hate it because it is prone to self seeding itself all around the garden giving me a lot of extra work pulling up seedlings from every crack in the paving!

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SEDUM

I really like sedum (spectabile means worth seeing), it displays welcome colour at the time of year when the garden is starting to lose a lot of its vibrance and colour.

Every stem of this lovely perennial is topped with flat heads of starry flowers, at this time of year, deep pink, and the bees and butterflies love it!

Once flowering has finished don’t be tempted to cut back, when left the seed heads provide great winter interest to the garden and may even be a source of winter food for the birds.

Butterflies are drawn to blues and pinks, moths prefer white flowers.

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LARGE WHITE

I think this is what may be responsible for my sprout plants looking like lace curtains. Not enough attention was given when this was at the egg and caterpillar stage. At the same time as possibly considering this butterfly as a pest, it is rather pretty, even more so as this is a female with two spots and a streak on each upper wing, something which the male doesn’t have.

The plant it has perched on is verbena bonariensis.

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SUNFLOWER ‘STELLA’ - Adoration, Pride

Listed by English seedsmen as early as the mid 1800s the blooms were sold in Covent Garden as cut flowers and the plants were grown in ornamental borders. It was also known as the classic insect attractant especially with honey and bumble bees. A border would often accompany a block of hives.

I love this one, they look lovely dotted around the garden, give much needed late summer colour and make an excellent cut flower, what more could you ask for! My sister-in-law’s name is Stella, she doesn't know it but if it wasn’t for her I would never have discovered this lovely variety.

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SUNFLOWER 'SPARKY' - False riches, Pride

I have grown this variety for the first time this year (as the seeds were gratis). I shall have these again next year, they have been good for picking as they have multi-headed stems and are fairly short in height, although the one growing by my compost heap is taller.

I always grow my seedlings in pots and I don’t put them out until they are sturdy little plants as I have discovered that in my garden if I put the seeds straight into the soil they never reach more than about an inch before the slugs find them.

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NICOTIANA SILVESTRIS

Last summer I planted five of these lovely plants in a block just over a metre square, I love them, but they do grow into little monsters. As each year I am always wanting to experiment with something different from the seed catalogues, and as like most people space being at a premium, I didn’t bother with any this year. As you can see this lovely one has sprung up in the same plot, but where I am now growing my runner beans. I would definitely recommend to anyone who has a large garden to grow these ‘en masse’ as they look great in the evening light and have a lovely scent too!

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ROSA RUGOSA - Thankfulness

I haven’t given up much space in my garden for roses but I have got two of these lovely old shrub roses which I inherited from the previous owner. The flowers are a lovely cerise and the hips are huge. The first year I was here I cut both down to the base after they had finished fruiting but now I leave them alone and every year they reward me with more and more flowers and hips.

Monty Don The Complete Gardener - Birds love all berries, but tend to go for red ones first and leave the dark blue and black ones alone.

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GATEKEEPER

This lovely gatekeeper butterfly was spotted in my garden today, on leycesteria ‘himalayan honeysuckle’ which has self-seeded. This shrub is loved by my resident blackbirds, but for us the red purple berries are inedible. It flowers on one year old wood and likes to be in moisture retentive, but porous soil in full sun.