Nature Chain Winsley

Wildlife Gardening for Cold Bees Summer flowers are still flowering while, here and there, early spring flowers are jumping the gun. All good for bees and other pollinators with the bonus of being good easy plants for busy wildlife gardeners  pink Alstroemeria, purple Michaelmas Daisies,   Evening Primrose and  Borage. Ahead of time, other easy-care plants, Dame’s Violet  and Poached Eggs  are in flower early and crazy. As for those valuable food pollinators... after these flowers are finished, the honeybee is going to weather the cold well looked after in a hive. The Queen Bumbles will get through hibernating in their underground nests. BUT some are now waking up in these milder winters and start snacking... so growing winter nectar flowers is increasingly important e.g. mahonia, winter heather, snowdrops, crocuses, winter honeysuckle, winter aconite. And what about those solitary bees from last week’s post?  These Red Mason Bees will spend the winter...

  Apple and Blackberry Pie by courtesy of Garden Wildlife Nurture A box of fresh apples on the pavement, free to take...passersby stop. ‘Mmm... those apples look good! Shall we make an apple pie?... An apple and blackberry crumble would be delicious! Oh, it’s a bit of a bother, lets go and buy one from the supermarket.’ Whichever you opt for, the source of a delicious fruit is the same... a flower made fruit by a small insect... in these fruits, very often a bee. Frequently overlooked, taken for granted, but totally vital. The big, loud bumbling Bumblebees make themselves obvious and up front, like this one back in May - ensuring a blackberry is ready for that delicious autumn crumble . A Common Carder Bumblebee  was looking after the apple crop back in April. The Honeybees tend to get their well-deserved recognition... honey is delectable and labelled, and sometimes the flower nectar concentrated up by the bees and the area they were foraging get a mention too. But what ...

  Rosehips , apples... and lots of clearing up to do... views of mid-October! But before you have a total clear out of this hot dry summer’s growth, or remains of the lack of it, chill out with a cuppa and take a closer look at what may be going on behind the scenes. Binoculars handy would take you right there... backstage! And this doesn’t mean let the brambles and dead leaves take over! Moderation is usually the best answer, and a bit of compromise. In my low maintenance herbaceous border, the old teasel heads amongst the purple Michaelmas Daisies will shelter tiny insects which are food for the Blue Tits and later in winter, the Goldfinches. Behind the opening heads of pink autumnal Sedum there are the Peony’s shrivelling leaves streaked coppery and crimson. Rolled-over dead leaves harbour tiny insects, food for Blue Tits and ladybird pest controllers. It is an illustration of the old saying ‘one man’s meat, another man’s poison’. What might seem bad for garden appearance,...

  Homely twitterings amongst the village chimney pots, chirping from overhead wires in between darting dives at unsuspecting insect prey cruising Winsley’s wildlife garden corridors. They had feasted on houseflies, horseflies, gnats, aphids, flying ants, weevils and moths and butterflies when they are abundant, also damselflies and grasshoppers, and dung beetles in fields of horses and cows .... A single swallow can consume hundreds of insects daily – natural pest controllers!  Their beaks differ from those of seed-crunching birds, such as goldfinches and chaffinches. Swallows have a delicate pointed beak to seize insects in flight. Then as autumn cool closed in... the swallows flew.. where? Winsley’s sky acrobats are now swooping and soaring, catching insects on the wing as they journey along their ancient corridors. Swallow itinerary: 6,000 miles, 6 weeks flying by day before arriving in South Africa and Namibia in December. First, south to cross the English Channe...