4th MAY       Plant a Holly, Plant a Butterfly Shrub! 


Plant a butterfly food shrub and it creates a whole new world for others you hadn’t thought of... it all connects like a secret jigsaw. Little flutters of blue had been darting in gardens, car parks and roadsides - Holly Blue butterflies have been abundant during the last few weeks. Holly is the food of their Spring broods of caterpillars, while in the Summer they choose Dogwoods and Spindle tree. Plant Dogwoods and you have the choice of glorious stem colours – green, near black, and here red for Winter in Photo 2 


which picks up pink of Cyclamen as the bush grows and expands to create a mini woodland habitat. On the ground, Lungwort (Pulmonaria) and Hellebores chime pink as well, also Honesty and Welsh poppies (3). 

 

When warm weather arrives (4), there are pink hardy geraniums.


All of these readily self-seed from a single initial plant... and behold, you have benefitted solitary bees like the Red Mason from bee hotels (4), Bumble Bees (3), and much else you may not have noticed ... and the very small creatures (right hand leaf! 5)

and many others (e.g. spiders, mini flying insects, aphids and moths) sheltering in the leafy cover of the Dogwood (5, 6). 

 

Plant a Spindle which brings Autumn coloured seeds of bright orange and pink, a Holly (7)


and you are there... with an ideal sheltered place for birds too, a community habitat – butterflies (8),

insect bird food and nesting birds (9, 10)



The birds are the important bit for those, like me, who get a buzz from seeing and hearing birds close-up, going about their business and feeding... BUT for their health and benefit, feeders are now withdrawn until October (other than fat balls and mealworms - good for the growing young but clean feeders at least weekly). SO WHAT BETTER than to see them flit in and out of your shrubs as they shelter; eat a varied wild diet of caterpillars (11),


insects and berries; rest and groom... and even build a nest (12 [red fibre = wool from a marker in garden])

and tend young? This way one gets more alert and nature aware...

 

AND WHAT BETTER than to hear their glorious morning and evening song (13,Carrion Crow, Pheasant, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Dunnock were also there)? 


BUT, conspicuously absent on this May 1st were finches that used to be common – Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Bullfinch. These are the rapidly declining species vulnerable to the viral disease spread by proximity (as in human transference of Covid) and probably also the vulnerability of a limited ‘rich’ diet (as in humans living on yummy grab-and go!). As in all of life, flexibility and change helps survival.


Credits: 1 Peter Scourse. 2-13 Nicolette Scourse


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