What a great day for gardening!
What a great day for gardening. My son came over today and continued digging the base for my greenhouse. I was lured out by the sunshine and have made a start on the overgrown and neglected hedge at the bottom of my garden. It’s been used as a dumping ground and I found boxes of empty beer cans under it. After my last blog you can imagine my response to that little find. My recycling boxes are filling up with other people’s bottles and cans.
Overgrown-hedge at the end of the garden
The hedge contains a young horse-chestnut tree, a silver birch, my large crab apple and a lot of overgrown privet. It’s this that needs taming. Once I’ve got the canopy down more light will get into the ground below, so by next spring, once I’ve cleared all the rubbish, I’ll be able to grow lots of spring flowers such as crocus and snowdrops, and perhaps some aconites. All early nectar plants for our insect population. If you’re interested in helping our struggling bees hoverflies and butterflies to thrive, there’s a previous post on this subject here, I’ve also got a list of native wildflowers to grow in the garden here. I’ll be posting more on this subject as this garden is intended to be as wildlife friendly as possible , and the more of us that help wildlife, the better our environment will be. The privet will thicken up in time and make a safe haven for birds and more places for them to nest. We have nest boxes already in the trees, but not all birds use them. Some prefer to hide away in a nice thick bush, so that’s what we’ll make for them.
Preparation-for-the-greenhouse
While doing all this work I’ve already seen bees out feeding from the crocus in my ealier post, and lots of ladybirds ready to attack the aphids that threaten plants. No doubt my garden will soon be buzzing. I love my new lifestyle!
