Nature Blog by Jenny Bourne

Plantlife’s ‘No Mow May’ is an initiative to benefit pollinating insects by allowing wild plants to flower in grassy areas. It doesn’t have to be as radical a step as totally ditching the lawnmowers and strimmers for a month or more; a balance can be attained between leaving some areas of grass uncut and cutting back areas for access and around veg and flower bed edges.

One of the hot topics raised at last week’s Open Forum was how to deter slugs and snails from laying waste to our emerging crops, particularly now that metaldehyde slug pellets have been banned for both domestic and commercial use. Added to this the RHS’s recent decision to de-categorise slugs and snails as ‘pests’….

March winds and rain and more rain have given way to April showers and more rain, with a few bright days among the grey skies!

Spring is in the air! March has so far brought a fairly ‘normal’ mix of rain, breezy winds, cool, overcast days, and a few pleasant spells of mild spring sunshine to break what feels like an interminably wet, dull and grey early season. The recent warmer temperatures have brought out the insects to forage, as well as other primary and pressing activities displayed by a couple of pairs of ladybirds last week – a ‘Get a room’ moment!

Goodbye to the warmest and wettest February on record, for our part of the UK, at least. The water gauge was overflowing a fortnight ago and since then there’s been so much rain…
But good news in the pond with one big frogspawn…