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Let’s try again!
No, same phone, same settings as the other pictures.
The other name is sweet rocket - a nice pinky/purple flower with a furry glaucous leaf. I’ll try again later!
We have some just down the road from our house - they smell amazing!
We have a forthcoming project behind our house to guerrilla garden an area of wasteland, and these are on the growing list of things to pop in...
@matt_outandabout thank you for that, I think they are classed as biennial like foxgloves but sometimes, again like foxgloves, they behave as perennials. I also read that some people say they are invasive, that isn’t my experience, so far!
TBF, there are a few things growing near our house that a few folk count as 'invasive' and difficult - but that is nature. And the "nature" by my house has huge human influence already. We
Our mini meadow is looking good. Lots of grasses (about 8 types or more). Ragged Robin, oxeye daisies, buttercups, daisies, birds foot trefoil, yellow rattle, red and white clover. Soon a bit of ragwort, teasel, nap weed and a possibly Nigella, cornflower and some I’ve forgotten about. Also in another wild patch a common spotted orchid and the leaves of cuckoo flower (this will pop up next spring for the Orangetip butterfly. Lots of nettles, dandelions and dog violet in another another messy part. Alpine strawberry, marjoram and foxglove down the path. All good. 
Well, the yellow rattle I sowed in the experimental meadow patch has started to sprout up. My thinking is to stick with that for a couple of years to think the grass out then try some other seeds in there. Any advice gratefully accepted!
@komoran I think you're fairly local to me in Inverness - how are your wildflowers doing?
In other nature news, me and the youngest spotted what looked like a hummingbird taking a slurp from some flowers:
We were both pretty delighted to look it up in our garden wildlife book and see what it's called!
Hummingbird hawk moth. Great things to spot. They never used to come up north.
Get criticised for my garden, but as this is from the people who dug theirs up and 100% replaced with astro turf, I ignore them. Currently have 5 foxes, lots of butterflies, and loads of snails / slugs. I look after my garden, but accept that most of it is not mine so leave an awful lot of it alone. Kind of just tidy up here and there when it looks a bit mad. Figure if the plants need help to survive, then they shouldn't be there in the first place.
Your half-acre oasis sounds beautiful, especially the woodland area you rescued. It is amazing how quickly wildlife returns when you let nature take the lead. Would love to see some pictures of the bluebells and your garden visitors!
The garden is awash with bees at the moment. Toadflax, foxgloves, poppies and alpine strawberries abound.
Not seen any in a while but there are generally toads in the log pile and hedghogs are fairly common.
Its sort of curated just to keep it on the right side of acceptable of a front garden. I do actually pull the dandelions because they.do get out of hand.
Can I recommend the book recording by Benedict Macdonald to all the pro messy garden people here!
Brilliant book that has influenced by viewpoint.
In the vein of rewilding, but with a focus on birds, and also has things that everyone can do on a small scale. Bits in it at about how by tidying up our homes and gardens we are losing all the messy places they like etc
The brambles have taken advantage of a few weeks of me concentrating on other things and gone mad in places, ah well plenty of berries later! Goose grass/sticky willy/cleavers is a smothering nuisance again but very satisfying to pull out! We have black caps and chiff chaffs that I’m sure are nesting somewhere, very elusive though.
The privet hedges are just about to come into bloom - a lovely scent and food for moths, the tidy brigade miss out on this.
A tip for those cutting short paths through meadows, when the grass gets long and wet it flops over and makes a walk very damp - use your strimmer, or scythe, and go along the edges in a sweeping motion but at an upwards angle. This makes the grass grow thicker and it supports the tall growth behind.
Well, the yellow rattle I sowed in the experimental meadow patch has started to sprout up. My thinking is to stick with that for a couple of years to think the grass out then try some other seeds in there. Any advice gratefully accepted!
Yellow rattle is one of those things that is often talked about as making a difference to diversity but the actual evidence is patchy at best, it's a nice a flower though....make sure you cut hard late summer and through winter and springs and removed the clippings. Sow autumn and spring and make sure you disturb the ground you want quite a lot of bare soil to sow onto.
Rebirding! Silly autocorrect
Goose grass/sticky willy/cleavers is a smothering nuisance again but very satisfying to pull out!
We don't have goose grass, the dog goes through the garden and eats it all 🤣
@joshvegas the goose grass probably fulfils a need. You can make tea out of it and it cures various illnesses - you try it first though!
Now is the time of year to keep your nerve - this cardoon, which grows to over 2metres with flowers that insects love, is covered with blackfly. The first year they killed the flowers but in the last three years the ladybirds have marched in. Munching away and laying eggs they will clear the flies without any intervention on our part. The rest of the garden has gone mad, the nettle patches I was going to contain are now over 2 metres tall, the campion is almost over and being knocked around by either fox cubs or badger, there are huge amounts of sloes this year and the bushes/trees are drooping.
I found this fungus today that I’ve not seen before, it’s called Orange Grisette and is mycorrhizal with birch and oak - which is what it’s near.
The honeysuckle that is everywhere is in full bloom, the old pear tree is loaded and every winter it loses another limb!
I too have noticed a lot of fungi around. This was on a golf course compost heap.
Can I just remind people who encourage wildlife into their gardens, to leave out fresh water. We have at least 4 receptacles dotted about that birds and creatures can drink from.
@reeksy was chatting to my bil today, having recently retired he currently volunteers at a nursery that provides native plants for "Land for Wildlife" & also copied the "Gardens for Wildlife" idea from Tazzy to Qld some years ago 👍
Barung or Mooloolah are the locals I think.
Barung or Mooloolah are the locals I think.
They're in Maleny, so it'll be Barung that he works at.
Yesterday evening a local lady came to do a moth survey in our back garden. The moth trap had a timer set for 9.30pm, to go off at 5.30am.
I and a nature obsessed 18 yr old from across the road, along with the moth lady, carefully shook out the egg boxes 1 by 1. Writing down and taking photos of the different species. Altogether 48 moths. About 12 different species and an elephant hawk moth.
I highly recommend getting someone with a trap to come over and see what’s out and about in your garden. 
I keep reading pages on DIY moth traps. I never get round to it.
Well done on enabling and catching so many
Our lady knew her stuff, also her trap was fabulous. One has to bear in mind weather conditions, a windy night can bring the count right down, also the moon, best for a cloudy night and definitely not a full moon.
We were very careful when putting them back in a safe place (birds love eating moths.
It was a great experience and would be educational if you have children.
Some work was done last week in the churchyard opposite us, to remove a few top-heavy silver birches, and thin out a couple of other trees, including one yew. Most of the debris was removed by the tree surgeons before I got a chance to beg a log or two, but they've left much of the yew in a pile under some big shrubs. So, inspired by the first few photos on this thread, I set to with the cordless drill and bits yesterday to make some solitary bee holes.
My word, yew heartwood is hard stuff. Flattened two batteries just doing about 25 holes (theres another log face just out of shot). More work will be required when they're charged back up.
Never mind bullet or bomb proof, yew is the OG of Nuke proof.
Putting it through a chipper was always a cautious affair.
I have many log piles and long lengths of “dead hedging” made from prunings. One of the best log piles is in the open so it gets a bit of sun, I keep the nettles away so my grandson can have a poke around for beetles and grubs. I recently moved my camera to cover it and the amount of wildlife it attracts is excellent. The birds like it as they can keep an eye out for predators and eat the bird cherries they’ve just found, the woodmice pop out at night, the fox visits regularly and pokes about and, the other day, a greater spotted woodpecker sat there pecking away. If you look carefully at the picture below you can see someone getting into the picture too!
Sorry, file too large again (it’s not), you’ll have to imagine a small garden gate amongst trees to the right with a log pile bottom left. A grey squirrel is on the fence with it’s nose pressed against the camera!
I found a thick headed ferrugenious bee grabber loitering around on the patio today
It's the big butterfly count.
This late spring and summer we have seen a lot. One particular day we had about 8 different species. Everything from a tiny holly blue up to a bold brassy peacock.
https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/
Just a reminder that the Big Butterfly count is a great way for children to learn about nature, fun too during the school holidays.
The garden has produced some great insects. Many butterflies and moths. There has been a hummingbird hawk moth visiting (sometimes more than one) everyday for the last 4 weeks. We’ve had a hornet mimic hoverfly most days, a young owl every evening.
i cut the mini meadow 2 days ago. Now letting the hay drop its seeds. I’ll gather up the hay, trample in the seeds and let the incoming rain do its 
magic.
