Category Archives: Lockdown Diary

August Bank Holiday Monday brought a new bee to my garden. After posting pictures on the UK Bees, Wasps and Ants facebook page an ID was suggested miles removed from my own attempts to get the group it belonged to, … Continue reading →

Some years back I came across a bunch of tiny grey caterpillars on what was left of my Solomon’s Seal plants… they stripped every bit of green on every leaf. I discovered that these were Solomon’s Seal Sawfly larvae. Solomon’s … Continue reading →

Lucky that Maggie looked out of the window last night… wind had blown over our new mini greenhouse. My fault entirely as I decided that the plants I had recently re-potted that were sitting on the lower shelves were ready … Continue reading →

This buddleia species is supposed to be best for attracting bees. Our problem is that we put the air-conditioning unit above it and it has to be kept trimmed to avoid an issue there. Trimming it discourages flowering. So, this … Continue reading →

After months of writing this blog I realise that there are some plants I really take for granted. Here is one whose name I didn’t even know despite it being here forever and always giving a good show all year … Continue reading →

Yesterday the gales blew and the sea-watching was, by all accounts, terrific. Just like me to have been otherwise engaged. However, with the wind forcast in the forties first thing I thought I’d try my luck again. Despite the high … Continue reading →

One of the mysteries of gardening is the length of time that flowers bloom. Delight can last from a matter of hours to many days for individual blooms, to many months for some flowering plants. Most ephemeral, perhaps, is the … Continue reading →

Strike hoverfly number 26 from the record… not for the first (or last) time I have mis-identified an insect. Turns out it’s not a hoverfly at all but another family of diptera, one of the blowflies. I was worried about … Continue reading →