Over the last few months, I have been collecting plants for my garden with the specific aim to try to increase the nectar sources on offer to increase my insect visitors. I have not trawled through books and Internet websites for species to choose, or read loads of articles, book or magazines. I have let the insects choose the plants for me! Whenever I am in a garden centre, at my local market, in other people’s gardens, I am always looking out for which species have the most insect visitors! Be it hover flies, bees, wasps…. if they seem interested then I will try to buy it or take a cutting !
With all my shows over for this year, many of the plants that have been on display needed to be planted. I have a bed that I have been trying to develop for insects… it has 2 large Buddleias and a few other bits, but the back of the bed had become rather over grown and there were some bits that really were not attracting many insects.
This weekend I dug out all the plants that were not needed and replanted those in other places in the garden. I then arranged the plants I had and tried to leave small paths in between so I can get ‘into’ the bed to photograph visitors! A whole day of work on 2 beds means that most of the species there have been chosen by insects!
I also gave the pond a bit of a trim, as I could hardly see the water and the stream! The stream has proven very popular with the birds and I must set up a Bushnell there to capture them bathing. I have seen blackbird, robin, wren, blue tit and even 2 willow warblers bathing in there!
The garden is very lush at the moment and it is a battle to keep it from meeting in the middle, but it is full of life and that is what I am always aiming to achieve!