Category: Wildlife

Wildlife – mainly creatures rather than plants

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden, Wildlife4 Comments

July garden: foxes and thunderstorms

Reclaiming Paradise

Falling behind with blogging again but here’s some of what’s been going on in the garden: Lots of flowers all coming out just now. Strawberries and raspberries at their best – and good enough to make some rather yummy strawberry scones to share with my sons who managed to be here at the same time for the first time in many months. Vegetables coming along slowly. Here are some of the peas and the first cucumber: We had an impressive thunderstorm and extensive flooding at the weekend. All fine in my garden but the roads round about turned into rivers. … Continue reading July garden: foxes and thunderstorms

Wildlife2 Comments

A wild month

Reclaiming Paradise

And so we come to the end of June and the end of the #30DaysWild Challenge. Some people set out to do something wild every day, taking them on all sorts of adventures. My wildness has been rather urban and rather garden based. I just look for something wild every day. Here’s a summary of what I’ve seen in June. That wasn’t everything but there were a lot of bees, a lot of wildflowers and quite a lot of the cygnets and herons on Inverleith Pond. I’ve been watching these swan fluffballs since they were tiny. They’re quite big now … Continue reading A wild month

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden, Wildlife7 Comments

Halfway through 30 Days Wild

Reclaiming Paradise

I’m a bit behind with blogging this week but I thought I’d catch up by celebrating the wonder of June and the tiny joys of #30DaysWild. This campaign encourages people to get outside and enjoy the wildness around them. For some, that means getting out into the countryside or down to the beach and exploring the wildness. For me it is nearly always urban and this year, like last year, it has been largely confined to wildness in my garden and the streets round about. But there is no shortage of wild joys to be found even in quite a … Continue reading Halfway through 30 Days Wild

Books I like, Wildlife1 Comment

Very Hungry Caterpillars – in memory of Eric Carle

Reclaiming Paradise

So sad to hear today of the death of Eric Carle, author and illustrator of one of the world’s most favourite children’s books ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. It was also a favourite in our house and I’ve blogged about it before, along with some of our other favourite children’s books involving gardening or wildlife. As I wrote, back in 2014, one of the things about this book is that it makes you much more sympathetic to the more destructive creatures in the garden: they have to eat after all. So RIP Eric Carle and thank you for bringing us such … Continue reading Very Hungry Caterpillars – in memory of Eric Carle

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Recycling and reusing, Wildlife7 Comments

Dreich

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s dreich, a word chosen as the most popular Scottish word in a poll a few years ago – link here. Anyway, it’s usually reserved by me for November which is month which is nearly always dreich. Not May. But here we are, experiencing a dreich May and trying to make the most of it. Despite the incessant rain, there have been some moments of sunshine and I did manage to get into the garden to look for ‘wildflowers’ for ‘International Biodiversity Day‘ on Saturday. I found this little collection, all growing in the lawn and tweeted it for #SixonSaturday … Continue reading Dreich

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden, Wildlife7 Comments

Six on Tuesday

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s all go in the garden just now and somehow I’ve forgotten to blog about it. I missed SixonSaturday so here’s a wee update of sixish on Tuesday. These gorgeous self-seeded wallflowers are flowering in funny little corners of the front garden: 2. I got along to the allotment last week and used some spare bits of wood to create a sort of terrace for one of the beds which was threatening to overflow down the hill. Here it is in all its glory. Please excuse the weeds and note the almost complete lack of broad beans in this bed, … Continue reading Six on Tuesday

Why I garden, Wildlife11 Comments

Christmas Eve

Reclaiming Paradise

So we come to the end of the #wildandwonderful #advent calendar with a trip to the allotment to harvest the sprouts. It was a sharp, frosty day this morning and the allotment was looking lovely: The leeks are looking good, there’s some kale looking impressive in the frost, marigolds hanging on into the winter, sprouts ready to harvest, a tiny onion shoot giving us hope for next year and the sweet peas still flowering even after last night’s frost. On the 22nd I noticed more evidence of the fox in the garden. It had left prints on the cardboard in … Continue reading Christmas Eve

Why I garden, Wildlife9 Comments

Teasels

Reclaiming Paradise

Teasels have been growing in my gardens for over twenty years. We bought the first one as a small plant from a wildlife stall at a garden show when my boys were tiny. We loved the name, we loved the way they grow and we hoped the plants would attract goldfinches. That one plant grew strong and tall and scattered its seed around. I haven’t planted a teasel since but they’ve always been there, popping up in surprising places and looking magnificent. I love these plants but I’ve never seen a goldfinch eating the seeds, until today. So here’s today’s … Continue reading Teasels

Cooking and eating from the garden, Why I garden, Wildlife5 Comments

A little domestic wildness

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s June so it’s time for #30DaysWild , the campaign run by the Wildlife Trusts to get everyone to spot a little bit of wildness every day in June. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years and most years I treasure the chance to stop for a few minutes before or after work or over lunch to notice the wildness in the city around me. This year it’s a little different, with the wildness restricted to my daily walks or my own garden. Working from home, I can nip out with a cup of coffee or over lunch … Continue reading A little domestic wildness

Why I garden, Wildlife6 Comments

Counting bees

Reclaiming Paradise

For yesterday’s #SixonSaturday I was counting bees, or at least counting the flowers that the bees like in my garden. I found my six: foxglove, sage, chives, comfrey, yellow poppies, cotoneaster but there were more: raspberries, wild roses, rocket, red campion, clover, nearly all self-seeded and thrown around the garden. The sage and the raspberries and the chives grow where I planted them, providing us with food and flowers and more bees I sowed the rocket last spring and it lasted valiantly over the winter, growing tough and woody, now flowering with abandon and attracting bees The others, although chosen … Continue reading Counting bees