We're at the end of our second summer here and we’re really pleased with the increase in insects after a year of no chemicals and lots of pollinator friendly flowers in our flower beds
This is a little male Willughby’s leafcutter bee and a Tutsan plant whose leaves the females are fond of to make nursery cells for their babies.
We left the lawn un-mown for the summer with a few paths cut through it. This worked quite well with lots of Cat’s-Ears and Fox and Cubs appearing. Some parts of the garden have a different sort of grass that flopped over and became very popular with the local cats, (and not in a good way), so this has now been mown.
As well as a lot more bees and hoverflies we’ve seen a lot more butterflies and moths and this year there was barely a plant without a shield bug or two.
We’ve been pleasantly surprised with how many plants you can stuff into a small garden and we started to wonder why we weren’t harvesting the seeds from our own plants to sell.
So that is just what we’re going to do. Hopefully by the end of the growing & harvesting season of 2023, most of the seeds we sell will have been grown here in our own garden.
This will mean that we'll be able to supply one or two more unusual wildflowers that most of the bigger growers don't sell and we'll also be able to keep our prices reasonably low.
We're pleased that a frog has turned up in our barrel pond although how they get in and out is a mystery.
Another section of lawn is being dug up to make way for more flowers but we have lightly trimmed a large section which will be left longer for the insects. It’s starting to look wild and tussocky so hopefully it will be of some use to small rodents too.
We have been gathering the seeds on a daily basis when the plants are ready to release them and the seed is at its most viable.
I’m really enjoying this process and gathering by hand means I can return any creatures that end up in the gathering bowl back to the plant unharmed. Here's a lovely ground beetle that was hiding in an Elecampane seed head.
The seeds are then dried and cleaned and a sample sown to check on seed viability / germination rates. So far, so good 👍
The first of our “Home Grown” seeds, Angelica, has recently been added to our shop and lots more will be added over the coming weeks.
If you've ever wanted to grow Angelica the seeds need to be really fresh as they lose viability really quickly so now is a perfect time to sow.
You'll notice that any of the seeds grown here will have a little Grown in Scotland sticker.
Autumn is a good time to sow seeds and we’ve got a special offer until the 28th October.
A big bundle of 13 packets of our hardy annual seeds, all great for pollinators, with nearly £8 off the usual price, Hardy Annual Autumn Bundle - available until 28/10/22
(even cheaper if you subscribe to our newsletter using the form below)
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I'll try not to leave it so long next time
Jane
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