Letting nature do the talking

Once in a while on the blog I pause the tapping fingers on the keypad and let nature do most of the talking.

And now in high summer it is the flowers and their insect visitors that are a wonderful distraction as you walk around the garden.

So here are a few choice summer moments this week in my garden, and hopefully some inspiration of wildlife-friendly plants you might like to grow, starting with the architectual wonder that is Globe Thistle Echinops bannaticus, and its constant bumblebee entourage:

Hemp Agrimony, a super native plant and so easy to grow, is now fluffing up nicely, here with Speckled Wood butterfly

And another native equally easy to start from seed you collect in the countryside is Common Fleabane:

This is a plant I collected as seed from a favourite wood up in my Midlands homelands - the wonderful Betony, just starting to go over here, and with a Common Blue perched on top:

I didn't notice as I walked around the garden with my camera quite how many native plants I was photographing, but here is another, Black Knapweed, with Gatekeeper butterfly:

And this is a cultivar of a native - this is a variety of Cirsium heterophyllum, the Melancholy Thistle. I think this one is called Pink Blush, and it is a great way of including thistles in your border. It is also a hit with the bumblebees:

And sometimes it isn't the flowers but what follows them that catch the eye, such as the start of the blackberry season, which I think look fantastic. Note the fly perched on top!:

But we'll finish with the flower that lights up my garden at the moment, the rich pink candelabra of Purple Loosestrife. Ah, summer - glorious!