Well, phew!, hello everyone. After two years of weekly blogging, I've just been AWOL for three weeks as I encountered something I never have before - life filled beyond the brim.
In my day job with RSPB, the project I've been managing - helping the Environment Agency undertake the largest realignment of the open coast ever undertaken in Britain - has been reaching conclusion. It's nothing to do with gardening, but is all about giving nature a home, so you might like to see a short time-lapse piece of the breach taking place here or the little video I made about it here.
And in my spare time I've been volunteer editing a new 600-page book about the birds of Sussex.
So what about my beloved gardening? Well, I've been writing about it for the RSPB's magazine, and my monthly column in Garden Answers. But you can imagine my angst at not being able to do hardly anything else!
But at least I managed an hour to check out Piet Oudolf's garden at Pensthorpe nature reserve in Norfolk. For anyone who isn't familiar with the name Piet Oudolf, he is hailed as the most influential garden designer of the last 25 years because of his use of plants. In fact, like in art, he is even part of a movement - the 'New Perennial' movement.
And I love it because it happens to be rather good for wildlife too.
Probably best if I jump straight to a couple of photos I took:
Yes, this was early October, and look at all the flowers for pollinators (eg Persicarias, Echinacea, Sedums) and all the grass seeds and all the structure for things to hide in. I love it.
And these are the types of plant that can then be left standing as frost-capped seedheads all winter, providing ongoing shelter and food for wildlife.
There are beds designed by Piet at places such as Wisley (Surrey), Scampston Hall (Yorkshire) and the Serpentine Galley (London).
But it's something that can be tried, albeit on a smaller scale, in most gardens, with the right plants grown in drifts and blocks, interspersed with grasses.
Have you tried it? Do you like the look of it? Let me know.
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw
Cirrus, Adrian's book, (RSPB) Gardening for Wildlife is wonderful and even a fun read! I've been taking notes all the way through it (nearly done - started on the "Top 400 Plants" at the end finally today!)to help me create a wildlife community garden in East London but it has tips for small (or big!) suburban home gardens as well. If you're not a note taker I'd say it's a great book to own :-)