We all know that a little bit of untidiness is good for all sorts of bugs and birds, but every garden needs a bit of a tidy up now and again doesn't it?
My buddleia bushes have been decorated with a host of butterflies for the last month (it’s been a fabulous year for them hasn’t it?), but long, tired branches nodding under the weight of dead, brown flowerheads signalled pruning time. As I chopped back the excess, some purple and white sparkled among the brown – fresh flowers! It seemed such a shame to literally cut them off in their prime, so I left them be and carried on pruning carefully around them.
I admired my handiwork later and noticed that the four small flowerheads I’d left were each balancing a butterfly: a painted lady, two large whites and a small tortoiseshell to be precise. None were at their best, but this made it more pleasing giving these worn, tatty individuals a hand, when it would have been easy to put tidiness first.
They stayed around all afternoon, sipping at the nectar, proving that a little help goes a long way. Lots of us feed the birds in our gardens when natural food is scarce, but it's hard for these last butterflies, and other insects, to find food with fewer flowers around in late summer.
Were you out in your garden over the weekend making the most of the sunshine? Why not let us know what you got up to, or what jobs you've got planned before the end of the summer?
Like you, Mark, I'm about to take the dead heads off the Buddleia which has finished. (I prune it in Feb so it flowers a bit later!)It's had more butterflies than ever before on it this year- they've been such a joy to see! The hyssop still has a few flowers left for the bees,- planted this year for them and it worked!
Now that our council collects kitchen waste with the garden waste, I have taken out the old anaerobic digester that I used to put it in.(Only emptied it once in about 10 years of use!) In its place I've put an 'old-fashioned' compost bin - wooden instead of the sealed plastic type. I am hoping the grass snakes will find it- there are plenty locally, but I've not seen one in the garden for years. (Here's hoping they can sneak in without the local gang of felines finding them!!) Happy gardening!