Celebrate Nature’s Larder at The Wildlife Garden RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, 8-13 July 2014

‘The Jordan Wildlife Garden’ has been created by award winning garden designer, Selina Botham. With a colourful variety of features from edible wild flowers, trees and hedges to oats, fruit and nuts – all of which can be foraged from the countryside – the garden provides a natural 'larder' to share as a shelter for birds, bees and butterflies. Its unveiling celebrates the belief that great tasting food comes from working closely with nature, as well as aiming to inspire gardeners everywhere to support British wildlife.

The Jordans Wildlife Garden is set to showcase the importance of sustainability and protecting the British countryside to RHS visitors from across the country. Oat fields, inspired by Jordans’ farms, outline the sides of the garden, moving through to mown paths of species rich meadow, which curve through the space. Swathes of meadow alongside the paths give a close connection to nature. The garden is surrounded by a cut log wall and grassy banks, which form a wildlife friendly edge to the garden and a habitat for wildlife. A nut terrace that provides an edible treat for both people and wildlife surrounds the elegant, reflective pool in the centre of the garden.
There are also sculpted straw benches, created by willow sculptor Spencer Jenkins, that provide a place to rest and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere. Mixed native hedgerow and fruit and nut trees will surround one side of the garden, providing more edible treats for people and animals.

The array of features have each been designed to support local wildlife, including thatched insect hotels, birdhouses and feeding stations – all sculpted especially for The Jordans Wildlife Garden – whilst adding a unique beauty to the space. Design elements such as the cut wood stepping-stones, created by chainsaw artist Ella Fielding, will provide further material for animals to make their homes in, whilst the meadow flowers themselves house a beehive – a core feature of any wildlife garden. 

Selina Botham, award winning garden designer
A passionate wildlife and garden enthusiast, Selina Botham is perfectly placed to bring The Jordans Wildlife Garden to life. She has won numerous awards for her beautiful and considered approach to gardening, from Gold to Best In Show for her first ever garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. In 2010, Selina scooped Gold, Best Communal Garden and overall Garden of the Year at The New Homes Garden Awards for a housing association garden. This was the first time a housing association garden had won this prestigious award.

About the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show
This year’s RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show will take place 8-13 July, 2014 and promises to bring visitors all the fun and excitement of a spectacular summer festival.
Visitors are advised to look out for the show gardens, including ‘The Jordans Wildlife Garden’ designed by award-winning garden designer Selina Botham. 
For more information on ticket sales and attendance, visit the website.

Not Anyone Can Get These Beehives

Somebody came to the artist and asked kindly if he could carve and paint beehives for them. It's not a shop, so you never know whether artist will do it for you or not. He has a close look at you and he's got his own reasons... 
This request was accepted, so we could admire beehives standing in the yard and waiting to be picked up.
They will be used for bee keeping not for decoration only, so I guess they are not only beautiful, but functional as well.

Beehives by Jozef Chelmowski

Firefighters rescue baby deer

This happened recently in Poland at Baltic Sea. Firefighters rescue sweet baby deer stranded on drifting ice. Good job!

How to garden even if you're afraid of bees

At over 20,000 species worldwide, bees are the world's most effective pollinators. Without them, we would no longer be able to enjoy many of the foods we do today such as strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, chocolate and squash. Since 2006, researchers have been investigating the sharp decline in European honey bees, the main hive bee used to pollinate commercial crops. Abandoned, queenless hives are being discovered in areas of ample food supplies. Growers have begun turning to the remaining bee species for help. Non hiving native bees have actually been shown to be better pollinators than European honey bees, and there are things that we can do to attract them in our home gardens. Planting a broad variety of nectar rich flowers and leaving some areas of our gardens mulch free can give our ground dwelling native bees a place to reproduce.

Irish tradition tells that bees come from heaven and bring secret wisdom with them. The Irish in me (my dad's family was from Cork County Ireland) thinks that's nice, but pictured is what you get when a bee lands on me while snapping pictures. It’s the sad truth; buzzing things freak me out a bit.

I’ve grown to enjoy watching bees gather nectar in my garden, and purposefully have added plants to attract them, but I still flinch when they get close. We won't talk about the time I put my car into park without slowing down when I found a bee in my car.


This is a shot of my favorite spring bed with the dark purple bearded irises, Chartreuse foliage of the gooseneck loosestrife, and the sparkling flowers of the spiderwort. By mid August, it all looks very ratty, and my out of control invasive gooseneck loosestrife is growing under the stone edge and choking out everything. Time to say goodbye to it, this is too much maintenance in an area I don’t want to dig up every year.

I recently read an article describing how pollution interferes with a bee's ability to find food by reducing how far scent is carried. If I see myself not just a gardener, but also a caretaker of the land I'm on, then my needs should come second; the bees can have their nectar. I'll focus on fragrant plants to attract more bees, and will replace this single invasive loosestrife with a variety of flowers known to attract bees. Still needing to do back to school shopping for the kids, I'll keep what I can and plan to do this complete full sun redo for less than $5.

My after is now destined to plant its feet this year, and look more amazing next year and the following year.

• I've moved the cardinal flowers growing in a nursery bed to the back corner. Though they bloom the second year, they're getting flower stalks on them this year, so I'm very hopeful.
• I've repositioned the dark purple bearded iris, which gave me a great chance to get rid of some unhealthy rhizomes and fix a cutworm problem. So gross!!
• I've kept the spiderwort. With a good shearing it blooms a second time during the summer, and the flowers absolutely glisten.
• Dwarf Joe pye weed with it's mauve flowers is something I've always wanted, and my big purchase.
• I've salvaged the pale yellow columbines I grew from seed a few years ago, and planted them in some open spots. With the loosened, improved soil, they’ll thrive.
• I’ve added a gaillardia given by a friend who responded to my request to gather seed by digging up a spare plant instead
• Reseeds from penstemon red rocks in the front (though relatively hidden in this shot) are loved by bees and will provide a good jolt of hot pink color.
• A trio of sedum grown from seed last winter have been repositioned in the front
• A loose scattering of mulch decorates but will still allow the ground dwelling bees I see a place to lay their eggs in the spring

I'll continue to water well to help these plants get established, but now that it's getting closer to fall, they'll have plenty of time to set down roots in the cool fall weather before the first winter freeze. I know I may have a few stray gooseneck loosestrifes popping up. I'll pluck what I can, and everything planted can take some handling, so iveif I need to root around, I should be okay.

I'm proud to say I was able to complete this bed redo for a whopping $4.21.

This is a guest post by Lisa Ueda, offering home gardening tips at thefrugalgarden. Her aim is to inspire, awaken and motivate new gardeners into discovering their inner green thumbs.

Ultimate frog’s kingdom

This is the season for baby frogs – they are everywhere if you unexpectedly come to the frog’s kingdom. What else can you call a garden, where your every step is scaring froggies to jump away. Froggies half an inch size made laugh a lot last week, and made me felt sorry for every step I made. My friends garden is located in Masovian countryside, near the river. This wet meadow is ultimate frog’s kingdom.

Terrestial orchid on my way

Terrestial orchid growing in wild meadow... this is the last thing I've expected while going to more real countryside house than my own and only 30 km (18 miles) away. Last weekend I've spend at friend's house that is only 30 minutes away and see what I found growing in the backyard meadow...

This is Dactylorhiza - terrestial orchid, perennial that belongs to the orchid family, under protection. Finding it growing in the backyard's wet meadow was so surprising. They grow up to 30 cm (12 in). I am not sure, but it seems to be Dactylorhiza maculata - have to turn back and take a closer look.

Have a closer look at the house. Can you see what I see? This house in fact is two houses joint together with and an open space. First house is on the left side, second on the right side. 2 old wooden houses brought from eastern part of Poland - they were disassambled there and constructed together bit by bit again.  

This is the left side house - yes, it used to be one/full house. While on the right side you can see the part that joints both houses together.

Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) covers partially the house from the western side.

Safe wood reserve for colder days...

"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.”

~~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Bumble Bee Collecting Pollen - is it spring?

Yay! I caught it on the snowdrops in my garden! Little 'drunk' (she was) after winter. Doesn't she give us a look "Whats' so special?''

Hummingbird Moth (one of the biggest Moths) in my garden. Good omen!

This morning I got up not too early... I took my coffee and looked at Periclymenum Serotina, that grows at the kitchen window and my heart started to beat faster... can I believe what I see?
I looked closer... and closer.... I have opened window and looked even closer...
YES! this is it! Humming-bird Hawk-moth! (Macroglossum stellatarum) - it visited my garden!



This is the biggest event of this year. And weirdest moth I have seen with my own eyes. Have you seen it before? I grew up in the nature, North of Poland and I have never seen it. I even heard of it for the first time 2 years ago.



This moth can fly with the speed of 50 km/h and can fly really long distances.
It is flying very fast - this is why is difficult to photograph.

While hanging over the flowers for just a second - it drinks nectar and immediately move over to next flower...

This extraordinary meeting was short, but afterwards the moth was hanging on the wall in the ivy... so I could examine it little longer...

Finally it visited also my garden! Similar to hummingbirds, moth in reality. They are tropical and subtropical moths, not popular in Poland - they come as immigrants from South of Europe, but are unable to overwinter. Why do they come then? Are they going back?





I have red somewhere, that they have unique habit of visiting the same flowers at the same time in a sequence... hmm... will see tomorrow.

So unusual view... It made me so happy - I just red that in Italy and Malta it is a good omen to see it... right... that was a very good day...

I can not have hummingbirds in the garden, because they don't like this continent.

At least a moth, that fakes hummingbird...


Below you can see map, showing the places of appearence. I found special website dedicated to Sphingid Moths of Poland. It is also available in English, if you would like to check - click here.

I am going to add my observation as well - it will be located more or less centrally.

Butterflies come in 'herds'...

It looks like this is the season to turn into butterfly.

So if you plan to do so, consider 'now' as the best time. In my garden they suddenly appeared - according to the information now is the time they emerge.
The butterfly pictured on the upper picture with a beautiful name Enachis io, is very common here in my garden. They are fed on Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) and as I decided to keep some growing in non disturbing areas of the garden, they are encouraged to be the inhabitants, not visitors.

Yesterday when I was sitting outside and reading, 2 of them came to me and sat on my arms.

Two new kinds appeared also. The left one it is Mourning Beauty (US), Camberwell Beauty (UK) or Nymphalis antiopa. On the right one you can see The Comma (Polygonia c-album).
I have spotted Mourning Beauty few days ago - this is easy to understand after you see how it is flying - large wings make themy fly with dignity. It's large wings that can spread up to 9 cm and that makes it one of the largest butterflies in Poland.
I couldn't take picture earlier, because it was always escaping. They are shy butterflies.
This morning I was very lucky - it allowed me to come very, very close.
I was wondering why it does not come seat on flowers, but keeps returning either to the bench or to the branches of the trees, so I digged the subject.
Things became clear: they prefer tree saps or fermenting fruits - I have plenty of cherries that we didn't use and they fall to ground. Many critters are fed with it :)

Isn't it posing nice to the picture? Unfortunately it didn't want to open the wings for picture.

Love hurts

Today I have for you little poetry, although it is not GB Muse Day.....

Love hurts, love scars,

Love wounds, and marks,

Any heart, not tough,

Or strong, enough

To take a lot of pain,

Take a lot of pain

Love is like a cloud

Holds a lot of rain

Love hurts, ooh ooh love hurts...

"Love Hurts" is the name of a song performed by Nazareth (Scottish rock band), written and composed by Boudleaux Bryant, American country music songwriter.

Some lyrics, music and ice-cream box.... what do I have in mind? Love is fine in general - I am OK with it :) but sometimes it might be disturbing to others. This is what happened. My garden pond was filled with love last week and it was so loud, that I couldn't sleep. Froggies had no mercy on other guys around, that express their love in more silent way.

It was funny to hear and watch them during the day, when the huge baloons on both sides of the head was filling with air and sound.

When night was starting, they didn't want to stop. At certain moments in the day it was becoming little too loud, when magpies were coming while following cats and screaming on them. From my observation, dear professor, we can draw a conclusion that frogs like magpies. They like to sing together.

After my first night, that I couldn't sleep because of frogs, I was determined to move them somewhere else, but I couldn't catch them. On the second night I slept OK, being tired from previous one. My husband after getting up, hardly opened his eyes, walking half-consciuous to bathroom, said first: "Yes, frogs have to go".... He caught them without any problems (stronger hunting instinct? I don't know).

This ice-cream box was their train to better place.

Doesn't it look fresh and inviting? This is a lake 1-2 km away from me, 10000 time bigger than my pond.... with a lot other frogs.... and maturing ducks - you can see on the bottom of the picture ..............

After I have opened the box, they looked around for a while.....

..... and jumped out very fast.... one after another...............

This picture above is taken in my pond, where I spotted a frogspawn.... so young ones will come one day.... right?

Do you think I shall remove it?

Garden Fish & Frog Pond

There is no rain here since 3 weeks - it is very dry. It rains in the south of Poland, but not in the central. I am trying to keep my garden alive. Many plants do not need too much additional water, but what about those which need it? It takes pretty much time to water the garden.

In such a dry garden, water garden is like oasis in the desert. It is changing the air - adds humidity - and changes the SOUND of garden - garrulous water makes perfect environment for relaxation. The sound of water got more loud and rich lately. Since there is a pond in the garden (that we have cleaned lately) it attracts more and more wildlife :) Cats have always water at hand and also something to watch - fish are mesmerising to humans and to cats as well, but for different reasons. Apart from dragonflies - which are very beautiful and sweet to watch, there is 3 frogs in the pond. 2 smaller - which presumably are HE and 1 bigger SHE. THEY are responsible for additional and in a way unexpected sound in the garden and adjacent gardens as well. Since few days, they started to sing! They croak, so they must be happy, right?

What a weird sound is that - first when I have heard it, I was thinking there must be aliens hiding in the shrubberies.

Do you remember movie "Signs" and scary aliens there? They were taking in such a way, that is similar to single frog's sound. Probably in bigger amount they would be disturbing, but 1-2 seems to be fine and I hope they will be not disturbing to neighbours - at night, when sound travels faster.

As you can see, water in the pond looks pretty fine. Glones are growing fast, so already after 1 week after cleaning pond lost that "weird fresh grey" plastic look. I prefer green pond - looks more natural and better. At the beginning after building a pond, most tricky is to keep the proper chemical balance, so glones will not overtake your pond. Any chemical means are not really helpfull - even those mild ones are in different ways harming aquatic plants. The best way to prevent glones colonizing pond, is to use the acidic peat in the filter - it contains humic acids that dissolve in the water - glones are allergic to it. The only thing is, that peat has to be special: firbous and free of fertilisers - not garden peat, which is ground and usually mixed with fertilisers.

Peacock caterpillar - learning butterflies in the garden

I caught a butterfly - it must have been very hungry, cos it was 'glued' to the flower - wind was shaking it back and forth, I came close to make pictures and it was still exploring the inside in the search of nectar.
With surprise I realised on the pictures, cos in reality butterflies are too small or fly away too fast, that this one is so hairy.
His name is Inachis io / Peacock caterpillar/ Rusalka pawik.
In general I don't know the names of butterflies - I am going to learn it. It is difficult to identify them - I found one very useful American website but also wiki helped a lot.

This is first 'colored' butterfly in my garden this year.

When something pushes you out of routine...

There is a park in the neighbourhood with old trees. The little city itself is not interesting, so we were not so much interested in looking what is going on there.
You know how it is - you live somewhere and things, places which are in your closest distance don't take your attention.
But one day - being in the mood of having 'sightseeing' - pushed by that unknown impulse, that possibly comes from inner you and tries to kick you out of routine - we decided to look around - just a short walk in a place that is close, but completely unknown.
Luckily I took camera with me, cos that walk was full of surprises. We found something really worth to see :)

These ducks are most common in Poland.
















But only take a look at this next picture!!


When I saw it first time, I thought: OMG somebody put artificial duck on the lake! What a disgusting thing!

But wait a second! It is moving! yey!!
What is this??
I took photos first :)

Then I looked in the book and look what I found: Mandarin Duck - male. I never saw them before in my life. I never thought they live wild in Poland :)

They are rare in Poland, and as far as I know rare in entire Europe.
They originate from Asia (China) were they are native.


They are 'endangered species -despite being evaluated as Least Concern because of large-scale exports and the destruction of its forest habitat' - this is they say.
I understood while looking at numbers: only 1000 pairs is living in China and Russia, 5000 in Japan.

And we also have ONE pair in Pruszków city park!



So, what is my lesson from the walk? Even in something/a place that seems to be very common and of no interest, there might be something you never saw before :)




"That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life' by Rabindranath Tagore

You need to see this - bisons on the street

While browsing this morning on Polish blogs I found blog of the nature journalist, who lives in east of Poland and is widely known as active fighter for nature protection. He is not only writing about it, but he lives it and this is what makes him credible.
On his blog I saw amazing picture of European bisons walking through the village. Check this out!