A diary of back garden botany, urban ecology, rural rambles and field trips to the middle of nowhere...
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Even marshy habitats are dry. I have always known this shallow natural pond on Oughtonhead Common to be full (as seen above in March). But not now...
What a difference: on June 12th. I cut the long grass in this meadow at the music school. I remember thinking I would need to cut it again in a few weeks. Two months later that hasn't been necessary...
A cool, cloudy day! The lawns at the music school are straw coloured like everywhere.
It's incredible- this summer southern England has been hotter and drier than any other period since records began. Perhaps it was as hot and dry as this sometime in the Middle Ages or a thousand years ago but in the past few lifetimes no.
Tonal eclipse of the sun - as seen at Knocking Hoe - projected through a kitchen colander onto a sheet of white card. I didn't want to buy a pair of special glasses (or go blind) so this simple variation on a pinhole camera did the job. In fact we frequently get brief glimpses of sun without going blind (not to mention admiring sunrises and sunsets). Nonetheless looking straight at the sun high in…
Three drought/heatwave summers in the past five years bears out the contention that the Mediterranean climate will move northwards to the south of England. The epithet 'hardy' is traditionally applied to plants that can survive freezing temperatures as low as minus ten or twenty. Such winters were part of my childhood but rarely a consideration since then. Drought hardy becomes equally important…
The parched grasslands of southern England are largely bereft of wildflowers in flower. For the most part they flowered early and faded early. So it is in the damper locales we get some greenery and a splash of vivd colour. Case in point Great Willowherb ( Epilobium hirsutum ) is plant of marshy margins, ditches and riversides.
This is England: blue sky, green trees, straw-coloured grass.
England's green and pleasant land has turned brown.
There is no water shortage. What we have in this country is a storage shortage, probably because we never imagined we would run out of rain. Water butts are a good idea -to a limited extent. This one holds up to 100 litres and is fed by the downpipe from a pitched roof approximately 6.5m long by 5m wide which is 35.75 square metres. Given the average rainfall in the region that roof will receive…
Even the wildflowers are wilting but not this impressive display of Umbellifers.
Fluffy.
Southern England is parched. This patch of baked earth is usually a pond with ducks. Beyond, the wheat has been harvested early. Officially we are in a period of "prolonged dry weather" with the accompanying hosepipe bans. The next legislative measure will be to declare drought which is what it is. March/April/May were warm, sunny and dry, barely a third of average rainfall in the South. We had…
Butterflies seem to be flourishing in this long, hot summer.
Runner Beans ramping- these are the old variety 'Scarlet Emperor'.
A day trip to the North Kent coast. Walking from Chestfield and Swalecliffe to Whitstable I was pleased to see lots of Hog Fennel ( Peucedanum officinale ) which is only found in a few locations in the UK in Kent and Essex. Tankerton Slopes as seen above is said to be the largest colony and it seems to be particularly abundant this year.
Six-Spot Burnet on Field Scabious.
The south is parched -particularly on chalk- but the wildflowers persist.
The Globe Thistles and the Sea Hollies look like they might be related... ...but they belong to different genera: Echinops and Eryngium. Both are much visited by bees.
The Jersey Tiger is no longer confined to the southernmost parts of England. It's range is extending northwards; I see quite regularly in London and Hertfordshire. The striped forewing is striking; the orange underwing is spectacular when it unfurls in flight.
A mixed herbaceous border is manna for pollinators.
A few months ago I planted three small pots of Fennel in the herb garden I made at the music school. Now they're rampant! Fennel will tough it out on poor, parched ground but here it grows in a rich loamy compost that's watered regularly. The difference is plain to see.
Great Mullein ( Verbascum thapsus ). Prolific self-seeder in sunny spots at the music school.
I think this is a Green-veined White though it only has a tinge of green and they are usually found in damp habitats feeding on the wild Crucifers not Lavender.
Seeing a good many Gatekeepers in the grounds of the music school at the moment. The time of their emergence is generally round about now. The woodland walk with brambles is ideal habitat for them resembling as it does a woodland ride. The Marjoram in the borders is one of their favoured sources of nectar.
Comma Brimstone
One side of this meadow area at the music school is grassy with flowers, the other is flowery with grasses. I treat the grassy side like the hay meadows of old and cut it at some point after midsummer. The flowery side is mass of Knapweeds at the moment which I will leave till they go to seed. I would like to say I got the scythe out but I used the brush cutter, then the strimmer, then the…
The white form of Rosebay Willowherb. Never seen in the wild, at least not by me but I do see it planted in gardens from time to time. The pink is definitely invasive, the white less so (it is said).
