Hi, Its Megan from the Wild Bunch
How are you with change? Change challenges us to rethink ideas and norms, possibly long held.
Recently I watched The Wild Gardener on BBC2/iPlayer. It is a documentary about wildlife cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson, who returns home to Ireland and transforms his childhood garden into a haven for native plants and animals. As you would expect, it is beautifully filmed and narrated!
The interesting thing is that Colin is the son of the first TV gardener in Ireland, broadcasting shows in the 1970s. Clips of his dad are shown giving advice about a style of gardening that is very formal with exotic plants in weed-free flower beds and neatly mowed lawns.
Meanwhile Colin has dug a pond and sown the area around it with native wildflower seeds, many of which we once considered weeds. The contrast between the two ways of gardening is dramatic and highlights how ideas about gardening are changing.
The UK has lost 97% of its species-rich wildflower meadows in the last decade. It is shocking to realise that the green fields that make up a lot of the countryside can actually be green ‘deserts’ – an intensive monoculture without much life.
The good news is that we can have mini wildflower areas, if not meadows, in our gardens. Small changes make a difference; sowing even a small area of garden or pots and tubs with wildflower seeds can provide food for butterflies, bees and birds. If you allow an area of grass to grow long and resist pulling out ‘weeds’ such as dandelions you may be rewarded by seeing goldfinches feasting on the seeds, as I was recently.
Last month we celebrated David Attenborough’s 100th birthday and I recommend his recent series ‘Secret Garden’ about the hidden lives of wild animals in our gardens. The series show how gardens can be a haven for wildlife and allowing them to be a bit on the wild side and choosing native species can offer habitats for the animals and birds we love.
