Appreciation

It’s World Earth Day today which makes me stop and appreciate the things even more than usual. Especially at this time of year when everything is coming to life I’m reminded of how beautiful this place really is. The greens are suddenly so vibrant and the cherry blossom just punches through it. The narcissi have also been in flower for the past few weeks and the tulips are ready to bloom any day now. I remember planting these bulbs on one of the coldest and windiest November days, which makes their blooms that little bit more rewarding and so welcoming as I step into the plot.

The frogs are well and truly back, and I even saw my first hedgehog at the allotments the other night! I haven’t seen one for years and years so it was a delight to see him curled up in the hedge outside my gate. It’s so sad that their numbers are in an alarming state of decline.

The hedgehog population is thought to have fallen by 30% since 2003 to fewer than a million in the UK, down from an estimated population of 36m in the 1950s.
– The Guardian, 2016.

Few people realise how damaging slug pellets are which contribute to many deaths as well as a lack of habitat due to increasing destruction of natural hedges and walkways. I won’t get too political…but we must try and do our bit to protect the green spaces we have left and help our humble creatures.

Having an allotment is a great way of providing a habitat for all kinds of creatures and it brings me great joy to see the bumble bees, bats, foxes, mice, frogs, voles and all kinds of fascinating insects take refuge in my little green space. Mr.Fox is also back by the way – I posted a video of him on my Instagram!

Over the year I hope to develop my wild spaces on my plot to provide a more diverse range of habitat areas that will go mostly untouched, to allow nature to run it’s own course (within reason!). I’ll draw up a plan and work towards each project. The first of which will be a wildflower mini-meadow that will sit along side the cut flower bed at the top of my plot behind the herb bed (below).