The Natural Gardener
What with it being winter (and due to our garden revamp) there’s naturally less visible wildlife pottering about to spot, and yet there always seems to be something most days to pop in my nature diary. Bird feeders are like Piccadilly Circus, with blue tits a rare and very welcome sight recently. Kites still soar overhead like hovering Harrier jump jets, while sparrows and starlings squabble on bare branches. The other day a single robin looked on, head bobbing, as our landscaper dug out some earth, bravely edging forward for any tasty worms he might have exposed. Look closely and there’s much to see.
I love to look back on my 2020 diary. Along with temperature checks, gardening hints and one or two pest sightings, I’m reminded of mid-January’s heavy frosts, then mild days when snowdrops appeared and tulip leaves poked their heads up early. February saw three storms, Ciara, Dennis and Jorge, wreak havoc; this was the month of goldfinches in my garden, though, as I noted pairs arrive each day to eat the nyjer seed, then one day six came to visit. Early March saw my first real day of work in the garden. A sunny day, according to my note, and a day of more goldfinches, two types of anemone in flower, the first sighting of a queen bumblebee and a cosy frog in the rockery! Happy, warm early spring days.
Momentous dates loom next as lockdown arrives; I kept my notes Covid-free though and as a worried country withdrew I noted simply about my blooming forget-me-nots, robins and blue tits in song and noisy sparrows. I thought it best to stick to happy sights and sounds.
Noting nature as the year unfolds is a joyful thing, a real tonic for your wellbeing. To look back on it makes you come full circle and look to the future, with a written reminder that hope and new life is on its way. Too soon we forget all the things we see out on the plot, all the beautiful animals and plants and flowers, so I can highly recommend creating your own wildlife and gardening diary. You don’t have to write in it every day, but I can promise you there’ll be something to put in it daily if you choose to.
I’m going to enjoy starting afresh on a blank page in a crisp, new book for 2021, and I hope you will too.