Nothing much to see in your little garden - don't you believe it!

Red Admiral nectaring on Crab apple blossom

Several people have said to me that it’s difficult to see much wildlife when they only have their tiny garden to look around, due to this awful Corona virus pandemic.

Firstly, I would say “thank your lucky stars that you are not in a one bed-roomed flat in the top of a tower block”! But I would also suggest that if you really look – and I mean REALLY look, then you can find an amazing array of wildlife, even in the smallest of gardens.

A lady called Jennifer Owen, lived in suburban Leicester and had a garden that covered an area of about 0.07 hectares (about two and a half tennis courts). From the 1970s through to 2010, she catalogued all the wildlife that she could find.

Now, over this 35-year period she worked quite hard at this, perhaps almost obsessively, noting down every living thing that she could find. The total at the end of this intensive survey was 2,673 different species! She found 474 types of plants, 1,997 insect species, 138 other invertebrates (spiders, centipedes, slugs etc) and 64 vertebrates (mostly birds).

So, I think that you can see that there is plenty of potential, even in the smallest garden! Also, when you see something, albeit even something common, take time to have a really close look.

When Dennis Potter was dying of cancer, he remarked that the world had acquired a heightened intensity. “At this season, the blossom is out in full now and instead of saying “Oh, that’s nice blossom …. I see it as the whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be. The nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous.”

    

One thing that this crisis has given many of us (but certainly not everyone I realise) is more time than we would normally have. So, why not spend it wisely, by slowing down a little and taking note of the “blossomest of blossoms” or whatever delights your garden can offer.

I promise you - it will do you a power of good!

PS: There are lots of places on line to try and identify the little beasty that you have found – but one that I use quite a lot is: https://www.naturespot.org.uk/