May 2026: Butterflies, Bees and a Colony of Voles

The garden has been woken up from its winter break in the last couple of months. We’ve been weeding and planting up the flower beds and progressively lowering the height of the grass – cutting not only on the main lawns, but we have also “tamed” the area between the shingle path and the stream. The doc leaves get a mow over every week and hopefully they will give up trying to dominate the bank side.

 

Our mini orchard is now established and we eagerly await the first crop. Our wild flower garden also seems to be in good health. It’s amazing the amount of hard work that goes into making it  look like it has been ignored for years!

 

The kids and parents now meet up in the gardens after school, and we have provided a new seating area and flower beds to make it feel more inviting. Not only do we get human activity, we are seeing a lot of wildlife setting up home in the form of butterflies and bees – but also the arrival of a colony of voles who seem to have made it their mission to turn the lawn back into the field that it previously was!

 

We recently helped the local Beavers group to get their gardening badge by planting seeds in the raised vegetable beds and building a hedgehog/ bug hotel. Hopefully, the enthusiasm shown on the day will keep them inspired and maybe they’ll want to come back with more projects.

 

Talking of which… if you have ideas for our village garden, or are spending too much time doing sudoku or Wordle on your phone and looking for a fulfilling hobby, please email Katy at [email protected]  Alternatively, just wander down to the garden as there is nearly always one of the volunteer team tidying up and we are very happy to chat.