Are you looking for some family-friendly funny Halloween jokes for kids? Then you’ve come to the right place!
How to keep butterflies all aflutter in your garden and beyond
16.09.2023 - 04:05 / irishtimes.com / Fionnuala Fallon
It’s at this time of year that our little farmhouse begins to be love-bombed by butterflies, which flutter into its rooms through open windows to perch on the centuries-old walls and bask on its sunny windowsills. They are small tortoiseshells, a common species easily identified by the tiger-like stripes and series of tiny, pale blue dots stippled along the edges of its dark-orange, paper-thin wings. In early autumn the adults go in search of somewhere safe to overwinter, during which time our house is strangely irresistible to them. Clearly the building has always had this special charm. When we first bought it, its old, sun-filled rooms were filled with their tiny, dusty remains, poignant reminders of summers long gone.
Fascinatingly, according to the butterfly expert Jesmond Harding, there’s evidence to suggest that the small tortoiseshell has some form of spatial memory, with an ability to locate and return to sites that are significant to it. The female, for example, will return to the original location of the specific nettle plant on which she laid her eggs, even if that plant is moved to another part of the garden.
Perhaps the butterflies that flutter into our house every September share some similar sort of imprinted genetic memory of it as a safe place in which to overwinter. Unfortunately this isn’t the case any more, not only because of the recently installed central heating (heat disrupts their hibernatory patterns), but also because our two cats take a greedy delight in swiftly catching and devouring them. Now, each time I catch one in my hands to release it safely back outdoors, wings fluttering anxiously, I find myself explaining to it apologetically that times have changed.
The small tortoiseshell is just
The website greengrove.cc is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Autors
Popular Topics
balconygardenweb.com
05.10.2023 / 12:59
How to Root Indoor Plant Cuttings Easily and Quickly
Here’s How to Root Indoor Plant Cuttings Easily and Quickly to multiply them without spending any additional money!
theenglishgarden.co.uk
04.10.2023 / 18:57
Still life: how to press flowers for your own collection
When Philip Miller, chief gardener of the Chelsea Physic Garden, collected a sample of Lavandula x intermedia subsp. intermedia in the summer of 1731, he could scarcely have imagined it would still be in a collection some 300 years later. Yet today, pressed and labelled, Miller’s specimen is the oldest entry in the herbarium collection at RHS Wisley. What’s more, Lavandula x intermedia is widely grown, being especially good for oil extraction. In this lies the brilliance of pressed flowers and herbaria specifically: they provide a window on the past and a view of what the future might look like.
irishtimes.com
30.09.2023 / 04:51
Your gardening questions answered: Plants for a flowering hedge
Q: You mentioned a while back that you were creating a flowering hedge. I would love to know what plants you picked? MF, Co Leitrim
irishtimes.com
30.09.2023 / 04:51
Good garden bone structure: what is it and how can you achieve it?
It’s fair to say that landscape architects and garden designers like to talk an awful lot about the bone structure of a garden. Not that they literally mean high cheekbones, the perfectly tip-tilted nose, or a sculpted jawline. Instead, they’re referring to those qualities of a garden’s design that help it to look good no matter what the time of year. For example, beautiful, expertly constructed pathways. A well-groomed hedge. Handsome walls. A perfectly positioned, well-chosen specimen tree. Timeless paving. Plus an attention to scale and proportion, and an understanding of space that includes a nod to the notion of the golden mean or golden ratio, sometimes also known as the theory of divine proportion.
houseandgarden.co.uk
23.09.2023 / 11:05
What is chaos gardening and should we all be trying it? | House & Garden
Cleve West's Centrepoint Garden, which won a gold medal at Chelsea Flower Show
irishtimes.com
23.09.2023 / 04:17
Get planting: the best bulbs for window boxes, beneath a tree and mixed borders
As all good gardeners know late September marks the beginning of the spring-flowering bulb planting season. Pop these fleshy, modified stems in the ground this autumn and you’ll be casting a kind of horticultural spell that will magic up a world of beauty, a form of horticultural alchemy that never ceases to amaze.
irishtimes.com
23.09.2023 / 04:17
Your gardening questions answered: Aphids have ravaged my trees, should I get pruning?
Q: A honeysuckle and an elder tree in the garden have been ravaged by aphids. I was hoping natural predators might have a feast but there’s no let up so far. Is it a seasonal occurrence due to spring weather conditions or should I get pruning? JMcK, Co Dublin
theprovince.com
22.09.2023 / 18:23
How to protect plantings from high heat and hot sun
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
growingfamily.co.uk
19.09.2023 / 13:57
How to make your garden a wildlife sanctuary
Collaborative post
bhg.com
18.09.2023 / 23:09
Bring Halloween to Your Daily Coffee with Starbucks's New Drinkware
Starbucks
irishtimes.com
16.09.2023 / 04:05
Your gardening questions answered: Why are my trees dying?
Q: I don’t know the name of these trees but they seem to be dying, with casting of leaves getting worse and worse. Can you help? BMcW, Co Donegal