APRIL - "These landscapes are being shaped by many people and many ideas as they always have been..."
"These landscapes are being shaped by many people and many ideas as they always have been. Still, through all of this runs a thread of continuity with everything that has come before, as most of the hefted flocks of sheep still follow the same movements between fell and pasture they have always done." James Rebanks, "English Pastoral, An Inheritance" 2020 Flowering Currant hedge It seems that long grass, left unmown, encourages butterflies. This statement comes as a result of a survey covering 600 gardens in Britain - and at a time when swallowtails are known to be at risk. Quite some time ago, we perhaps had an inkling that long grass supported more insect life than scalped lawns but the marvellous thing about the survey is that it gives every type of gardener the opportunity to help wildlife on these islands. Those of us who are the "live and let live" gardeners feel justified in our not very detailed plans and our sketchily drawn-up schemes. Those who
