Colin Evans

Have you ever sat down to fish and chips dripping with salt and vinegar, a pot of tea and bread and the best Jersey butter and just scoffed the lot with great relish?

Then did you think "I am going to eat the whole meal again in half an hour's time, and then maybe later on in the day, just in case I get a bit peckish?"

Fish

I guess not, but if you were a goldfish in a large pond full of tadpoles then you might think differently.

Sadly, this very week, the fish in my pond could wait no longer before gorging themselves on the early life cycle of the common frog.

Every year since building the pond the local frogs have spawned there and for the past five years the result has been the same. Still the fish look the best they have ever done.

A tadpole

This year, I could not allow thousands of tadpoles to become five course dinners for my fish so three weeks ago I got the net and managed to hook out at least six hundred tadpoles and I am glad to report that they are all doing well and growing fast in a large container of water on the terrace quite oblivious that their brothers and sisters have long since gone.

My rescue attempt got me thinking about the importance of wildlife in our gardens and what we can do to preserve it. So this week my plant of the week is reflecting this.

With a little forward planning and a desire to help our wildlife, be it large or small, we can make a difference and give them a helping hand by creating wildlife areas in our gardens and stepping in when the forces of nature are about to destroy them.

Buddleia davidii must be the very best plant to attract butterflies. It's as if this easy-to- grow shrub is a magnet to all species of garden butterflies. The common name, butterfly bush is an apt name.

This shrub is worthy of a place in any garden and will provide fragrant flowers from May to September.

There are many species, the most used is Royal Red with its pyramid like purple red flowers, however, Purple Prince and Empire Blue are just as beautiful. The more unusual and slower growing Buddleia globosa with its orangey yellow globe-like flowers is also worth planting to give contrast.

What To Do This Week:

Remove old brown foliage from strawberry plants and boost them up with a top dressing of general fertilizer.

If they are growing in the open ground and you want an earlier crop then cover the plants with a polythene tunnel to speed up the growth of the crown. Make sure when the flowers have appeared to lift up the tunnel during the day to allow the pollinating insects a chance to do their work.

Strawberries

Cut off the old flower heads of daffodils once the flowers have died away as this will encourage the nutrient to feed the foliage rather than the old flower heads.

Also now is a good time to feed with bone meal at the bases of each clump and then scatter compost or leaf mould around the underneath the plants.

Do not remove the foliage yet and never tie the leaves together like so many gardeners in the past as the leaves need to have plenty of fresh air around them and a chance to breath.

I always remove the foliage at least six weeks after the flowers have finished, that way I can be sure that next years blooms will be just as good. If you cut them off before then expect all leaf and no flowers next spring.

Take Hydrangea cuttings now to create more plants for next season by removing the new shoots and pushing the stems into pots of compost. The new soft tip cuttings will flourish if you place them somewhere in a sheltered spot and keep them well watered. For full and dense shrubs, put at least three or even five cuttings close together in the same pot and eventually these will look like one single plant.

Happy Gardening: