Abbots Langley Gardening Society

February 2013

Do you realize that ‘A silent environmental disaster is taking place’!! ? We should all be concerned! However, on our own doorstep we have what will be the worlds largest walk-through butterfly sanctuary. With 76% of British butterfly species having declined in the last 20 years, Clive Farrell, “a butterfly fanatic and lepidopterist, decided to create a tribute to the butterfly with a dedicated centre of learning for the preservation of this fragile and beautiful species” and fortunately for us, he chose Chiswell Green to start this project. Deryck Hannaford gave us an excellent presentation on the work and the progress so far. The project needs more funds to complete the planned Biome which will have forests, waterfalls and even a Mayan Temple, and will be the home of not only butterflies and hummingbirds, but also insects for the boys! but even now it is a brilliant place to visit not just to see butterflies close up, but also it has play areas with a sandpit and climbing frame and the wonderful gardens and wild flowers. You would not believe how colourful wild flowers can be. It is on a slope facing the sun all day long too. Did you know that there is a caterpillar called a ‘Wooly Bear’? Soooo cute! but turns into a ‘Tiger Moth’.... Scary ! Amazing what you can learn. A great day out for all the family and educational too.

 

 

Even though it would appear to be a quiet month on the gardening front, don’t think that we have been sitting with our feet up. Well actually we have, just a little bit, well we do have to choose seeds and plants to sow for the new season and that is rather a lot of difficult decisions. On the days that we have been able to venture out into our gardens and allotments to see the wonderful spring flowers that have popped their glorious heads out, we have been getting everything started with early seeds to sow, bird boxes to put up, covering the soil to warm it up for early planting, top dressing potted trees and shrubs, goodness me, the list goes on. Phew! I need to sit down after the thought of all that!

 

 

Have a great month.

 

Pam Cotton