Hi I’m Kath and I am Harlow Carr Garden’s latest recruit. I work on the ornamental team ‘Gardens West’ and my permanent contract has just begun on the 1 st October. This is very exciting for me as I have worked for many years in the chocolate industry. Eventually, after doing 4 years at evening classes... Read more..

What with Santa and the Reindeer turning up last Saturday, and all the festive snow and ice this week, the Harlow Carr garden has taken on a magical glow of Christmas! We have taken advantage of our heated glasshouse to catch up with our propagation work, picking over and removing all rotting leaves... Read more..

It was only when we moved to Oxfordshire that I first saw a Scarlet Tiger moth ( Callimorpha dominula ) but, being fairly widespread in this area, they’re now quite a common sight. Scarlet Tiger moths fly during the day and are seen from May to July and, whilst they are said to prefer damp meadows and... Read more..

There are plenty of dragonflies to be seen at this time of year. One took a siesta in the courtyard the other day, a Brown Hawker - Aeshna grandis . It landed in the lime tree and high enough up that, even with the lens of the camera at full zoom, a clear picture could not be taken. Feeling a little... Read more..

This mild winter is a good time for looking at the activity of earthworms . The soil is moist and our lawns are a mass of worm casts, a mix of worm excrement and soil. The number of small coiled piles of worm casts tell us that there is indeed a great deal going on under the surface and it’s interesting... Read more..

The great spotted woodpeckers ( Dendrocopos major ) have changed their behaviour. The male has stopped his territorial drumming on the wooden roof of one the hanging bird feeders and, whilst we had quite often seen them together in the Magnolia tree, they are now only seen alone. I believe what has changed... Read more..

It’s was clear that the young great spotted woodpeckers ( Dendrocopos major ) were growing fast by the increasing volume of their voices. What started as a fairly quiet squeaking, akin to a wheel catching on something as it turned, fast became a loud and incessant ‘Tchick! Tchick! Tchick!’. The parents... Read more..

In February 2011, just over a year ago, I said that there weren’t any sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) coming to the garden, but that there were plenty of them in gardens on the other side of the green. I wondered if we didn’t have enough plants to attract them and vowed to plant more. I did plant more... Read more..

Having enjoyed the series on wildlife in gardens, ‘Living Gardens’ in The Garden magazine , the monthly magazine sent out to RHS members, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the flowering plants that attract the most bees in my garden. Working in the garden at the weekend, I was struck... Read more..

There is a corner at the end of the garden where we’d like to grow a few vegetables – it is sunny and warm but, for a couple of reasons, the soil needed some major work on it. Firstly, I have wondered if the previous occupants here ever added any organic matter to the soil; it seems a bit thin and stony... Read more..