Nature Blog by Jenny Bourne

It’s been quite disconcerting to see flowers, annuals and perennials growing again amongst the usual late season varieties such as dahlias. The extremely mild to warm weather has been a result apparently of a southerly jet stream over us for the past few weeks.

A damp and soggy Bonfire Night day so far, and the rain gauge over-flowing at more than 2.5inches when we checked yesterday. I hope it stays dry for any community organised firework displays this evening, that bonfire piles are checked first for any hedgehogs etc hiding and that pet owners do what they can to minimise stress from all the loud bangs and explosions!

Some buffeting high winds and heavy rain showers over the past weeks have brought down the leaves, patternng the ground with autumnal colours and creating slip hazards when wet. But these leaves are plant gold for their use as mulch, once they’ve been raked off the paths and grass.

The warm and occasionally wet weather has meant there are still plenty of flowers around for the bees and other beneficial insects. October so far has been a lovely month, with days of autumnal blue skies and bright sun, early mists and some very welcome downpours after the drought months.

It’s getting to that time of year when we’re beginning to think about turning and forking out our compost bins and heaps ready for mulching and feeding up the soil. As these heaps are warm and relatively undisturbed for most to the year they make a very good over-wintering location for creatures such as hedgehogs, grass snakes and slow worms. Unfortunately we can unwittingly be the cause of harm