How the garden grows now we’ve had a couple of weeks of wet weather. We have some fantastic wildlife in the back garden, as well as the lawn and the flowers, herbs, fruit and veggies.

We’ve gardened without pesticides or power tools for the last five years or so, and we’re rather relaxed about weeds. Consequently we enjoy the company of a wide range of insects, pond life, frogs, hedgehogs and birds.

I don’t mind sharing the vegetables, although I am curious which little critters are dining on our courgettes. At the bottom of the garden, there are slugs and snails attacking the veg beds, with frogs and hedgehogs in turn attacking those. At the top of the garden, there was a hungry creature keen for fresh zucchini grown in a pot on the patio. Can you identify these tiny tooth marks?

In other news, the latest film in our series ‘Wood for the Trees’ is out now, in which Charly spoke to the Woodland Trust. Policy advisor Nick Phillips talks about the need for more trees, and the challenges in getting more tree cover established in the UK.

There are grants available to support natural regeneration of woodland, and provided there’s a hedgerow nearby with some seed sources, the trees will emerge. We spoke to Nick at an example of ‘set-aside’ farmland that is rapidly becoming wild woodland. Watch the film below, and find out more about the series at woodforthetrees.uk

And now, in the tradition of Six on Saturday, I’d like to share six garden things that caught my eye this week.

1. A bee on a marigold. These flowers grew from seeds from higgledygarden.com

2. The raised pond. Crystal clear water and a magnet for wildlife. A ruddy darter visited and stayed most of the afternoon.

3. The pergola is beginning to get covered, with wisteria, grapes and baskets of fuchsias… It’s one of the preferred spots for the cat.

4. The ‘horsey’ border. This horse head statue was here when we arrived, and gave a name to this fairly new border. Parts of it are planted with some traditional garden bedding – begonias and lobelia. I know this kind of planting is out of style but I still have a soft spot for a few begonias in a bed.

5. The yukka flowers. They’re tall and floppy – requiring props.

And finally, the vegetable patch and ‘fruit corner’ at the bottom of the garden. The rhubarb, beans, sweetpeas, gooseberries, potatoes, sweetcorn and courgettes are growing well. Little critters are eating most of the things if we don’t get there first, but that’s all part of the fun.

That’s it for now. I’ll try to do an update once a month, to keep track and share progress.

For more garden blogs with a snapshot of six things this saturday, visit the Garden Ruminations blog

I hope your plants and plans are going well.

Jen x