What's Amazing Now
Happy morning! For those who were unable to tune into my spot on BBC Radio Kent Monday with Dominic King, here is the link to listen. Fast forward to 35 minutes to hear my bit talking about sensory gardens. Thank you to BBC Radio Kent for inviting me on!
This is the second of the 'Experience Vouchers' that will be on sale on the website to purchase as christmas or birthday presents for loved ones who are interested in organic gardening, growing and conservation. This voucher includes a 1 hour guided tour with Donna, with homemade cake, tea/coffee for £30. Please note: this vouchers is only useable during our opening season from 1st April to October 31st every year. #whitstablekent #enchantedgardenskent #experiencevouchers #gardenvoucher #gardeningvoucher #alternativechristmaspresent #christmasgift #christmas2024
Vouchers for Christmas 💚 I am very excited to share these 'Experience Vouchers' with you all. There will be two available to purchase on the website. The first is a 1 hour guided tour for 2 people of the Garden Pasture with me for £30. Including homemade cake, tea/coffee. A brilliant gift this festive season for friends or family who love gardening and nature. Please note: this vouchers is only useable during our opening season from 1st April to October 31st every year. If you would like to purchase a voucher please head to my website. #christmas2024 #christmasgift #gardeningvoucher #experiencevouchers #enchantedgardenskent #gardenvoucher #alternativechristmaspresent #whitstablekent
I am so sad to read this, an environmental catastrophe ignored for many months by those who are supposed to be protecting these Site's of Special Scientific Interest. 😢
Good morning everyone! Following on from my 'Good Predators' videos last week I wanted to share with you some more information about the Lacewing hibernation chambers I mentioned. I will have them in stock on the website very soon so please look out for that! If you have any questions about this I will be happy to answer them, just drop me a email or give me a call! Thank you 🐝 #lacewing #hybernationchamber #lacewinghybernation #wintergardening #enchantedgardenskent #enchantedgardens #whitstablekent
Happy morning! This is the last video in the series I have posted following on from my talk at the Sunken Garden Society. Here I share with you my top 7 good predators that you can find in your garden to help keep pests at bay without having to using harmful sprays. I will then be posting a video talking more about the Lacewing hybernation chambers, so look out for that! Thank you for watching 🐝 #enchantedgardenskent #pollinatorfriendly #naturalgardening #Gardeningtips #nature #NaturalGardening #gardeninglife #Organicnursery #biodiversity #goodpredators #ladybirdlarve #piratebug #hoverfly #lacewing #spiders #parasiticwasp
Happy morning! Following on from my previous posts about the importance of seed heads to feed our birds, I wanted to talk about the wider implications of the declining numbers of our insects and pollinators. This year the numbers are low. It is important to understand that if there are no insects then there is no food for birds, if there are no birds this has an impact on mammals that would usually feed on birds. There is a natural rhythm that is being disrupted, it is really important to protect the systems in place by good gardening! Donna x x x
Halloween 'traditions' are Horrifying 🎃 Each year around 22.2 MILLION pumpkins go to waste 😱 PLEASE think before you buy a pumpkin for each member of your family that will simply end up in landfill producing toxic waste. Pumpkins are not a natural food for our wildlife either. The dumping of pumpkins in our woodland by good willing members of the public can have devastating consequences, as identified by The Woodland Trust. Hubbub an environmental charity suggests decorating your pumpkin instead of carving it so that it can be eaten afterward. Why not decorate 1 pumpkin with the whole family and bring back apple bobbing! The tradition of my childhood was carving turnips and they were never wasted! This culture of throwing away and letting the carved pumpkins rot is truly HORRIFYING ☠🎃 #foodwaste #halloween
Happy morning everyone! Another article I would like to share with you all...... AND we have Shrill and Brown-banded Carder bees on the pasture too!!!!! We have spotted so many of these beautiful bees on the pasture this year and as you can see from my videos, I get very excited (and distracted) when I see one 🐝 But we still need to do more, the numbers are still too low... The Shrill Carder bee loves white Nettle, Hedge Woundwort, Black Horehound, and legumes such as Red Clover, Birds-Foot Trefoil, and Meadow Vetchling. Every garden should have something to help the declining numbers of UK bee species!
Happy Friday! Just a quick video talking about how easy it is to collect FREE seed from your very own garden to sow and plant next year! Dried plants and seed heads are also a great center piece for your Christmas table so do make use of what you have in your gardens, it can be so beautiful! Happy gardening 🙂 #enchantedgardenskent #garden #pollinatorfriendly #alternativegardening #naturalgardening #seedhead #collectingseed #sowingseeds
Happy Wednesday! I wanted to share with you this hopeful article to highlight the importance of our Wild Service Trees! Here on the pasture, we have our own service trees and I will definitely be collecting their seed and growing the babies ready for future planting. As stated in the article, trees are an ecosystem within themselves and support a whole range of insects and mammals. Not forgetting the lichen and mosses on trees that have entire little ecosystems surrounding their survival. A brilliant scheme in Denbighshire!
Plant of the Month for October 🍁 Viburnum Opulus Roseum Commonly known as 'The Snow Ball Bush' - the white golf ball sized flowers in the summer are white and just look stunning. After flowering I can prune Roseum down to whatever size I want her to be, then in the Autumn turning a brilliant vibrant red, such a pop of colour in your garden this time of year 😍 When flowering they are prone to #blackfly and #aphids, now I don't mind as it feeds my population of "Helpers", plus the shrub itself is very pretty. This is a sterile plant, which means that I am growing it for its susceptibility for pests, which may sound a little strange, but it is this fact that I am #helpingtheinsects, not the normal "Food" plants that I have. I hope that this shows you to not just have #foodplants, but to have a huge #BioDiversity of plants and shrub. #viburnumopulusroseum #autumn #plantofthemonth #snowballbush #magenta #red #biodiversity #nature #enchantedgardenskent #organicgardening #Organicnursery #Gardeningtips #NaturalGardening #whitstablekent #gardeninglife #enchantedgardens
THE IMPORTANCE OF SEED HEADS I would like to show my beautiful seed heads at this time of year. As you know I don’t cut the pasture or my plants and so there is a whole season in which our seed eating birds can still find plenty to eat as the winter approaches. Gaining enough body weight at this time of year is very important after the hectic business of building #nests (sometimes more than once) raising their #chicks, and feeding chicks to fledge. In September I noticed regular large flocks of #Goldfinch rising from the pasture as I walk down to the office every morning, and this is wonderful to see – I did not have them last year as I had cut one third down to establish my plant species in different areas. We have so many seed eaters that need seed heads right now; Blue/Great/longtailed and Coal tits, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock and of course Wood Pigeon and Doves. Please don’t cut ALL your perennials down to tidiness – I know it will change your gardens appearance, but make an effort to leave seed-heads and take the reward of being indoors with a lovely cuppa to watch which feathered visitors you find. Gardeners are kind folk, providing an ample supply of bird seed to support our birds with feeders. However, there are un-intended negative side effects to this practice; like increased rat populations, bullying of small birds by Corvids and Gulls, and reduced natural foraging in grey squirrels. Additionally, it may disrupt breeding patterns and put nests at risk from local cats. It's important to consider these issues. Feeding, is very important for survival rates during the winter, but please do so in sensible proportions. Happy gardening! #NaturalGardening #pollinatorfriendly #enchantedgardenskent #polinatorgarden #organicgardening #conservation #wildlife #Gardeningtips #Organicnursery #cardoon #teasle #napweed #seedhead #birds #seedeatingbirds #goldfinch
Happy morning everybody! 🍁 I have had a few enquiries about Christmas wreath making workshops, and unfortunately this year I will NOT be able to facilitate the workshops. Please Read below: I am still renovating and working on the New Enchanted Gardens site. I have been working for 2 years now and although I have completed many renovations, until I can renovate the last of the old barns, I can only give workshops during the spring and summer from my wonderful WW2 Tent which is so brilliant, in the lower pasture. It’s just too wet and windy for marquees this time of year. So I am sorry to say I can’t offer workshops during the Autumn and Wintertime this year. I will be open from April 2025 with so many exciting things to offer! Thank you all for your patience and continued support. Donna x x x
Aster - Ingas Swedish Treasure 🌸💜🐝 As you would have seen in the video last week, as we were filming a hungry Shrill Carder Bee stopped by this gorgeous flower to have its lunch, so glad we caught this on camera and managed to get some brilliant photos to share with you all!! #enchantedgardenskent #pollinatorfriendly #NaturalGardening #aster #latefloweringperennials #shrillcarder #shrillcarderbee #pollinators #organicgardening #asteringasswedishtreasure
Happy Friday everybody! This is a plant given to us by our dear friend Inga. Apparently she dug up roots from her sisters garden in Sweden 20 years ago and planted it in her allotment to feed pollinators and increase vegetable production. In 2018 we found so many of our famous Shrill Carder Bees feeding on this really tall daisy we knew it was worthy of cuttings and potting and have a good stock (and they still love it as you can see in the video). It does not need staking and is invaluable for late summer flowers, up to 5 feet. They are just simple daisies that give an enormous amount of structure and colour to the garden at the end of the summer when other perennials are fading with the autumn weather. We use them to ensure that there is no pollinator starvation gap no matter what summer we have had they are really reliable. Put them in your gardens! You can find them on my website enchantedgardens.co.uk #enchantedgardenskent #pollinatorfriendly #NaturalGardening #aster #asteringasswedishtreasure #shrillcarderbee #shrillcarder #beefood #polinatorgarden
Happy morning everybody! I wanted to share some information with you about the use of Fungicides in our gardens, to help you make an informed choice when you are buying such things! What I would say, is we all roll our sleeves up and go back to 'traditional' gardening, where you would remove leaves with black spot, fungus and powdery mildew and dispose of them correctly. I hope you enjoy the video, do your own research and consider how essential the use of these chemicals are in your own garden. Happy gardening! Donna x x x #enchantedgardenskent #fungus #fungicide #chemicals #pesticides #NaturalGardening #ecofriendly #blackspot #powderymildew #organic #pollinatorfriendly
Plant of the Month: September Rudbeckia ☀ -Goldstrum -Laciniata -Maxima Such a ray of sunshine in the latter of our summer months when most of our other plants have already had their moment! Not only are they great for our pollinators, with inviting their bright yellow petals. Their seed heads are also a great source of food for our birds in the autumn. Put them in your gardens! #plantofthemonth #rudbeckia #rudbeckiagoldsturm #pollinatorfriendly #pollinatorfriendlygardening #enchantedgardenskent
Update Video: Finished protecting the area for the wild Adder snakes and slow worms One of the last update videos for you all, as from the previous video we were just about to put up the green screen to separate this wild area that has been untouched (and it will stay so) for probably 25 years. A precious habitat for our wildlife which I am protecting! Thank you for watching 😀 Donna x x x #wildlife #nature #conservation #enchantedgardenskent #addersnake #slowworm
Update Video : Creating a bed around the old Hawthorn Tree This is a round up video of start to finish of creating a bed around the old Hawthorn Tree, it was a lot of work and I am knackered but so pleased with how it has turned out. It goes to show what you can achieve even in a small area! Enjoy 😀 Donna x x x
We have been working on some of the last little projects down at EG before we are ready to open our doors! Here we have been putting up some hemp rope as a form of trellace to make a beautiful screen. I am finally releasing a Solanum Crispum Glasnevin from the pot and plastic ties it came in and can't wait to watch how she grows beautifully on the rope, Its going to be magnificant! Thank you for watching, more update videos to come! #nature #Gardeningtips #Pollinatorfriendly #whitstablekent #Organicnursery #gardeninglife #naturalgardening #enchantedgardenskent #enchantedgardens #solanum #hemprope #alternativegardening
Happy morning, everybody! 🌾☀️ I wanted to give you a morning perspective on the pasture and talk about how we are all encouraged to leave our gardens and 'meadows' wild! If we are to truly lend our gardens, however big or small, to the wildlife around us, then should we ever cut it back or mow it down? After all, precious eggs laid by insects will be all over my pasture.... Some food for thought this morning! I hope you all enjoy the video 💚 #wildlife #nature #enchantedgardenskent #conservation #teasel #gardeninglife #whitstablekent #Pollinatorfriendly #Organicnursery #Biodiversity #wildmeadow #butterflyconservation #ecosystem #naturalhabbit #naturalgardening #Nomow #meadow #wildflower #gardeningadvice #Gardeningtips
We have started to work on this wild area in a little corner that lays behind the original Hawthorn Tree. It is important to keep this area wildlife-friendly for our Adder snakes and slowworms that may be living there, and appropriately cordon it off to protect the public! Keep an eye out for more progress videos! #wildlife #nature #conservation #enchantedgardenskent #addersnake #slowworm
Hello everyone! As I have left the pasture to grow I have had this beautiful Teasel shoot up and I am so happy to have an abundance of these on the pasture. With its iridescent and shiny scales, it is a statement plant to put in any garden! This is a hardy biennial plant so it flowers every other year. Teasel is probably best known for its brown, prickly stems and conical seed heads, which persist long after the plants themselves have died back for the winter, we love them for their architectural value, but we like to leave all the decorative seed heads where they grow for as long as possible. In summer when teasels are in flower, the spiky flower heads are mostly green with rings of purple flowers. The conical flowerheads of this tall native are loved by bees, while the seedheads, which last well after the flowers have faded, are sought-after by goldfinches (and florists). A robust plant, it is a common site in grassland or roadside verges, where it will flourish in a wide range of soils. Put them in your gardens! #teasel #enchantedgardenskent #wildlife #nature #sparrows #goldfinches #birdseed #iridescent
Helping our pollinating insects keep cool 🐝🦋💦 As of recent temperatures, it has been difficult to keep ourselves cool, and staying hydrated is most important. We then have to consider what it is like for our busy pollinating insects; bees, butterflies, hoverflies, wasps, and beetles. Bees have a fury coat which would normally regulate their temperatures in our moderate climate, but with temperatures rising, they need our help more than ever. Bees need water to dilute their hunny and cool down their nests' temperature. Create your own mini oasis for them by filling a shallow dish with pebbles and stones so that they have a place to land as they CANNOT swim so please be mindful or they will drown. This is an easy and simple way to help and a brilliant activity to do with children. #bee #pollinator #saveourbees #waterforbees #waterforpollinator #nature #enchantedgardens #conservation #organic #wildlife
Happy morning everybody, Another update video for you! As you will remember from the video series 'Uncovering Rare Tree', the Hybrid Hawthorn tree has recovered well from all its surgery and has produced lots of new growth, hurray! Enjoy the video 😄 Donna x x x #enchantedgardenskent #Organicnursery #whitstablekent #Nature #whitstable #Wildlife #updatevideo #pruning #ancienttree #raretree #hawthorn
My #Cardoon is blooming marvelous right now! Growing up to 8 feet tall, a self pollinating plant which of course with it's huge purple thistle like flowers attract lots of our pollinators. The flower heads are also a great source of food in the Autumn for our birds to feed on! #pollinator #bee #pollinatorfriendly #organicnursery #organicgrowing #whitstablekent #Enchantedgardenskent #happygardening #gardeninglife #Whitstable #Conservation #Nature
It was my absolute privilege to be part of creating this memorial garden.I have sought permission from the school to be able to show you this. Ladybirds often garden with parts off the garden being created for a memorial of a beloved family member or pet, and this has always been so. Gardening is acknowledging the frailty off life and the celebration of having those we love around us. Thank you for Whitstable Junior School for inviting me to be part of this 💚
Happy Morning everybody, Dont Panic!! I have to say, that the UK is still to my dismay, using particularly serious agrochemicals. Which causes substantial and significant destruction of pollinating insects. In spite of all the good news perpetrated by the government and media, so much more could be done for the sake of our own health as well as my beloved pollinating insects. Given the recent flooded winter and flooded spring, the impact on our pollinators is noticeable. All I can say is, watch this video, stay calm, keep doing what you're doing, and keep growing what you're growing. Every time you choose not to spray in your gardens, every time you cut your lawn 1 inch higher, and every time you choose to buy organic food, you are helping, and if copious amounts of alcohol help then go ahead I will not judge you! Donna x x x #whitstablekent #organicgardening #conservation #organicgrowing #enchantedgarden #uk #weather #pollinators #pollinatorfriendly #ecosystem #butterflyconservation #Nomow
Pasture update from Donna 🌾🌸🌱 What is looking good through June and into July! Enjoy the video and stay tuned for more updates 😃 Happy gardening 🐝 #pollinatorfriendly #EnchantedGardens #enchantedgardenskent #naturalhabbit #happygardening #whitstablekent #organicgrowing #Nomow #naturalgardening #biodiversity #buddleia #malva #meadow #wildflower
