Anyone see Kate Bradbury and her pond on Gardeners World tonight?

 One of my guilty pleasures is Gardeners World, an hour of pure escapism on a Friday night. Being in a wheelchair 🦼 I can no longer garden as I would like but those of you who know me will remember my description of how Heather and I garden now : I supply the brains and Heather supplies the brawn. Heather is a reluctant gardener and I am a reluctant disabled man! Recently I bought a special offer from Sutton seeds of 200 summer bulbs 💡 as you can imagine Heather was delighted 😁  Well let’s get back to tonight’s edition of Gardeners World. Monty Don has taught me almost everything I know about gardening (not strictly true) and I try and watch Gardeners World whenever it is on.  

Tonight’s episode (yesterday’s episode now 🤣) had Kate Bradbury on talking about her Brighton garden in lockdown. Kate is passionate about wildlife gardening and I can recommend her books as great places to discover the joy of gardening for wildlife. The first of her books I read was https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-bumblebee-flies-anyway-9781472943125/

I loved her honesty and her helping ways to invite birds and insects into what began as a wildlife desert. She is a wonderful writer and has written some other books about ways to enable the birds and the bees 🐝 visit and establish homes in our gardens. One of the absolute best ways to encourage insects and birds into a space is a pond! I know that can sound kinda scary it I’m not talking about the Serpentine in Hyde park but any kind of container from an upturned dustbin lid or a semi submerged washing up bowl up to a full on deep hole dug with different tiers and a beach, or anything in between. The RSPB in their adverts say “if you build it they will come” 

I know it is true because the more wildlife stuff I build in my own garden some creatures move in. Kate has recently written a book about how you can build a pond or should I say dig a pond? Kate has been promoting ponds in gardens for years. I discovered some YouTube videos Kate did a few years back and when learning about the pond videos I discovered that she has just written a book RHS How to Create a Wildlife Pond 

As I said earlier providing a pond is possibly the best thing to do to bring wildlife into your garden so I recon reading Kates book will be the best thing you can do if you want a pond . Good luck 🤞 👍

Kate Bradbury the Wildlife Gardener

I have just finished this wonderful book. Gardening for wildlife is one of life's joys. Seeing birds visit your bird table or watching them flit to handle from feeders is for me better watching than most things on the television. Personally I have been a bird watcher from an early age and still remember receiving a copy of the Observer book of Birds at around age of seven and I had a vast array of wildlife books around that time from aunts and uncles. Now at the tender age of 62 I still  enjoy watching birds and although I cannot get into our garden anymore (wheelchairs don't negotiate steps) I give the odd direction to the wife. We both like to see nature flourishing and Kate Bradbury has written this wonderful book to help and encourage even the most timorous of gardeners.
The photographs are excellent and are all in glorious colour. The text is written for the beginner as well as the expert. The cover has a quote from Alan Tichmarsh describing it as "a joyous book" which is praise indeed.

I recently also read The Bumblebee Flies Anyway: A Year of Gardening and wildlife also written by Kate Bradbury. So if you really want a wildlife fest go get a copy or do as I did and order it from  your local Library. Kate is a good writer and draws you into her wild(life) world. She writes for several publications Gardeners world Magazine (BBC)  the Sunday Times The Guardian RHS Magazine and many others,