Let the flowers grow!

Leave some areas of grass to grow longer, says Val, and you’ll see an increase in wildflowers and wildlife

- Val Bourne

GARDENERS are an altruistic and resourceful lot, and I expect that most of you have risen to the challenge of spending rather more time at home than you usually do. Having a hobby helps enormously when you’re confined to barracks and there’s always something to do in a garden.

The Best Beloved and I have been tackling the ground elder that has crept through the wall and overtaken one border, infiltrating ferns and clumps of bulbs. Unfortunately, it travels further underground in mild winters like the one we’ve just had. We’ll never eradicate it, but we might yet eat some!

We’ve all got more time to watch the bees and smell the flowers at the moment and our areas of longer grass are fascinating. I started to make wilder areas about 12 years ago after being inspired by the longer grass in the National Trust’s gardens. The decision to cut down on mowing was financial, but the NT immediately noticed an increase in wildlife. Wildflowers returned, because many seeds were in the seed bank, and a lot of plants that were shorn off regularly took on a new lease of life. Bees and butterflies increased and insects had somewhere to roost and shelter. I simply copied the National Trust.