The Garden Blog

The 10th Bee and Pollination Festival!

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Alice Maltby

So much is happening in the exciting world of pollinators at the moment. Even wasps have employed a new public relations team to promote their cause! Their key message is sacrifice a bit of your picnic to save the planet! One of the best news stories this year was that even though Notre Dame suffered that terrible fire, the bees in the three hives on the roof were unharmed.

2019’s Bee and Pollination Festival takes place this weekend (Saturday 31st August and Sunday 1st September_will be the best ever. Now in its tenth year the event has become an important feature in the south west’s horticultural, beekeeping and wildlife calendar. (more…)

Let’s hear it for social media…

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Andy Winfield

Communication is easier than it has ever been…

Media has changed dramatically in recent years, we’re inundated with news of the world and images of the lives of people we don’t know promoting lifestyles that are unattainable for most of us. This can lead to a slump in self-worth but nevertheless an irresistible urge to keep looking at the unrelenting sea of information.  Social media is unavoidable today; some of you may be reading this through a social media app, and undoubtably a high percentage of you will have one or more accounts with a platform or two. It is said that on average users worldwide spend over two hours a day on social media; this will continue to be an upward trend and communicating this way has become the norm for many. Whatever anyone thinks about social media, it is here to stay. There has been much written about the negative effects, fear of missing out, peer pressure, trolling and spread of misinformation to name a few, and while these effects are undeniable, I think that social media can be a place of inspiration and discovery. (more…)

Climate crisis

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Andy Winfield

Towards the end of June I went to France for a two week holiday; it was beautiful with diverse landscape, plant life and wildlife causing me to spend large amounts of time tip toeing through meadows looking at the ground in the early evenings. It was also very hot. It was the hottest recorded temperature in France and was a struggle to do very much at all during the day. I found the heat intimidating particularly with the growing realisation with nearly everyone, that these temperatures are going to become the norm. Experiencing the high temperatures that we did was a real wake up call and not a little scary. A few degrees higher and it would have been impossible to even go outside let alone the slow trudging that we did manage before finding some way to stop our blood rising above 37 degrees. (more…)

The Botanic Garden and D-Day

Posted on by andy.winfield

 

By Andy Winfield

This week the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day was observed in Northern France by veterans, world leaders and politicians. Even though the second world war was so long ago, its echoes still reverberate. The operation needed 156,000 troops with 73,000 from the US. So, in the lead up to the invasion, thousands of American GIs were stationed across the South West and many throughout the areas of Bristol. (more…)