Two hundred

Believe it or not, this marks the blog's 200th post. A lot has changed on the property since we started the project just over three years ago. The garden had been neglected for many years, and was little more than a few scattered trees and some overgrown shrubs (none particularly good for wildlife) with a scruffy lawn and a giant pile of woodchips left from a recently-removed Leylandii hedge. Here was the first bed we planted, the first year we lived here. We'd had to whack back a lot of very vigorous Greater Periwinkle (Vinca major) before we started.

And here's that same bed today, though from somewhat a different angle; needless to say, things have filled in a bit! The number of pollinators we get these days can be truly awe-inspiring. Mike counted 25 Peacocks on one Buddleia bush the other day (53 in the whole garden), for example. Our Elegant Deutzia (Deutzia x elegantissima) hosts hundreds of bumblebees at a time when it's flowering, and we regularly see uncountable swarms of hoverflies.

Mike's been hard at work establishing new beds as well, and they've come along leaps and bounds this year. These are on the shadier side of the garden and contain plants that can tolerate a bit less sun. The Common Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) were particularly spectacular this year.

And of course, this year we finally added the longed-for pond, which has brought a whole host of new additions to the garden. As the movie tagline says "If you build it, they will come!" Among our favourites have been the plethora of dragonflies and damselflies that have chosen to lay their eggs here, and the baby Smooth Newts slowly growing to adulthood among the water plants.

We're creeping up on 1200 identified species for the property, with plenty of photographed 'mystery guests' still to puzzle out. We've even started to tackle some of the trickier groups, like aphids and woodlice. We hope you'll continue to share the journey with us. As I said in our 100th post, there's still plenty more to discover out there!