Head Gardener’s Blog: Scottish Climate Week

Head gardener Tim discusses some of the biodiversity work our garden and estate team are up to and the impact climate has on our natural environment at Abbotsford this Scottish Climate Week.

We’re working to enhance areas of wildflowers and natural habitats for wildlife and pollinating insects at Abbotsford. We leave areas to naturalise allowing wildflowers to seed and spread, this in turn provides habitats for insects such as moths and butterflies to lay their eggs and we record insect numbers, which shows us if our estate management is providing such habitats.

There has been a dramatic decline in butterfly numbers across the UK this year, some areas reporting a 14 year low. This has been reflected in the numbers recorded at Abbotsford. A combination of factors has caused such a dramatic drop in numbers. 

A mild and very wet winter gave way to heavy spring rainfall and the summer temperatures have been lower than average. Butterflies are reliant on warm and sheltered conditions, which we haven't seen this year.

In the Abbotsford gardens we grow a wide variety of flowering annuals which usually attract a wide range of pollinators, with large numbers of bees and butterflies. However, this year the butterflies just haven’t appeared, usually August into September plants are covered in Red Admiral butterflies, this year there have been none.

The cold weather in late spring and into early summer slowed plant growth down, meaning that many flowers appeared late. These flowers would usually provide a habitat for pollinators.

A lack of insects has a massive impact on ecosystems, especially food chains with caterpillars being a source of food for fledgling birds in the spring. Throughout the summer there has been a drop in aphid numbers. Great for the gardener as it means less pests. However, the aphids play an important part of the garden bird food supply. Birds are number one for natural pest control and reductions in insect numbers could lead to less visits from garden birds as they source food elsewhere. This highlights the need to encourage birds into the garden, by supplying appropriate food, so they return and feed naturally on insects.

As we’ve seen this year, the weather can have a huge impact on biodiversity and ecosystems which is why the work we do to monitor and encourage biodiversity at Abbotsford is so important.

Tim’s tips to encourage biodiversity in your garden in the coming months: Leave herbaceous plants over the winter months to provide wildlife habitats and shelter, cut down in early spring. Leaving the seeds on herbaceous plants will provide a food source for wildlife. Create small log piles in unused corners of the garden these along with leaf piles will provide some winter shelter.