A short walk in London
Bloomfield Garden
A small community garden by the canal, looked after by a local school and Plant Environment.
Standing in the place, open the portal and a guide walks it with you, about 10 minutes, spoken aloud. The facts it rests on are here.
3 spots in walking order, about 10 minutes. 2 of them have something to ask this week.
Three short stops, in any order. Every stop is something you can find from the paths.
Spot 1
The flower beds
Wherever something is still in flower.
Nothing to ask here this week. The question at this spot is about marmalade hoverfly, and it opens again in week 36 of the year.
Spot 2
The seed heads
Any flower that has finished and turned brown on its stem.
Catch the seed heads before the birds empty them
Look for a flower that has finished and turned brown on its stem. Bend close without picking it. Look into the middle, where the petals used to be, and see what is left there now.
What do you find on the seed head?
- Seeds still packed in
- Not ripe yet, or not found yet. Birds come back for these as autumn goes on.
- Mostly empty
- Something got there first. Wind, birds and small mammals all take seed heads apart.
- A bird or insect on it
- That is the point of leaving them. A finished flower is food and shelter.
- I could not find any seed heads
- Some gardens cut flowers back as they finish, so there is nothing left standing to find.
Gardeners who leave seed heads standing are feeding the garden through the winter.
This is a clue rather than a certain answer. You cannot always tell who emptied a seed head.
Hollow stems left standing give insects somewhere to spend the winter. Goldfinches pick seeds from teasels and thistles, and their thin beaks are made for it. Many gardeners now wait until spring to cut the old stems down, so the garden keeps its winter food.
Common in London in these weeks, though not recorded at this exact spot.
Source: Royal Horticultural Society, winter seedheads; RSPB, leave seedheads standing; Woodland Trust, goldfinch
Spot 3
The round webs
Hedges, fences and the gaps between tall plants.
Spot the round webs that are everywhere now
Look along hedges, fences and between tall plants. Move your head until the light is behind the web, and the silk shows. When you find one, follow the threads to the spider.
Where is the spider?
- Right in the middle of the web
- Waiting at the centre, head down, feeling for the web to shake.
- Hiding at the edge
- It is still on duty. A signal thread runs from the web to its hiding place.
- I found a web but no spider
- It may be close by in a curled leaf. Or the web is old and has been left.
- I could not find a round web
- Webs are easiest to see early in the day, when dew or low light catches the silk.
Garden spiders grow through the summer and are largest in autumn. That is why their webs suddenly seem to be everywhere.
This is a clue rather than a certain identification. Several kinds of spider build round webs.
A garden spider has a pale cross on its back, and it weaves a fresh web through the night. Most hatched in spring and lay their eggs in the autumn. The eggs wait through the winter and hatch when the weather warms.
Common in London in these weeks, though not recorded at this exact spot.
Source: Woodland Trust, garden spider; British Arachnological Society, garden spider
Rewyld asks you one of these where you already are. Open Rewyld
Where this comes from
- Garden and stewardship details from Plant Environment's case for support and Edward Wilson Primary's letter of support (Cited, not reproduced)
Each question was written to a naturalist review, and the ones that could not be stood behind at this site were cut rather than softened. Every question asks you to look, never to pick or to touch.