For conservation gardeners such as ourselves the sight of a diversity and abundance of butterflies (and moths) is part of the gardening experience, but 2008 is looking to be a butterfly-free year.

Spring and early summer 2007 was especially wet, with serious flooding affecting virtually the whole country. Thankfully few humans lost their lives in the deluge but the early year butterflies did not fare as well. Butterflies do not fly in the rain, making it impossible for them to reach the plants on whose nectar they feed. Heavy rain also means they are unable to breed. Numbers of many spring-flying butterfly species are now at an all-time low and several have had their populations all but wiped out.

It was therefore important that spring 2008 was bright and cheerful, so allowing some recovery of butterfly population sizes. However it has been rain, rain, rain for much of the spring and we have only glimpsed the odd flying gem. Mind you the flower borders look lush!

Flowery meadows are a major component of our garden. The grasses here grow much less vigorously than in most gardens as we take horticultural steps to reduce the soil fertility and use specific plant parasites to steal their nutrients (a bit similar to the actions of mistletoe). The overall result of such actions is to allow the showy non-grass components of the area to dominate and we generate beautiful flower-filled meadows. These native plants supply quantities of protein-rich pollen and sugar-rich nectar to support our insect populations that give ‘life’ to the whole garden. In a good insect year the garden is thronged with butterflies, day flying moths, grasshoppers and crickets, and myriads of benign flies and beetles.

Whilst our meadows have been lacking in spring insect life we are hopeful of much greater life in summer as last year’s summer breeding season for insects was good.

The Hampshire chalky rivers are renowned for their clarity, excellent trout and salmon fishing and for watercress. Watercress is a natural component of the bankside vegetation and has been grown locally for hundreds of years. Indeed our local preservation railway (Mid-Hampshire Railway, based at Alresford.) is popularly known as The Watercress Line.

The watercress is grown in shallow, gravel filled beds and cropped for much of the year. The water temperature of both the rivers and springs never goes much below 10 degrees and seldom rises in temperature beyond 15 degrees, so giving excellent growing conditions for the plant.

Water quality is something that is taken hugely seriously locally and the watercress growers have to have settlement tanks to ensure that no sediments reach the actual river.

For nature watchers the cress beds are great locations for water birds as the crop hosts myriads of aquatic invertebrates that drive the food chain.

During the last three centuries (late 1700s, 1800s and the first half of the 1900s) our local river valleys were at the centre of an agricultural revolution. Traditionally the chalky hillsides were used for raising sheep, with the flatter parts used for cereals. The snag was that the sheep population was restricted by the availability of late winter and early spring vegetation. Answer: use that warm chalky water that gushes out as springs along the valleys.

The river valleys, and the rivers themselves, were modified to allow the warmish water to periodically flow over the valley bottom and so stimulating an early flush of vegetation. This required quite extensive digging of water channels and the construction of sluices.

The sheep population could now be considerably enhanced due to the extra food in the valleys, then at night they were moved onto the newly sown cereal fields to deposit their droppings (fertilizer) and stimulate greater yields. A genuine agricultural revolution.

Today only a few (conservation) of these water meadows are still working (especially around Salisbury), but their remains are to be seen virtually everywhere.

So I can now link together watercress and water meadows with another love of my life: Steam locomotives! The photograph that accompanies this piece is of Clan Line, a locomotive of which I own a small chunk crossing a viaduct over an old water meadow. Beyond the viaduct is a huge watercress farm.

The higher than average rainfall, coupled with delightful interludes of quite magnificent weather, has caused the flower borders to look quite magical this year. Growth is exuberant and the flowering expressive!

All the trees and shrubs are now in full leaf causing the woodland floor vegetation, in our adjacent woodland, to enter its quiescent phase. The daffodils, bluebells and their like have passed for this year and are slumbering underground.

Our lawns are green and growing so lushly that two cuts a week are needed, but this growth rate will fall away soon as the summer’s heat dries the soil.

Best wishes

David.

© David Beeson