Wildlife gardening: stealth mode! Sometimes it’s counterproductive to mention wildlife gardening not everyone is ready for it but we can do it anyway. Sneaking native plants, leave Wild bits at the back, a pile of sticks behind the shed, a Belfast sink in the bed. 🌱🦋🌎

I used natural borders for pathways so the logs & branches lying in leaf litter provided homes for insects that fed other wildlife. I guess that’s more broadly appealing than leaving the spiders and webs hanging for birds 🙊 I’ve met a few of my ‘garden as habitat’ goals this year ☺️ yay 🙌.

Wildlife gardening: stealth mode! Sometimes it’s counterproductive to mention wildlife gardening not everyone is ready for it but we can do it anyway. Sneaking native plants, leave Wild bits at the back, a pile of sticks behind the shed, a Belfast sink in the bed. 🌱🦋🌎

A massive old oak, wrapped in ivy, down by the shores of Bantry Bay, West Cork. So many people still believe ivy is a 'parasite', or 'kills trees', but in Europe it's a natural and vital part of forest ecosystems, providing food, shelter, and cover to a great range of wildlife.

(In some other parts of the world, ivy is a hugely problematic non-native invasive species.)

Please repost/tag your “green” friends. I will gift the ebook to one person who reposts today. I hear it’s a good read :-).

In case you’re after some reading, #GhostsoftheFarm (here in #BBCCountryfile) is a book that revealed itself in filmic, elegiac, dusty light, & haunted me. God I'd love to see this as a film. I can see my forgotten women, zipping each other into dresses, forsaking breeches, to gales of laughter.

On the fourth day of Christmas the winds may bring to you a migrant #ShortEaredOwl - just the time they may be arriving on our coasts after their long journey. Here's a little tale about two we saw around new year this year. #Owls #TheCompanyOfOwls #TweetOfTheDay www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Did u know? The next big event, eagerly anticipated, in the wildlife garden is frog & toad mating season. All eyes will be on my wildlife ponds (no fish in them)from Jan-March. I'm so excited to see the writhing gatherings of randy "ribbets" & then those tell-tale beautiful blobs of spawn. 🌿🌱🇬🇧🌱🌍🐸🦎

When’s the last time you saw a hedgehog? 🦔 Their numbers are falling, so I just signed a petition to make hedgehog highways - tiny gaps in fences to help them - mandatory in ALL new builds. Add your name: 38d.gs/72vc?utm_cam... 🦔

Please repost/tag your “green” friends. I will gift the ebook to one person who reposts today. I hear it’s a good read :-).

Blissfully relaxed Boxing Day morning, watching tits visit the bird feeder opposite the kitchen window while I read @drmjwarren.bsky.social wonderful ‘The Cuckoo’s Lea’ 🐦🐦🐦

Got an Amazon voucher still unspent? 🎁📚 Nature’s Acre is my Irish garden memoir: spring 2020, wildlife moving in, neighbours showing up, and what a small patch of land can do to a mind. Ebook mybook.to/wFA3fQ1 Paperback mybook.to/3MZxFf #IrishGardening #NatureWriting #WildlifeGardening

Star plants #6 Sunflower Helianthus annuus Tall annual with large, daisy-like flower heads that track the sun and pour energy into seeds for birds, people and soil life. gardeningwell.ie/sunflower

Star plants #6 Sunflower Helianthus annuus Tall annual with large, daisy-like flower heads that track the sun and pour energy into seeds for birds, people and soil life. gardeningwell.ie/sunflower

Got an Amazon voucher still unspent? 🎁📚 Nature’s Acre is my Irish garden memoir: spring 2020, wildlife moving in, neighbours showing up, and what a small patch of land can do to a mind. Ebook mybook.to/wFA3fQ1 Paperback mybook.to/3MZxFf #IrishGardening #NatureWriting #WildlifeGardening

Season’s Greetings from Santa’s grotto!

📚

Merry Christmas!

📚

Merry Christmas!

Just had some visitors up the driveway. These are two of three coyotes that came by a few minutes ago. The the second photo is one that almost came right up the driveway, but saw me in the window and turned around. Always a treat to see them. #mammals 🌿

Jaysus that was a day and a half. Lovely, lovely buzz in the shop, overwhelmed by all the good wishes. Finally got to see the paper and mixed feelings that a photo from 15+ years ago was used - I look so young!

If we're to turn the tide on nature loss, we're going to need a government that treats it with the level of priority that was given to holding on to the nitrates derogation www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

I’m dying (not literally) to hear what people think of my book. Those of you that have read it please send me your thoughts or review it on Amazon or here. 🙏

Star plants #5 Wild Teasel. A tall, spiny biennial with striking seed heads and leaf-cups that hold rainwater: a sculptural presence in the garden and a magnet for birds and insects. 🌱🦋🌎 gardeningwell.ie/wild-teasel

Star plants #5 Wild Teasel. A tall, spiny biennial with striking seed heads and leaf-cups that hold rainwater: a sculptural presence in the garden and a magnet for birds and insects. 🌱🦋🌎 gardeningwell.ie/wild-teasel

I should really say my book isn’t really about giving people gardening advice although there is some gardening it actually quite a lot. It’s more about life the universe and everything really.

My book I'm speaking about is The Need for Green. It is about an autistic girl in her own world and a curious little girl who wonders about her. For more information on my book, visit my site at writinginkrashin.com.

I’m dying (not literally) to hear what people think of my book. Those of you that have read it please send me your thoughts or review it on Amazon or here. 🙏

Yes, this is a gardener promoting ivy for your garden. If you like your gardening advice slightly sideways, you’ll enjoy my book Nature’s Acre — expect the unexpected. www.amazon.ie/Natures-Acre...

Can you drive in the dark and rain, reversing the car to do a turnabout say and listen to helpful instructions from your passenger on what to do at the same time? Is it just me who can’t? #actuallyautistic

#naturewriting #booksky 🌱🦋🌎 Grab it here: Ebook mybook.to/wFA3fQ1 Paperback mybook.to/3MZxFf

A highlight for me this year was the launch of @rewildyourland.bsky.social and I met dozens of people across Ireland who are already enjoying the thrill of rewilding. There are more plans in the pipeline so here's hoping that 2026 will see rewilding go from strength to strength in Ireland!

Star plants #4, another unsung hero: Ivy (Hedera helix) Offers cover for birds and insects and food just when they need it. #wildlifegardening #naturewriting #biodiversity gardeningwell.ie/ivy

Star plants #4, another unsung hero: Ivy (Hedera helix) Offers cover for birds and insects and food just when they need it. #wildlifegardening #naturewriting #biodiversity gardeningwell.ie/ivy

Just me, the tree and my book! :-)

@irishrainforest.bsky.social doing God's work on the Beara Peninsula. My grandfather and 1000s more emigrated from Beara to the Butte, MT mines in early 1900s. He took up bootlegging instead. Took $ back & moved the family north to easier farming in County Meath www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Star plants #3, an unsung hero: Pleated inkcap mushroom (Parasola plicatilis) Like all fungi, vital for releasing nutrients from decomposing matter for plants to use. #gardening #naturewriting #biodiversity gardeningwell.ie/pleated-inkcap

Add Nature’s Acre to your list with other lovely nature books like The Hare’s Corner by Catherine Cleary & @janeclarke.bsky.social and Donna Mullen’s Make Your Home a Nature Reserve! #speirgorm @laibluesky.bsky.social @rickoshea.bsky.social

If you’re looking for a Xmas present for a loved one who is in to nature/gardening/both I would highly recommend Nature’s Acre by @gardeningwell.ie It resonated with my experience with @connectingcabra.bsky.social of communities coming together to preserve nature & build connection. Lovely stuff!

Sorry, I forgot the picture. It’s been a long day. The pleated inkcap Mushroom, an unsung hero.

#naturewriting #booksky 🌱🦋🌎 Grab it here: Ebook mybook.to/wFA3fQ1 Paperback mybook.to/3MZxFf

If you have read it and liked it please tell your friends :-).

Nature’s Acre is my Irish gardening memoir: wildlife, neighbours, and recovery with soil under fingernails. Grab it: Ebook mybook.to/wFA3fQ1 Paperback mybook.to/3MZxFf

Star plants #3, an unsung hero: Pleated inkcap mushroom (Parasola plicatilis) Like all fungi, vital for releasing nutrients from decomposing matter for plants to use. #gardening #naturewriting #biodiversity gardeningwell.ie/pleated-inkcap

Just me, the tree and my book! :-)

Just me, the tree and my book! :-)

Star Plants: #2 Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) 🌱🌎🦋 gardeningwell.ie/nettle