Conservation & Ecology BookReview
Gardening for Butterflies, Bees and other beneficial insects
A how-to guide by Jan Miller-Klein. ISBN 978-0-9555288-0-4 Publisher: Saith Ffynnon Books
As editor of Pitchcare I always enjoy the opportunity of finding new contributors for our magazine, especially when they are specialists in their field.
One of our recent contributors is avid conservationist Jan Miller who, for the last twenty-five years, has devoted her life to the study of butterflies and bees,
The newly created Captain's Avenue Tree Plantation on the 13th hole
Foreland Golf Club, who picked up the 2012 award. Enjoy yourself Dan; you’re in for a memorable year. Finally, a healthy
environment is of the utmost importance to our well-being, and I believe that we should all try do our part, no matter how little we think that may be. At Turton we aim to further our achievements regarding the environmental awards and one of each member of the greenkeeping team will be tackling one of the categories each - turf management, waste, water and nature conservation - in the 2013 awards. Hopefully, we will
improve our performance but, more importantly, I hope that our
achievements will inspire other fellow greenkeepers to follow suit and move the whole golf industry to a more sustainable level.
Antony Wainwright winning the Conservation Greenkeeper of the Year Award award has given the membership a much greater appreciation of the diverse ecology at Turton Golf Club. It has further instilled pride amongst the membership in their immediate environment, as well as pride in their staff. It supports the stewardship principals of course management that the club adopts.
Andy Hurst, Chairman of the Greens
The work that Antony has done, and its recognition through winning the Conservation Greenkeeper of the Year Award for 2011, has opened up a much wider appreciation and understanding of Turton’s unique and characterful course to many members of the Club. Panoramic views and glorious birdsong have been taken for granted by most of us, except perhaps as an ever-present consolation when the game isn’t going well; but we are realising now just how much more there is to learn and to relish about our lovely course, and how fortunate we are to have its stewardship. Golf can and does live in harmony with its surroundings, and each side of the relationship benefits as the strength of this cooperation grows.
Barry and Margaret Ribchester, Turton Golf Club Members.
culminating in the publication of this excellent book that details the lifecycle and habitat of many of our popular butterflies and bees, along with other beneficial insects.
The book illustrates, in vivid colour photographs and diagrams, the lifecycles, habitat and identification of hundreds of British insects. The book comes in a large format, with over 250 pages of information, broken down into colour coded chapters depicting the times of the year and season you might expect to see each species.
The book also details:
- which plants to use - each with big colour photo and common name, as well as the Latin name and growing instructions
- how to identify the most useful and beautiful insects that may come to your garden
- how to make an insectary garden to attract natural pest- predators to your vegetable patch so you don’t have to use pesticides
- designs to copy for borders, patio pots, deep beds in urban settings as well as in the countryside
- creating different habitats like wildflower meadows, green roofs and dragonfly ponds
- appendices of where to find useful societies, websites, suppliers of plants and seeds and lots, lots more!
With a lot of recent attention focused on the current state of the UK’s bee population, the book has a detailed information section on bees, beetles and other beneficial insects which, along with identification tips, also details the ecological roles played by these creatures and myriad ways to encourage them into your garden.
For the more adventurous gardeners, there are sections about creating butterfly banks, green roofs, flowering lawns and essential habitats.
This book would be a valuable tool for any greenkeeper or groundsman who maintains large areas of land, and help them to understand what they can do to attract and maintain beneficial insects in their own working environment.
In short, this is a fantastic book which should be on everyone’s list; a valuable reference to the management of land to sustain many of our wonderful insect species.
You can read Jan Miller’s article on pages 50-53 of this issue.
The 18th as seen from the drive into the club
Gardening for Butterflies, Bees and other beneficial insects is available from all good bookshops and online retailers.
APRIL/MAY 2013 PC 45
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