Little Silver Hedgehog

09/06/2026

One of my most favourite ‘before’ and ‘after’s. These beds are just buzzing and we’ve let some of the glorious vivid purple Hedgerow Cranesbill go wild in here 🌸❤️🌸

05/06/2026

A lovely afternoon in the gravel garden surrounded by bird song including a wonderful Song Thrush! So lucky ❤️

04/06/2026

When it is windy, the hares start to box 😍

02/06/2026

Build it and they will come 😍

We built a 'stoatitat' to try and attract stoats to the garden. We knew there were stoats in the area because we had seen them crossing the road a little further up the hill.

We have a range of log walls in the garden built by the legend that is Phil - nothing dead is ever wasted here. We have some that are beautifully stacked and others that are just big log piles full of holes and crevices. This is the one that is being used by the stoat. It does still actually look beautiful too!

Stoats are incredibly fast and hard to capture on camera but I have increased the sensitivity of the video capture and hope to get more videos soon.

Build it and they will come - I almost promise you! x

01/06/2026

WILD ABOUT WILDLIFE!

It has been a very busy two days.

Yesterday I led a walk around Primrose Wood in Pocklington talking about the history, wildlife, trees and wildflowers. The wood was once part of the estate of Percy and Katherine Stewart (former owners of Burnby Hall Gardens) and our land in Burnby was once part of their estate too. It has been fascinating to learn about the history as part of my research for the walk. I also talked about the railway that once connected Pocklington with York and Beverley that cut through the wood.

Then today Phil and I welcomed a private group from Greener Pocklington and Pocklington University of the 3rd Age. I led a tour around our gardens looking at the work we have done here to create a wildlife haven. We talked about the plants, wildflowers, trees and how to replicate the ideas in your own garden.

I will be leading two more walks this month in Primrose Wood and we are also now ready to welcome group visits to the garden so please do get in touch if you are interested.

We had excellent feedback from both the walk and tour visit and I am thrilled that everyone enjoyed themselves and learnt a little bit too. Thank you so much for joining us. We loved meeting you.

31/05/2026

Summer wildlife open garden - Saturday 11 July 10am to 4pm.

Our last open garden was such a success that we are doing it all again (!) with the chance to see our mini wildflower meadow and prairie planting in full bloom. Get inspiration for how to help wildlife in your own green space.

Visitors can see how we are creating two very distinct wildlife gardens to encourage birds, insects and mammals to thrive. Discover the South garden which is packed with perennial wildflowers and meadow grasses, dead hedges, log walls, a collection of small native trees, insect hotels and a Barn Owl box.

Then explore our North garden which is a climate resilient gravel garden featuring a Victorian glasshouse packed with plants and surrounded by prairie style border planting.

We've been busy creating the wildlife garden over the past 2.5 years. Part of the site was formerly a cattery and kennels. Following the removal of the buildings by hand, in Autumn 2025 over 200 tons of concrete was crushed, some of which has remained on site as the environmentally friendly substrate for the new garden. We have planted over 100 trees and metres of hedging as well as adding planting for birds and pollinators. We won a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Wildlife Gardening Gold Award in 2025 and 2026.

Admission is £5 payable on the gate by cash or Paypal for adults (free for 16 and under) and proceeds will support our next project – the creation of a wildlife friendly pond.

Refreshments and toilets available. Nature jewellery and plant stall. Reading room in the shepherd's hut with books on organic gardening, foraging and more.

For more info and the address please visit: https://littlesilverhedgehog.com/wildlife-garden-open-day-2026/

I have a wildflower and organic plant stall which is also open daily. Please email me [email protected] for info about what is on the stall at the moment.

I am always interested in ideas for collaborations with other green groups and individuals so please do get in touch/come along

28/05/2026

Welcome Cinnabar Moth!

We are delighted to be seeing lots more insects this year due to the huge increase in the number and variety of plants here compared with the last couple of years!

This is the first time we have seen a Cinnabar Moth. I'm sure we would have known if they were here as they are very vivid :-)

These beauties feed on Ragwort and we do allow some Ragwort to grow here. We had a little bit last year but have lots more coming up this year.

It really is delightful to see new things coming to check out our increasingly fabulous home!

How was your Thursday?

26/05/2026

Delighted that more Yellow Rattle is emerging this year.

We already have a very diverse wildflower meadow full of perennial wildflowers and meadow grasses but the Yellow Rattle helps to control the more vigorous ryegrass.

We've worked hard to cultivate it and we have had a lot of questions about meadow planting at our recent open events.

I am thinking of an evening event where we walk the meadow and look at how to create a mini meadow in your own garden and even look at what species in the meadow are edible (with caution of course!). What do you think? Would you join a meadow event?

Delighted also to announce that our next open garden will be on Saturday 11 July 10am to 4pm when the meadow is at its best. Just a wander - the specialist tours and talks will be on another date.

It is also very interesting to see the wildflowers that are coming up naturally in the gravel garden. You might call them weeds but I don't. I love them all (some perhaps in moderation though) and they all have their benefits to wildlife. There was a little bit of soil underneath some of the concrete that we were able to use for the beds so it gives a good idea of what the original seed bank of the garden was back in the 1950s....

Happy Tuesday everyone!

25/05/2026

It's been wonderful to relax after so many busy weekends with open garden and studio events.

More about the gravel garden and wildflower meadow soon but here is how Robin's Garden is looking. It's our mini shade garden with log wall and planted with Bergenia, Heuchera, Hostas and Astilbe. This is where rescue hedgehog Robin was released two years ago.

We can't believe we've been here for 2.5 years and are only just getting the chance to slightly relax!

A visitor to our open events also told us that this is an original Jenny Woolley bear - made locally and likely to be the same age as me - half a century! He looks so at home in Robin's Garden. He's lost an eye but is still doing a great job of guarding the mushrooms. He was found on top of one of the old cattery roofs.

We've tried to keep pieces like this from the old garden so we can treasure the history of how it became what it is today.

How has your Bank Holiday weekend been?

23/05/2026