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Build a bug hotel An insect hotel or bug house is something manmade, it encourages insects of all kinds to nest and hibernate over the winter periods. You can build different types of bug hotels to attract various insects. Many insect hotels are used as nest sites by insects including solitary bees and solitary wasps. These insects drag prey to the nest where an egg is deposited. Other insects hotels are specifically designed to allow the insects to hibernate, notable examples include ladybirds and butterflies. Today… I am going to explain how to build one designed especially for butterflies. 75%...

Watermelon, great for the body Watermelon is a great fruit, but did you know its made up of 92% water. Turns out watermelon isn’t just refreshing and tasty… it also does your body a world of good. It is a tropical fruit that originated in Africa, there is proof of cultivation dating back to Ancient Egyptian times. In 2016 alone 117 million tones of watermelons were produced… China accounting for 68% of them. Watermelons were used as a source of hydration instead of pure water by early explorers. Watermelon has excellent benefits to the body, since one a cup serving...

Not all plants are herbivores So, you’ve probably heard of a Venus fly trap, a carnivorous plant that waits for its prey (flies and small insects) to land on them, they then close on the insect like a mouth, the plant then digests the insect and takes the necessary nutrients from them. However unknown to many people there are lots of carnivorous plants. The largest and most deadly of these is the Nepenthes Rajah. Nepenthes Rajah is part of the pitcher plant family, these plants live deep in the jungle and are shaped like a large beaker with a lid...

A Whole Universe Beneath Our Feet Plants nurture a whole world of creatures in the soil that in return feed and protect the plants, including and especially trees. It is a subterranean community that includes worms, insects, mites, other arthropods you’ve never heard of, amoebas, and fellow protozoa. The dominant organisms are bacteria and fungi. All these players work together, sometimes by eating one another. This cosmos is only now revealing itself as a result of scientific discoveries based on better microscopic imaging and DNA analysis. There is much still to learn, but it boils down to this: Plants nurture...

White strawberry...and you'd thought you've seen it all A Pineberry is a hybrid fruit which means it has been genetically breaded from two other fruits. It has been made up of a Fragaria chiloensis, (the beach strawberry) which originates from South America and the Virginia strawberry which originates from North America. Both are part of the strawberry family. However it is said that they taste closer to a pineapple than a strawberry. The pineberry is best known for its peculiar colour as it is white and part of the strawberry family making it a white strawberry. A pineberry is smaller...

what you need to know about cauliflower Now's the time to harvest your cauliflower if you used a polytunnel to get a couple of weeks ahead. If you don’t harvest the cauliflower as soon as it is ready it will continue to grow and the florets will begin to open spoiling its eating quality. Some varieties stand longer than others, so check the description in a seed catalogue. Below is a great recipe to use once you have harvested your cauliflower. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2638/cauliflower-tempura