Nature Notes: The Balcony in April

I’m not a very keen gardener – I’m the sort of person who can kill a cactus. I either forget to water a plant or water it so often it drowns. (Which reminds me: must water plant on desk!)

M, on the other hand, is green-fingered. This works well for me – I get lots of plants about the place without having to remember to keep them alive. It also means we aren’t trying to do different things with the garden [balcony], and M gets free rein with the plants. For the most part.

Actually, isolation has been good for the balcony, and my de-cluttering. A while back (about a year ago), M came home with a set of wooden patio shelves, of the laddered variety. And then stored them in my craft room/office. For months.

But at the end of March, he finally got around to putting them up. And I finally got around to putting out a bee hotel a friend gave me even longer ago than either of us remember. And then we added some bee-friendly flowers.

During April, we’ve had a wonderful display of cherry blossom from our Japanese cherry tree (ornamental, sadly), which the bees have loved, and now a family of masonry bees have taken up residence in the hotel.

We also have hopes of reviving a magnolia which got scorched last year while we were away during a heatwave and had to be cut right down. As you can see (just), new leaves are beginning to grow. (Also, I say “we”, but I’m not really doing anything. It’s all M. And Mother Nature.)