The Messy Ecologist

Jessie Wainwright in 1974 was spreading the love of ‘weeds’ and Rewilding Britain from the start!

www.facebook.com/share/v/1Cgn...

I’m very sorry, I didn’t know her personally but as a PhD student myself and a geography graduate from Dundee uni it’s unthinkable that this tragedy has happened.

Dr Fortune Gomo: Man charged over death of scientist in Dundee Dr Fortune Gomo, who was originally from Zimbabwe, was pronounced dead at the scene in Dundee on Saturday.

Today rather than our usual, I’m posting a photo of Dr Fortune Gomo, a fellow geographer who was murdered in my city this weekend. We need knives off the streets. Such a tragedy.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Slugs munching your crops and flowers? Well don’t reach for the chemical sprays! Birds frogs toads beetles and hedgehogs all feed on slugs so encourage them instead 🐸🦔🪲🐦

🌈Pride flag colour🌈:
💚Green: nettles 💚
Stinging nettles get a bad rep but they actually provide vital habitat and food for butterfly caterpillars in particular AND they even make great soup! 🌿🦋🐛

Sounds wonderful !

Another wall flower showing ‘weeds’ can brighten up any area - even stone walls! Red valerian, great for attracting humming bird hawk moths

🌈Pride flag colour🌈:
💛Yellow dandelion💛
Often called weeds, dandelions are pioneering plants, growing in all sorts of locations often providing much needed colour to grey concrete paths. They are also great for pollinators 🐝🪰🦋

The thistles are in bloom in our messy patch today and attracting plenty of attention from the local hoverflies! 💚🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

It’s World #Rainforest Day 🌳🌧️
Here in the UK we have temperate rainforests in each of the home nations! Home to over 500 species of mosses and lichens they support great biodiversity !

😊Good news story:Tiree Twist moths thought to be extinct in England since 1952 and limited to the island of Tiree have been FOUND in Kent ! 💚

www.itv.com/news/meridia...

🧡Orange 🧡
🌈Pride month colour focus 🌈
Fox and cubs aka Orange Hawkweed is an invasive ‘weed’ common in UK gardens which can attract bees🐝 butterflies🦋 and hoverflies🪰 & other insects 🐞 introduced from
Southern Europe in 17th Century

What a great photo from
Andrew Kirby in Somerset of this wee swimming mole!

❌ Say no to plastic grass ❌
-creates plastic pollution
-loss of habitat
-loss of co2 sink
-inc flood risk
-inc carbon
-bad for soil, bugs, worms
Fake grass is the last thing we need in a biodiversity crisis which is why I’m calling for it to be phased out as we #messupbritain for nature 💚🐝🌻

This week the messy patch in our garden has seen the cornflowers and poppies pop up! 🐝💚

That’s amazing! 🐝💚

Looking through arching tree branches to an uncut area of very tall grass. Mown lawn in the foreground and a very prolific mid pink shrub rose with a variegated honeysuckle trying to smother it.

Blackcurrant bushes with branches weighed down with loads of ripe berries. Rhubarb leaves, rampant raspberry canes and other vegetation crowded around.

Roses in red, pink, white and apricot pushing their way through a jungle of wild grasses, foxgloves, tansy and cleavers. Tamarisk, deutzia, spires, flowering currant, forsythia, dogwoods, eucalyptus, lonicera along the back and a large cordyline on the left. Lawn in front.

Rose ´Lady Emma Hamilton’ pushing her way up through a nemisia shrub. The tiny white flowers contrasting beautifully with the stunning apricot roses.

My garden is certainly messy. The grass in my ´wildflower meadow’ is about 6 ft high and the fruit and flowers are having to share their space with the weeds. I love it.🥰

Lots of buzzing around our #messy grass patch today! 💚🌻🐝🌿 #MessUpBritain #LetItBloomJune

🌈Pride flag colour🌈:
❤️Red Poppies❤️
Did you know they don’t have nectar but rely on their vibrant red being great for attracting pollinators to their abundant pollen🐝

Yorkshire Dales project helping to save rare orchid from extinction - BBC News The lady's slipper orchid is being revived after it disappeared for nearly 100 years.

Fantastic news, love a good news story! The lady’s slipper orchid 👏

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What a great wee guide 🌿

Left hand side red admiral above a painted lady. Right hand side top to bottom two large skipper, a very fresh speckled wood and another red admiral.

#TitliTuesday Still waiting to photograph my 1st Scottish #butterfly so here are those seen in the last week in #Lancashire. Red admiral, large skipper, speckled wood and a single perfect painted lady. @savebutterflies.bsky.social #Lancashire #vitaminN #butterflies

It was performing a very good insect-attracting role, even on this rather overcast day, on this Barley crop headland in Dorset on Sunday. I'll be interested to see how many birds are drawn to the crop later in the year.

An open letter to all Members of Parliament across the 46 constituencies covered by the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside | The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire Manchester an... This matter is of such importance to me and, I know, to many of our members and your constituents, that I feel compelled to write to you all.

England~ the new planning and infrastructure bill will not strengthen ecological protection but will instead be ‘environmentally regressive’ this cannot happen during a biodiversity crisis. We must #MessUpBritain for nature 🐝🌹🦔🌻🐸🪻🦋💚
www.lancswt.org.uk/news/open-le...?

A macro photo looking into the face of a pale yellow-green jumping spider atop bright blue fabric, with out of focus greenery in the background. The spider has a patch of bright orange hairs atop its head. One of its large central eyes looks black and the other green, which is from the internal reflective parts of the eyes being aimed in two different directions -- one not reflecting light, the other reflecting nearby greenery. The blue fabric is from a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap, which is this spider's favorite team.

🐙🌿🕷️ Ever see a spider yawn? Well, now you have. Okay, not yawn as in draw a big sleepy breath - spiders don't breathe with their face - but this one is stretching its chelicerae (mouthparts that end in the fangs) wide, making them look like a Yosemite Sam mustache. Also, it's grooming its eyes--

What a great photo! 🐸

Fantastic!!

* hint * I prefer the one with life 😉

It’s probably no surprise that I love spying pioneering plants emerging from concrete, far better than removing #mess with chemical sprays! what’s better the first or second photo?🌻😊🐝

Great to see @vadundee.bsky.social embracing mess for nature and creating these green spaces around the museum 🌿🌹🐝