Hello!! Its been over a month since my last post... so much has happened in Stirchley during this time! The first community market attracted national as well as local media coverage; the houses in Hazelwell Lane have had additional high security metal panels added (making it ultra difficult to access their gardens to check out any more interesting garden plants...), and the Thought Exchange has evolved, ever so slightly... opening up the scope of the project to supporting sustainable natural habitats and local wildlife. Still plant related, but encompassing all those bugs and creatures that thrive on these plants and urban environments, as well as taking an interest in the plants themselves.

Still working on finalising how this will work... I'm thinking something along the lines of exchanging your thoughts about Stirchley for a bundle of hollow stems (locally sourced) that ladybirds, solitary bees, earwigs and other 'creepys' will be most thankful for. The menu of stems so far includes, controversially, Japanese Knotweed (very dead... last year's stems...), Himalayan Balsam, and Cow Parsnip/ common hogweed (dried stems that have gone to seed). If you know of any other locally growing hollow stemmed plants that could be used for insect homes let me know!

The pic is me fashioning some cow parsnip seed heads. They are such an impressive structure! For those conservationists among you, I took them from an area along the River Rea that had many, many cow parsley/common hogweed seed heads, thus not impacting greatly on their reproduction cycle...

Over and out for now anyway!

Buddy the Buddleia

Hi there! I am a buddleia or 'butterfly bush'. You've probably seen lots of bushes like me around Stirchley - maybe you have one in your garden, or perhaps in a neighbouring garden or piece of land.

I have come from the garden of one of the boarded up houses in Hazelwell Lane. I could have been planted as a garden plant, but people associate me with derelict sites waiting for development or buildings that have been left to fend for themselves... I am not fussy where I park my roots, as you can see from the photos, this is one of my relatives who has settled in on an old pile of bricks and rubble further along Hazelwell Lane, and another who is enjoying the view from Stirchley swimming bath roof.

I have to admit, I am very used to being free and out in the open, so I am not sure how long I will last in this pot.... Roxie has been taking good care of me, making sure I am watered, but to be honest my roots are feeling claustrophobic. I can't wait to be planted!

My buddliea cousins come in lots of varieties of different leaf and stem formations, flower shapes and colours, and we are great for wildlife, hence my nickname the butterfly bush. I am Buddleia davidii - with a mauve flower, and am sometimes considered a weed (I guess because I'm really not fussy where I set up home), but I have overheard people complaining about how invasive I can be. But I don't mind being pruned!