Moths, Meadows and Mischievous Mutts

Gardening with the RHS

Royal Horticultural Society

Home & Garden, Leisure, Hobbies

4.4 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Biodiverse spaces are important not only for healthy ecosystems but they also bring tangible benefits for our mental wellness as well. Unfortunately new data shows that some of our most loved garden visitors – the Lepidoptera, or butterflies and moths – are in alarming decline. We’ll be finding out from Dr Richard Fox, Head of Science at Butterfly Conservation, how gardeners can give them the boost they need. Ed Cooper from the trials team down at RHS Garden Wisley shows us another way of welcoming in not only butterflies and moths, but a whole host of other wildlife as well, with advice on sowing annual and perennial wildflower meadows. And finally, we find out how to maximise our outdoor spaces for our four legged friends, with Lead Horticulturist Dawn Grehan, at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Host: Gareth Richards Contributors: Dr Richard Fox, Ed Cooper, Dawn Grehan Links: Butterfly Conservation Butterfly recording and monitoring RHS Plants for Pollinators RHS Chelsea Flower Show How to create a pet-friendly garden Potentially harmful garden plants

Transcript

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0:00.0	Get your tickets for the greatest show in Earth at an RHS garden near you.
0:05.1	Where nature puts on an unforgettable performance of colour and fragrance.
0:09.3	The scenery changes many times in one season and our finest trees will happily play the part of...
0:14.7	The best hiding place ever.
0:17.4	Booth!
0:18.2	Put your day out of dreams in the hands of the experts.
0:21.6	It's the greatest show in Earth.
0:23.7	At an RHS garden near you.
0:25.5	Book tickets online for discounts, plus under fives go free and under 16s at five pounds.
0:30.2	Picture this.
0:33.5	It's late afternoon.
0:35.2	The sun hangs low in the sky, casting a golden glow that dances across a garden alive with colour.
0:43.3	Lush greens layered with splashes of forget-me-not blue, the tall white spires of fox gloves drifting clouds of fragrant lavender.
0:53.3	Bees bumble lazily from bloom to bloom. Hoverflies dart and
0:58.0	paws in mid-air. Overhead the canopy of an ancient oak tree stirs gently in the breeze,
1:04.7	its leaves whispering in the wind. The air is rich with the earthy scent of sun-worn soil, laced with the sweetness of honeysuckle,
1:13.9	and all around, birdsong wraps around you in a mellow, melodic chorus.
1:20.9	Take a deep breath.
1:24.9	Feel that?
1:28.3	It's Mental Health Awareness Week,
1:30.3	and if there's one group that doesn't need convincing about the power of nature to boost wellbeing, it's gardeners.
1:36.3	Spending time surrounded by plants and wildlife has real, measurable benefits on mental health,
	...

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