plants
Beneficial Garden Insects and How to Attract Them to Your Garden
Beneficial insects are essential in keeping our gardens and farms healthy. Some pollinate plants that produce our food. Others eat pests that would otherwise destroy our food crops. They also help break down dead organic material and recycle nutrients back into the soil. We rely on these tiny insects more….
Book Review: The Wild Plants of Bere, Dursey, Whiddy and other Islands in Bantry Bay
The islands of West Cork, a region I feel privileged to call home, have a reputation for being excellent locations for wild plants. My life-changing introduction to West Cork was as a volunteer biologist at Sherkin Island Marine Station way back in 1993. I worked on the rocky shore monitoring project….
New book documents the wild plants of Bantry Bay islands
Sherkin Island Marine Station has just published a book documenting the diverse plant life of the islands of Bantry Bay, Co. Cork. Edited by botanical consultant, conservationist and writer John Aykeroyd, “The Wild Plants of Bere, Dursey, Whiddy and other islands in Bantry Bay” explores the history, geography, geology vegetation….
Bird’s-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)
The birds-foot-trefoil is a common flowering plant that has, over the years, amassed a host of common names; names like “lady’s shoes and stockings”, “crow-toes”, “lady’s slipper”, “bacon and eggs”, and “God-Almighty’s thumb and finger”. In all it has been attributed more than 70 different names, most of them related….
Chemical Warfare in the Irish Countryside
As you read this article a complex arsenal of chemical weapons is being manufactured at sites all over the island of Ireland. When deployed these chemical agents are designed to subdue, inhibit, mutilate, mutate and in some cases even kill! The manufacturers of this nationwide chemical stockpile are of course….