Here is our round-up of this week’s gardening news and happenings in the gardening world.
The triumphant T&M team
T&M team raises over £1000 for Greenfingers charity
T&M staff took part in the 10k Grand East Anglian Run in Kings Lynn on Sunday to raise funds for Greenfingers, the charity that creates gardens for children’s hospices. Web team member Martin Fox came first in the T&M team and in 86th place overall – out of a total of 1557 runners. Martin said “I’d just like to say a big thank you to everyone who donated so generously to such a great cause and well done to the other T&M runners who all ran so brilliantly on the day. Next year we hope to be back with far greater numbers and beat the total we raised this year!”
Hedgehog Awareness Week
Hedgehog Awareness Week 5th-11th May 2013
Britain’s hedgehog population has faced a massive decline in recent years, caused in part by intensive agriculture, use of pesticides and badgers, a natural predator. Hedgehog Awareness Week takes place each year to help highlight the problems they face and what we can do to help them. The British Hedgehog Preservation Society has plenty of advice on how to create a safe haven for hedgehogs in your own garden.
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Hanging Gardens of Babylon?
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon…
…might not have been in Babylon, according to new research. There is now evidence to show that they were in fact near modern-day Mosul in northern Iraq, some 300 miles north of Babylon. Stephanie Dalley, an expert in ancient languages and Research Fellow at Oxford’s Somerville College has spent years analysing ancient texts, many of which have been wrongly translated. German archaeologists had spent nearly 20 years at the Babylon site, but couldn’t find enough evidence that the gardens were actually there. Dalley found that there simply wasn’t the space in Babylon for such a vast garden, whereas Nineveh, the new site, has a network of canals and aqueducts, one of which appears to be the size of a motorway.
And finally…
Caterpillars of the oak processionary moth are to be targeted with a pesticide distributed by helicopter. They feed on oak trees and are covered in toxic hairs that can cause allergic reactions, such as itchy rashes and eye and throat irritations. The bacterial agent used will target the moths, but it is not harmful to humans or animals, according to the Forestry Commission. People are being warned not to touch the caterpillars.
Rebecca works in the Marketing department as part of the busy web team, focusing on updating the UK news and blog pages and Thompson & Morgan’s international website. Rebecca enjoys gardening and learning about flowers and growing vegetables with her young daughter.