Primroses and butterflies: My wildlife allotment in early spring

It was a long and cold winter with lots of snow at times, but spring has finally arrived here and life is stirring on the allotment. Primroses are in full flower and the tulips have started now as well. I have planted quite a lot of wild tulips as I like them so much. They look daintier than the large dutch tulips, are not fuzzy and come back every year. They only ask for well-drained soil and sunshine. Among others I have planted Tulipa sylvestris, T. tarda, T. turkestanica, T, saxatilis and T. praestans, all are good for pollinators.
In the raspberry bed I have left some lesser celandine plants to spread, they are so pretty with their small yellow flowers and will disappear soon underground again. They attract quite a lot of pollinators such as butterflies, bees and hoverflies. Also flowering now is pulmonaria, attracting hairy-footed flower bees and fluffy-looking bee flies.

Below are some pictures from my allotment I took on one of the rare sunny days at the beginning of April. You can also watch my new allotment video here.

Daffodils growing at the side of the shed

My little pond

Marsh marigold is flowering, adding a splash of colour

Little mining bee (Andrena bicolour) visiting one of the marsh marigold flowers

Pasque flowers are opening their pretty flowers

Drone fly (Eristalis sp.) sipping nectar from a marsh marigold flower

One of the many tulips growing on my allotment, coming back every year

Pretty Tulipa tarda, the flowers are only opening in sunshine

Tulipa sylvestris growing under the red currant bushes

Tulipa sylvestris flower

 
Below you can see a bee fly visiting some pulmonaria flowers. It is quite interesting that the flowers of pulmonaria change colour from pink to purple, pink flowers are fresh and full of nectar, purple flowers are older and nearly empty. Bees and other pollinators learn quickly that only the pink flowers give enough nectar so after a while will only visit those.

Pretty Anemone blanda flowers, I have plants with dark blue flowers as well

Small tortoiseshell drinking nectar from lesser celandine flowers

The allotment, still quite bare but with lots of plants starting to grow now

A 7-spot ladybird enjoying some rare sunshine

The strange-looking flowers of Euphorbia myrsinites

The allotment seen from the back

I have some great news as well. I got offered another plot! I wanted a bit more space to create a few more habitats such as a prairie meadow and bog area and I also want to grow more fruit such as currants and a damson tree, and perennial vegetables such as asparagus and artichokes. The new plot has a pond already with lots of frogs, 2 fruit trees, a nice shed with a climbing plant on one site and only needs digging over now to get it into an acceptable state. In my next blog post I will show you some pictures of the new plot.