Catching up on the gardening after a period of neglect, I came across this sunflower, growing in a hole in the side of the old apple tree. The seed was probably dropped in by a bird, from the nearby feeders.

I’d guess the tree is over fifty years old now, still producing apples. Age seems to have given it a new dimension as a nursery for other plants. Sadly autumn is rushing in, so there does not seem time for the sunflower to fully develop.

The apple crop was remarkably blemish free, unlike 36 years ago, when we first moved in. In those days there were always lots of bugs boring their way through the apples, as we never use pesticides, and lots of bird pecks in evidence. Just one measure of the dramatic decline in biodiversity around here over those 36 years. Less insects, less butterflies, less birds, less caterpillars, less beetles, less frogs, less hedgehogs, less owls… You can even grow brassicas without the then-inevitable cabbage white caterpillar, gooseberries without the then-inevitable sawfly larvae. Huge gangs of frogs are replaced by the odd survivor. Year by year things appear much the same, but this slow reduction in biodiversity is huge and heartbreaking.

What are we doing to our natural world?

Featured image is not my apples – from Ukraine by George Chernilevsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.