The reward the garden is getting tonight is much needed rain. It’s been raining most of the day. So how can do you do something wild and make room for nature when it’s wet outside, getting dark and that’s the only time of the day you can get into your garden? Well, if you’re daft like me, you can become a rain gardener 😉

Earlier tonight, it was wellies on during lighter rainfall. Then one foot on the edge of the border, wet leaves of Heucheras reached for and lifted to make way for careful uprooting of the self-sown seedlings hiding underneath. Joining these seedlings were a variety of weeds which have also been enjoying a surge in growth due to recent rainfall. That’s a dry day gardening job 😉

Back in the potting shed, where light was available, the seedlings were potted up two per pot. I do love gardening at night in my potting shed. Pots were placed on a tray and transferred to the greenhouse where they were watered.

Where does the nature come in here then? Well, these are Astrantia seedlings and will attract bees and other pollinators when they flower in a couple of years. I love that they are home grown and for me that is one of the biggest rewards of having a garden.

As gardeners, we connect to nature and the outdoors every time we work the soil – without even thinking about it either. Allotments with their home grown produce feed pollinators in a big way with their variety of flowers from vegetables, fruit, herbs and cut flowers. Sue at the UK blog, Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments is a fantastic example of that – do browse around for inspiration 🙂

This post was published by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in June 2016.