White dead-nettle

White dead-nettles in foreground, stinging nettles at back right

Patches of stinging nettles are left around the Reserve for the benefit of some beetles, moths and butterflies, like the garden tiger moth and red admiral and painted lady butterflies, whose caterpillars devour the leaves and pupate on the plant. However, these aren’t the only nettles here. There are also white dead-nettles, with quite a few in flower now in the orchard. Although called a nettle, and looking quite similar to a stinging nettle, it is in the mint plant family and doesn’t have stinging hairs (note the square stems in the image below).

White dead-nettle flowers with hairy caps and
long tubes with deep-down nectar rewards

You are likely to see a variety of bees collecting the dead-nettle flower’s pollen and nectar. It’s a really valuable food source for early through to late bees as flowering continues most of the year, from March to December. The species that benefit generally have long tongues to get to the bottom of the hooded flower trumpet: garden bumblebees (Bombus hortorum), hairy-footed flower bees, red mason bees, common carder bees. However, some, like the honey bee, with shorter tongues will nibble a hole in the bottom of a flower to steal the nectar.

further images and information 

The Wildlife Trusts - White dead-nettle

Jeremy Bartlett’s Let it Grow blog - White dead-nettle

Orchard blossom

 

Mid-April and already a couple of the apple trees are in blossom

The Orchard was originally planted with support from Stroud Valleys Project in 2017 with four trees on MM106 rootstock (so 4-5m potential height); a further tree on M9 rootstock (2.5m) was added in 2025. Labels now show the variety, and the  origin and date of each cultivar:

Mid-April 2026

John Standish - a moderately acid dessert apple with crisp, juicy, cream-coloured flesh; originating from Ascot, Berkshire ~1873. Upright growth habit; flowers early May; ready to pick mid-October.

late April 2026

Jenny Lind - a well flavoured dessert/ cooking apple with weeping growth; can also be found in the Museum in the Park Walled Garden. Although associated with Gloucestershire, it is thought to have been raised in Catforth, Lancashire ~1880. Named after a popular Swedish opera singer who made her home in Herefordshire in the late 1800s.

late April 2026

Chaceley Kernel (aka Chatley’s Kernel, Chexley Kernel) - a dessert and cider apple (pick early for latter use) with some russet spots; slightly sharp, crisp, juicy, sweet flesh (again, also at the Museum in the Park Walled Garden). From Chaceley, Gloucestershire/ Worcestershire; the variety became well known ~1890s. Pick in October (September in a warm year) though tends to biennial cropping, stores well.

late April 2026

Kenchy Pippin - a cider apple (also at Museum in the Park Walled Garden Orchard), which originated in Halmore, Berkeley, Gloucestershire.

late April 2026

Ashmead’s Kernel (the small tree in the centre foreground above - donated by Lesley MacKinnon in 2025) - a russet dessert apple with firm, juicy yellowish flesh, and a rich aromatic pear-drop flavour. Gloucester ~1700. Flowers mid-May, and ready to pick early October.

While the last is identified we are unsure which is which amongst the other four, so the labels may swap round later in the year when the fruit should allow us to confirm each variety.

Pond water quality

In the 2025 summer drought the level of the pond dropped significantly, and the hornwort, normally an oxygenator, decayed and absorbed oxygen. Consequently, the aquatic wildlife suffered and most of our small fish died.

Over the autumn and winter the willows and alder surrounding the pond have been cut back to let in more light and reduce the amount of detritus that might fall into the water over the year. Much of the overgrown reeds and hornwort have also been removed.

As the only source of water for the pond is the rain, the nitrate and phosphate levels should be low. Today’s test* results show a nitrate level of less than 0.2 ppm (mg/L) and a phosphate level of 0.05 ppm (mg/L). These both reflect low nutrient concentrations and hence a good ecological status; high levels would lead to eutrophication, ie algal blooms.

All being well, with the work carried out over the last few months, the water quality will continue to improve. The emergence of frog tadpoles from the spawn near the stage over the last few days is an excellent sign.

* FreshWaterWatch test kit kindly supplied by Stroud Valleys Project.

Signs of Spring

 

Willow (top), Hazel (top upper right) and alder (bottom) catkins

At last some sunnier days and the seasons’ turn. At the reserve the snowdrop and crocus blooms came early and are already over. The alder is shedding catkins, which have done their job, and at the edge near the field, yellow hazel catkins have developed into long ‘lambs’ tails’. The willow’s are a bit later, but some are already evident.

Male willow catkin (East end of Reserve)

Most willow species, including the ones at the pond (the larger trees which are most likely a variety of crack willow, the golden corkscrew willow and the smaller pollarded osiers) are dioecious, ie a tree is either male (with yellow, pollen-laden catkins) or female (with long, greenish catkins that develop cotton-like fluff containing seeds after pollination).

Lesser celandine and bright-spotted ground-bug

Along by the canal lesser celandine glints gold in the sunshine and occasionally the scent of wild garlic wafts over.

Frogspawn (and frog) near the stage

Frogspawn has just been laid at the edge of the pond near the stage and one or two newts are beginning to stir in the water and enjoy the food fest.

Golden corkscrew willow shoots (left) and
the floor of the orchard greening up (right)

The wild flowers in the orchard are also showing growth. All being well the cowslip and foxglove seed sown in autumn and the cornfield mix sown this week will soon germinate, though the best display must wait until next year.

Listen out for the louder bird song as they seek out mates and establish their territory; look out too for the early bees, hoverflies, butterflies etc.

Yellow dye plants

1 Weld, 2 Dyer’s Greenweed, 3 Dyer’s Chamomile
October 2025

Three of the types of plant in the colour wheel were used for dyeing wool yellow: weld (also known as dyer’s rocket), dyer’s greenweed (aka dyer’s broom) and dyer’s chamomile; remarkably the last of these has been flowering continually since last summer.

February 2026

In early summer you will also start to see lovely tall spikes of weld flowers, which can be harvested early on along with the leaves for dyeing. The greenweed, which grows as a tall broom-like shrub has a similar flowering period to weld (June-September), but again is best cut in June/July for dyeing. While flowers of dyer’s chamomile can be harvested throughout the flowering period.

Teresinha’s Wild Colours web pages give really useful information about dyeing with all three and show the different hues you can expect: eg lemon yellow with weld, but a warmer yellow with dyer’s chamomile.

The yellow colourants are various flavonoids and in particular luteolin, which is relatively light-fast. As with other dyes, mordants will modify the colour, so, for example, alum gives a brighter yellow while iron gives shades of green/brown. Different greens can also be produced by over-dyeing with woad: Lincoln green from weld-dyed wool, Kendall green from dyer’s greenweed and Saxon green from dyer’s chamomile.

There are useful dye recipes and colour charts in Jenny Dean’s book Wild Colour, Octopus Publishing 1999.

Cormorant

From late autumn to early spring you are quite likely to spot tall black birds atop the chimney of Ebley Mill. Three or four cormorants seem to return annually for their winter sojourn here. Generally feeding on fish in the canal, you will see them swimming fairly low in the water, diving and then popping up, after a while, some distance away. Having feathers which aren’t waterproofed allows them to become streamlined as they move underwater, but they will then need to get dry, so to the typical cormorant stance of wings outstretched in the sunshine.

Our cormorants probably spend the summer months on the coast, perhaps at the nearby Slimbridge wetlands, but each day might fly tens of miles in search of a good shoal of fish.

Further information, images and sounds

RSPB - Cormorant

the Wildlife Trusts - Cormorant