Important lavender

I went over to the beautiful Elford Hall Garden this morning - an annual trip during the Big Butterfly Count.

I was chatting to the volunteers and the gardeners when I spotted a patch of lavender, in among the veg, in the walled garden. It was covered in happy white butterflies. Cheeriness all round : the gardeners find that if they give them a bit of lavender, they leave the cabbages alone.

It’s certainly a funny year. For the first time ever, not a Small Tortoiseshell nor a Peacock in sight. But there were more Red Admirals, a Gatekeeper and a Comma around. And one of the gardeners to.d me she’d seen a Painted Lady last week.