Free house

Our garden delivers surprises every day. Things emerge from below ground in unexpected places. We've had a swathe (or should it be a host) of daffodils pop up right across the back garden, appearing from nowhere. Maybe some of these were deliberately planted but so many suggests that they have been multiplying on their own for many years.

Then from the bare, brown, stick-like branches of a small tree growing beside the house, spring has brought out a spread of white flowers which later gave way to tiny green blobs, nascent cherries. Elsewhere the grass we expected by now to be long overdue for a trim has barely appeared at all. Instead in many places there is a carpet of moss, a mix of different species, all of which is beautifully soft to walk on. Just about anywhere around the garden there are now green fronds of bracken popping up, an indicator back to what the land once was, a wet woodland habitat. The rotting stumps of the long gone trees are still dotted about, almost hidden from view by the moss and now finally by the tall stems of wild grasses and dandelion flowers which are starting to give us the wild look we love.

Then another surprise. For our dinner one night Kate makes us a rhubarb crumble, the stalks having miraculously sprouted up from the ground in several places we hadn't expected. Perhaps it was all this plant life that we really paid for, the house being thrown in for free.

Now we can see what is already growing we can get a better idea of what new planting we would like to add into the mix and also what we do not want to encourage. Having trimmed back the bramble jungle when we first moved in, we know that their sturdy roots will likely always be with us. But perhaps we can let them flourish in one or two corners, albeit in a managed way, whilst trying to snip off the new growth elsewhere as soon as it appears. Bramble does, after all, have one agreeable habit; it produces rather tasty berries.

What we have discovered is probably a close relative of the hated bramble, masses of it cover the steeper, rocky areas of the garden. It is wild strawberry. The berries that are now appearing are tiny, like small red peas, and most will probably end up as bird food but these small plants provide ground cover and this in turn will help to exclude the bramble beast.

Rhododendron, however, particularly Rhododendron Ponticum, is not welcome. This plant is not native to Scotland so it doesn't belong in our country and we have no qualms about showing these shrubs just how brutal we can be although, as it has some remarkable survival strategies, it may take years to eliminate it completely. It can send branches horizontally along the ground then put down new roots and create a whole new plant some distance away which will survive even if the parent is cut down. It also creates so much shade beneath its evergreen leaves that nothing else can grow. So it's chop, chop, chop to the Rhodies.

Our small and rather battered greenhouse is already providing a home for some tomato plants and soon, we hope, will house a variety of edible plants that would struggle outdoors in our climate and would certainly be gobbled up by the hungry slugs that share the garden with us. 

Then, of course, there is the pond. All we did was dig a hole, line it with plastic and fill it with water but very quickly this has become home to a mass of insect life, creatures that have made their own way there, by air we assume. First to arrive were the pond skaters, creatures that live on top of the water's surface, catching and eating any other insect that is unfortunate enough to fall in and get stuck in the surface tension. The skaters seem to spend the whole day fighting each other (unless I am misinterpreting this) so perhaps they find our pond rather too boring. Meanwhile beneath the water we have countless beetles who skull themselves around like tiny oarsmen and clinging just under the surface are gnat larvae, breathing air through the tiny hole they have made in the surface skin. We are probably responsible for adding to the Scottish midge population too but this is how the wild world works, it is not our place to interfere. The pond is gradually becoming more cloudy with algae, food for something no doubt, and we did import a few clumps of weed from another pond which are surviving as floating rafts from which fresh stalks are now appearing. It seems the roots of these plants take nourishment from the water itself which must mean we have created a reasonably healthy environment.

We find the process of natural rewilding so fascinating that we have a little seat arranged close by so we can sit and watch the changes from day to day and observe the behaviour of the wild things that have chosen to live with us. We take pleasure from giving them a home but try not to interfere. We know that in the current dry spell the water level will drop but it would be wrong to top up with tap water as this risks poisoning one or other of our little friends. So we leave it alone and let nature do what it's good at.