In this weekly segment, I’ll be bringing you nature highlights, tips and vegetable growing news from the web and social media. After all, we are all learning from one another to try and grow the best vegetables we can in our plots and allotments, so Let’s Grow Together!

If you have any great links to blog posts, you’d like to share, then please leave them in the comments at the end of this post.

Pea and Bean Frames – which work for you?

A blog article called Which Bean Support works best? By Rocket Gardens caught my eye this week, it’s about what shape is the best structure to grow beans and peas up. Interestingly I am trialling the wigwam and the A Frame structures in my pea plot at the moment and the A Frame with twine tied in lines at intervals up the structure, seems to have the advantage at the moment against the wind.

Butterfly species named Sauron after Lord of the Rings

This story is great, it made me smile. I am a fantasy reader and I’m loving the Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime.

A new butterfly species has been named after Sauron, from Lord of the rings. It was named due to the eyes on its wings representing the all seeing eye and the firey ripples on the edges of its wings. It’s quite exciting that a new species has been discovered especially with reports of declining butterflies in the UK.

International Dawn Chorus Day

Today 7 May is International Dawn Chorus Day. It is a day to sit and take the time to listen to the birds that live around us.

If you have no idea how to identify numerous of birds tweets and calls (I think I only know a blackbird and robin), then The Wildlife Trust has produced an ensemble of bird songs from the dawn chorus recorded at 5am this morning.

The Wildlife Trust also have a bird by bird snippet of their songs which is an excellent way of identifying your local birds and getting children involved.

The Bee Guy on Twitter

If you haven’t been reading The Bee Guy’s tweets on Twitter, you should check out his Bee Facts every day at 3pm. I’ve learnt more about bees in this short time reading his tweets than from any other source. If you have bees in your garden, then this is one to read.

A Guide to Growing Cucumbers

Here’s a great guide to growing Cucumbers from John Harrison at allotment-garden.org

He is a long standing blogger and has a wealth of information on his website about allotment growing.

I don’t know much about growing cucumbers and this year we are growing mini munch variety so I thought I’d read up to see what I need to grow them successfully.

Is your Garden Shady?

PumpkinBeth has a great trial for growing vegetables in a Vegepod in the shade.

I’m hoping I can apply the same principles and varieties to a shady patch in our garden where we have no idea what to grow. It’s got wildflowers in the bed at the moment but we love to try growing some salad leaves.

No Mow May

Marian Hill is a fantastic illustrator of bugs and insects and you’ll find her on Twitter. She has recently setup a new website for educational resources which is brilliant for adults and children called Buzz and Scuttle

This website has pictures of pollinators that love long grass and wild flowers. This helps show why No Mow May and keeping your grass long helps bring the wildlife into your garden.