THISTLES - The unsung heroes of our gardens.

So you are walking around and you see the spiky leaves and you reach for the trowel and gloves to rid yourself of this pointy pest!.... But wait!

Thistles are quite an amazing food plant. If you love a Goldfinch well let those thistles thrive for they will be all over the seeds when they form and the beautiful Painted Lady butterfly likes to pop her eggs on them for the caterpillars to feast.

As great sources of nectar thistles are always full of bees and other pollinators too.

So leave a few thistles amongst your borders or at the edge of a path, they are sculpturally beautiful and loved by wildlife!

Here is some more of UK thistles http://www.wildlifeinsight.com/common-british-thistles/

For more on our Much Wilder Marlow campaign visit our website at https://www.wildmarlow.org.uk/wilder_marlow.php

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