The Messy Ecologist
I’m campaigning for more messy spaces for nature, join our messy mission and let’s Rewild together by doing less- and letting nature do the rest!
PhD researcher - Rewilding with Beavers 🦫
Founder of the Wee Pond Project 🐸
- Jessie Wainwright in 1974 was spreading the love of ‘weeds’ and Rewilding Britain from the start! www.facebook.com/share/v/1Cgn...
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- I’m very sorry, I didn’t know her personally but as a PhD student myself and a geography graduate from Dundee uni it’s unthinkable that this tragedy has happened.
- Today rather than our usual, I’m posting a photo of Dr Fortune Gomo, a fellow geographer who was murdered in my city this weekend. We need knives off the streets. Such a tragedy. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
- Slugs munching your crops and flowers? Well don’t reach for the chemical sprays! Birds frogs toads beetles and hedgehogs all feed on slugs so encourage them instead 🐸🦔🪲🐦
- 🌈Pride flag colour🌈: 💚Green: nettles 💚 Stinging nettles get a bad rep but they actually provide vital habitat and food for butterfly caterpillars in particular AND they even make great soup! 🌿🦋🐛
- Another wall flower showing ‘weeds’ can brighten up any area - even stone walls! Red valerian, great for attracting humming bird hawk moths
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- Sounds wonderful !
- 🌈Pride flag colour🌈: 💛Yellow dandelion💛 Often called weeds, dandelions are pioneering plants, growing in all sorts of locations often providing much needed colour to grey concrete paths. They are also great for pollinators 🐝🪰🦋
- The thistles are in bloom in our messy patch today and attracting plenty of attention from the local hoverflies! 💚🏴
- It’s World #Rainforest Day 🌳🌧️ Here in the UK we have temperate rainforests in each of the home nations! Home to over 500 species of mosses and lichens they support great biodiversity !
- 😊Good news story:Tiree Twist moths thought to be extinct in England since 1952 and limited to the island of Tiree have been FOUND in Kent ! 💚 www.itv.com/news/meridia...
- 🧡Orange 🧡 🌈Pride month colour focus 🌈 Fox and cubs aka Orange Hawkweed is an invasive ‘weed’ common in UK gardens which can attract bees🐝 butterflies🦋 and hoverflies🪰 & other insects 🐞 introduced from Southern Europe in 17th Century
- What a great photo from Andrew Kirby in Somerset of this wee swimming mole!
- ❌ Say no to plastic grass ❌ -creates plastic pollution -loss of habitat -loss of co2 sink -inc flood risk -inc carbon -bad for soil, bugs, worms Fake grass is the last thing we need in a biodiversity crisis which is why I’m calling for it to be phased out as we #messupbritain for nature 💚🐝🌻
- This week the messy patch in our garden has seen the cornflowers and poppies pop up! 🐝💚
- My garden is certainly messy. The grass in my ´wildflower meadow’ is about 6 ft high and the fruit and flowers are having to share their space with the weeds. I love it.🥰
- That’s amazing! 🐝💚
- 🌈Pride flag colour🌈: ❤️Red Poppies❤️ Did you know they don’t have nectar but rely on their vibrant red being great for attracting pollinators to their abundant pollen🐝
- Fantastic news, love a good news story! The lady’s slipper orchid 👏 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
- What a great wee guide 🌿
- Absolutely agree - love a wallflower or a pavement plant! bristolswildheart.wordpress.com/2025/04/19/w...
- England~ the new planning and infrastructure bill will not strengthen ecological protection but will instead be ‘environmentally regressive’ this cannot happen during a biodiversity crisis. We must #MessUpBritain for nature 🐝🌹🦔🌻🐸🪻🦋💚 www.lancswt.org.uk/news/open-le...?
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- What a great photo! 🐸
- It’s probably no surprise that I love spying pioneering plants emerging from concrete, far better than removing #mess with chemical sprays! what’s better the first or second photo?🌻😊🐝
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- Fantastic!!
- * hint * I prefer the one with life 😉
- Great to see @vadundee.bsky.social embracing mess for nature and creating these green spaces around the museum 🌿🌹🐝
- It's a new month and we have lots of exciting events coming up! From pride workshops, garden-inspired events to relaxing yoga, there's something for the whole family ☺️ Take a look: www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/whatson
- If you are a follower of our campaign to #MessUpBritain for nature, you might be interested in this newly published book by @trevorthebotanist.bsky.social Urban Plants, looks great! 🌻🌹🪻
- Love the pun even if it is a sombre message Malcolm!
- As it’s #WorldEnvironmentDay I’m sharing my recent campaign calling on all coffee chains to switch from plastic to biodegradable cardboard coffee lids. All litter is bad but plastic doesn’t biodegrade and pollutes our messy spaces. Let’s make change together ♻️🥤☕️🧋
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- What strikes me is at the moment we have such a diversity of biodegradable options and yet there doesn’t seem to be an over all strategy with some places offering plastic and others cardboard , I thought we were meant to be ended single use plastic ?
- Another of my aims to #MessUpBritain is to encourage the end of regular rural road verge cutting. In a biodiversity crisis can we afford to continue this obsession with Neat and tidy, even on rural roads? Let’s inc connectivity and help restore biodiversity 🌿🌹🦋🌻
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- For sure and I have no issue with sections at road junctions etc however for the miles and miles of straight road it’s a perfect easy win for nature to let it bloom for pollinators and small mammals to connect across intensive land uses 🦔🐝😊
- 1/2 On #BoardOfPlastic, Iv been in talks with Greggs, they say “board lids significantly increase packaging weight, require more energy and water to produce, and reduce the number of units per pack—resulting in a higher carbon footprint and increased delivery”
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- It does make me wonder… if a company like McDonalds can see the environmental benefits of switching to cardboard lids rather than polluting plastics … why can’t Greggs?
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- Amazing thanks for sharing the story fascinating!!
- 2/2 however plastics don’t biodegrade and cause serious microplastic pollution, we have made progress on plastic straws and other coffee chains have switch to paper so why not greggs ?
- Today is #WorldEnvironmentDay Here in the UK we’re one of the most nature depleted countries in the world but we CAN change that and messaging up Britain for nature by embracing and encouraging messy spaces is one such way! stateofnature.org.uk?fbclid=IwZXh...
- Messy spotlight : Moles (Talpa europaea for Latin buffs) These little animals are remarkable- just look that those claws! They don’t feed on plants they in fact eat grubs which would damage plant roots and they aerate garden soils and improve drainage 👏😊
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- Me too!
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- Ah brilliant it sure does!
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- Even moles need a hobby!
- Some great wee messy spaces left next to the mown grass in Nicolson Square garden in @edinburghcouncil.bsky.social Showing we can have both recreational short and messy long grass! 🌿🌱 #MessingUpBritain #Mess #Nature
- Great achievement by @lesswastelaura.bsky.social to get a ban made official, I see these vapes discarded in amongst the wildflowers and long grass all the time!
- The Single-Use Disposable Vape Ban is coming on Sunday 1st June! Are you ready?💨❌ Check out this with with Dundee City Council talking all about what’s happening… youtu.be/i7wbVS_oJJA?...
- Looking fantastic and some excellent photos
- #JoinMeOnMyWalk Lovely one at #Brockholes Nature Reserve on Sunday evening, everything freshened up beautifully by the day's rain. Damselflies, burnet moths, butterflies, orchids, true #nature's delight. @photohour.bsky.social #positivity #joy #vitaminN #Lancashire @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social
- @themessyecologist.bsky.social Priory Park, Warwick. Some cut grass and some like this. Cool.
- That’s looking great! Yes a balance can so easily be achieved when councils agree to alternative grass management, the insects and bugs will be very pleased ! 🪲🦋🐝
- June is #Pride month! We are an inclusive movement, gardening, wildlife and making mess for nature is for everyone 😊🌈 🌹🍁🌻🍀🦋🪻
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- That sounds great, very lucky to have fox visitors too!
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- Wow that looks wonderful!
- 32 years is quite an achievement, they also appeared on the first ever episode of Springwatch! Beautiful and spectacular birds if you manage to see one!🦅🦅🦅 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
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- This one was found at the back garden in the bushes whereas all years previously we spotted them in the street at the bushes in front of the house 🦔🌿
