Volunteers from the Wildlife and Environmental conservation society turned out last Wednesday, the coldest day of the year so far,to help plant out 2,000 mixed crocus bulbs perfect for pollinators such as bees near the new sculpture. Many thanks for your help and enthusiasm,Kai, Lucy, Mary and Anna also to Lilli who helped organise the event, looking forward to seeing them all in flower and hopefully our next project will be done in warmer weather!
Well it’s that time of year again, Christmas starts early at Brunel, 24ft Christmas tree up in the Quad.Don’t forget the Christmas market scheduled for the 6th December.
As its Autumn thought we would go for a tree as the leaves are turning various shades and dropping pretty rapidly at the moment .This one is Ginko biloba, a primitive tree with an unusual ‘fan shaped’ leaf, this tree can tolerate pollution. 
See if you can spot this one on campus.
This odd looking piece of kit is a bulb planter, around 45,000 mixed bulbs including Crocus ,Chionodoxa, Scilla, Muscari, Tulips and daffs giving a variety of colour from around February to May, good for the bees as well. Keep an eye open for them coming up. 
With Autumnwatch starting this week on television let’s see what wildlife we have around our campus, there may be more here than you may realise. Starting off with one of our more timid neighbours,the muntjac deer.
Interesting plant sometimes know as a sub shrub, likes a south or east facing spot that is sheltered ,bright blue flowers appear from late Summer and can go through the whole of Autumn when the leaves turn a great russet red and orange ,it can grow to a metre when well established, prune back in mid Spring. See this sub shrub on Site one.
Its that time for the meadows to be cut, look out for the kestrel hovering above on the hunt for food.
If you’ve seen people walking about with knapsacks and lances staring at the ground this week and wondered what they are doing its part of our weed killing programme on our paths, kerb edges and building lines. We try to keep chemical spraying to a minimum on site and you can help by using the paths on campus when walking around which can prevent weed seed germination instead of cutting across the grass, better for the environment -less chemical used and good exercise as well.
Not the indoor potted plant you give to your mum, this is the Hardy Cyclamen often planted under trees in partial shade, prefers humus rich well-drained soil. The reflexed flowers grow on individual stems and depending on variety flower from late summer to early spring, so plant a mix for continued flowering, good examples to try are purpurascens, hederifolium, and coum.Plant the tubers(corms) at the recommended depth as per variety as some planted too deep will not flower also make sure they are planted the right way up!
There are a number of places to see them in flower now on campus so keep your eyes open .
Tree work planned 15th Sept from Mill hall to Galbraith, removing branches from building and crown lifting so no more sleepless nights with window tapping branches