As well as introducing new plants, I began to learn what to let alone, realising with a sense of shame at my ignorance that the nettles beyond the wall—which I had always previously chopped down every summer—were essential to the red admiral, peacock and painted lady butterflies which laid their eggs upon the leaves, so that their caterpillars might feed on them. Likewise, the long grass behind the house that had fortuitously provided shelter for the leverets now became a magnet for goldfinches, which somehow found their way, amid the open fields, to this undisturbed spot rich in seed and
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