Phenology is the science of recording how plants, birds, and animals respond to changes in the weather It was invented in the 18th century but went out of fashion in the 1940s and for the following fifty years there was no official data. But an army of amateurs kept the science alive by making detailed records of the plant activity in their gardens. These statistics are now being used by The Woodland Trust to analyse the impact of climate change.
Anna Egan goes to South London to meet Sheila Northover, a newcomer to the now revived phenology network. And Jill Attenborough of the Woodland Trust takes Anna and Sheila to meet Mary Manning who has charted the changes in her Norfolk garden for more than forty years.
