A Walk on the Wild Side

 

Had a lovely day yesterday running my "Wildlife Friendly Gardening" course. I have been so lucky this summer, for the weather to have been so poor, my course days have been lovely. The weather was beautiful for this time of year and the butterflies were amazing - I've never seen anything like it....the beds were aflutter with Tortoiseshells large and small. There were also Red Admirals and Peacocks although to a lesser extent.

We were making insect houses with some hollow stems from the garden and it put me in the notion for rereading Sticky Wicket. It's such a good book - so informative and inspirational....Pam Lewis is the doyenne of wildlife gardening.

So now that I'm in a wildlife friendly kind of mood, I'd thought I'd share some simple tips for helping the wildlife in your garden.....
 

• A pile of old logs in a corner will provide an ideal habitat for many insects, especially beetles, and will also attract frogs, even newts in damp areas.
• A mini insect house can be made easily by tying together hollow stems and placing in a sheltered corner or pushed into the bottom of a hedge.
• Water is essential for birds in the garden - a small shallow container raised off the ground will suffice and a further container filled with a mix of fine soil and sharp sand will be appreciated as a dust bath to clean their feathers/
• Grassess and bamboos make fantastic winter shelter for wildlife including wild bees and ladybirds.

Happy Gardening!

Winding Down

Just relaxing after a hectic week preparing flowers for a lovely bride and groom.

Pre wedding chaos in the barn...promise..more pics to follow.

 

Can certainly feel the garden winding down and the poor bees are starting to look rather bedraggled. I hate that they have such a short lifespan.

Plenty of annuals still doing their stuff - the cosmos and snapdragons are flowering abundantly, as long as I keep deadheading they should flower for a while longer (providing the gales hold off). The bees are especially loving the sedum and verbena flowers but also the single dahlias and cosmos.

 

I love the warmer colours at this time of year - my favourite of the moment - crocosmia "Honey Angels"...a beautiful soft buttery yellow. I'm looking forward to spending a week in the garden...just me and the dog - will keep you informed of our "progress"! x 

Butterflies & Blooms

 

The butterflies and bees are everywhere - it has been pleasantly warm the last few days although we had a windy spell which set the flowers adrift. The cosmos and snapdragons are flowering their hearts out, as are the dahlias - I'm just sorry that I didn't plant more of them this year. That's the thing about leaving the dahlias in the ground - you don't know which ones will survive and then you are left with gaps. I suppose I should start a few more off in the tunnel in spring to replace the ones that don't come up. Two years ago I grew dahlia Cactus Mixed from seed and they were lovely....I think I'll try them again next spring.

 

Last week I started all of my hardy annuals in the tunnel (ammi, nigella, cornflowers,sweet sultan, gyp elegans, clary sage), as opposed to waiting until spring - it worked well last year for the ammi but I didn't get round to trying any others. The trouble is that the beds are still full of this years annuals so I will probably have to just pot on and leave at the back of the tunnel - this worked fine for the ammi but may not do for the rest - you are always learning with gardening and nothing is straightforward!

 

 

Wildlife

Enjoying the lovely weather in the garden - great to be able to work the beds without squelching through the mud. Still frantically deadheading to keep the flowers coming. It's amazing to see how a short spell of warm settled weather brings an abundance of wildlife into the garden....are they always there just hiding in the banks and hedges? Bees, butterflies, hoverflies, ladybirds and grasshoppers everywhere...I never feel alone!

Better Day Today

Am feeling happier after a sunnier and productive day in the garden, although I hear tomorrow is to be horrendous again....good day, bad day.

 

We have lots of lovely foxglove seedlings coming on well....Sutton's Apricot, Pam's Split, Candy Mountain, Summer King and the plain white alba - I can't wait to see them in the spring together with our new biennials for this year - cynoglossum amabile (chinese forget me not) and verbascum phoenicum Antique Rose.

 

Potted on rooted cuttings of rosemary and dug up my patch of comfrey to move to a more suitable spot.....ended up dividing it into about ten new plants. I've planted them beneath my pears and cherries as I've read that they put down a deep tap root which extracts the rich minerals from deep in the soil and brings them up to feed the fruit trees. You can't have enough comfrey - for mulching -"chop and drop" as they say across the pond (found this on my fave new website - www.permies.com - haven't had time to look at it in detail but there seems to be lots of great advice). Also perfect for making your own comfrey fertiliser - I will be giving a demo on my Wildlife Gardening Course on Saturday 22nd September (plug plug)! Details on our website here !

Geese in Chevron Flight

I was sitting in the carpark of our local shop tonight when I noticed the geese in chevron flight. It set me to thinking.........that time of year thou mayst in me behold.........I have been in denial, ever the optimist, surrealist.........totally banking on an Indian Summer but it's not going to happen is it? My late sown broad beans, peas and french beans have all been in vain, I've been overzealous in my deadheading so sure that my flowers would fight back all the better with an abundance of fresh growth and buds.

I've now reached the stage where I think...just bring it on....let Autumn steal our Summer from us....the summer that never was.

Everything suddenly seems paler, older.
Summer's comfort is plundered,
far-off marches played on gold trumpets
float over the scented fog.....

Three Autumns
Anna Akhmatova

(In a poetry mood...have been printing off Heaney and Hardy for the son's GCSE english).

 

Poetry...my secret obsession.....don't want to scare people off but I find it's like red wine...the more you drink/read the more you appreciate its depth, structure, style and lingering finish....and the more you want to delve into new vineyards/poets.

My dearest granny, who fevourishly scoured every charity shop that the public transport system would take her to, gave me a first edition (1969) Penguin collection of Selected Poems - Anna Akhmatova. It lay in my car untouched until I stopped for lunch one day (in a job that involved alot of driving around the Province) near the lakes outside Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh. I could not set it down - had to read it cover to cover and I wasn't really into poetry in those days. I'm sure it's so carefully translated (it was lost for a few years when lent to a relative and in desperation to reread I bought a more recent edition from Amazon - such a let down..dare I say prosaic) but wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to enjoy her poems in their mother tongue - surely something is lost along the way.

Anyway I've loved her ever since......she drew me to all things Russian for a time, from her biography to Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes - the most readable brute of a book that I've come across and I'm no intellect.

Before I get the urge to go, I must gratefully acknowledge another great lady who started all of this rambling in my head (the geese).

All that stays is dying, all that lives is getting out
See the geese in chevron flight
Flappin' and a-racin' on before the snow
They got the urge for going and they've got the wings to go.

Back to flowers tomorrow - I promise x

Fave August Flowers

 I can't believe how the time has flown - the kids are back at school anyday. Am I the only one that procrastinates every year until I have only a day or two left to shop for the dreaded uniforms - I never learn. Anyway, August is almost over and I haven't mentioned my top 5 flowers for picking so here goes!

 

5) Phlox - nice tall, straight stems and perennial - the vase life is terrific... a lovely scent too! 

 

 

4) Snapdragons - they provide a lovely vertical spire in a bouquet now that the bulk of the toadflax is over and there are some beautiful colours available...my favourite this year is Apple Blossom but they are so hard to grow from seed and I don't like having to buy in plugs - I'm going to try propogating from cuttings this year - will let you know how I get on. (Pic to follow).

 

3) Cosmos - just beautiful, no matter which variety you grow, great for wildlife (bees and burnet moths), easy to grow from seed and lovely in every vase.

 

 

2) Verbena bonariense - no staking required, no removing leaves to condition, nice long straight stems and such an iridescent colour - of course the butterflies love it too!

 

 

1) Dahlias - what can I say - they are unbeatable for the wow factor, colour range, and number of flowers per plant, as long as you keep picking them and give them a regular feed, they will produce bucket loads of flowers. They are also the most rainproof flower in the garden. Slugs will devour them when growth starts in the spring but if you can fend them off (for another post) and get them established, they will romp away.