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National Garden Scheme garden visits 

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I become a boar..

30 November 2024

Expectant males

Frogs last bred in our George’s Pond in 2021 - and successfully too as the photo of spawn shows. And so does this photo of expectant males in the mood for love - eyes staring unblinkingly back at me on a warm March evening in that year..

After that success there has been no further successful spawning of frogs.

We scratched our heads. 

Could predators be the problem? My trail cameras picked up no major culprit.

Possibly a disease? There was no evidence of diseased animals.

Frogs, it was said, sometimes have fallow breeding years. Perhaps this was the reason..

We could find no explanation in that year or in the spring that followed when, once again, there was no spawning. We were getting concerned.

During this time, friends with garden ponds reported bumper years while no successful spawning took place here.

Could the difference be that pond vegetation had grown and filled ‘the beach’ where the frogs had previously gathered? Garden ponds often don’t have the same issues of encroaching vegetation. So, perhaps frogs need an open area of pond edge unlike their toad cousins who were frequently coupling ‘in amplexus’ in all of the vegetated areas around the pond. My 2021 photos certainly seem to support this as the frogs and their spawn were in open, shallow water.

Toads in amplexus 2024

Before humans despoiled natural processes, ponds such as George’s Pond would have been visited by large herbivores like deer, cattle or boar. They would have trampled the pond edge and grazed on encroaching vegetation that continued to grow in winter when other sources of food may have been exhausted. In doing so, they would have prevented ponds becoming engulfed by a succession of first low-growing water plants until eventually sallows and other water-loving trees would have grown and the pond would have become a muddy hollow..

'Beach' cleared ready for spring

There was nothing for it but for me to become a boar - or other such large. pond-visiting mammal. Armed with my brushcutter scythe I entered the pond to near-booter depth and cut away vegetation to create an open area. Continuing the role play I stamped about the pond edge to replicate the hooves of ruminants. By doing this, I also hope to open the seedbed to enable wider germination of native wildflowers.

Other open areas will be created for frogs before spring whilst still leaving vegetation for amorous toads.

I will have to wait until spring to see whether the mystery has been solved.

This blog moves to www.sustainablegarden.co.uk very soon.

Joy in nature

24 November 2024

Yesterday an emotionally-buffeting day with mum and quite probably another to come.

A necessary pre-breakfast walk to reenergise and load with serotonin and endorphins. Outside is now a warm 15C.

Heavy rain in gusting wind. I’m a North Sea trawler-man and the wet penetrates my waterproofs. I cut my walk short and head back to port.

Trees now bare and ground thick with their leaves.

High tide in George’s Pond.

In ‘Joy’ Nick Cave tells us  “We’ve all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy.”

Lives these days can feel over-burdened with negativity. For ourselves and others we must all find a place for joy - and nature is a great place to find it.

The warmth and dry of the house awaits.

This blog moves to www.sustainablegarden.co.uk soon..

Snow

19 November 2024

Early snow, moving us with a click of the dial from autumn

to winter.

Eight skylarks above calling in easterly flight.

Greenfinches in swaggering control of the bird feeder.

This blog moves to www.sustainablegarden.co.uk soon..

Months and years ..

18 November 2024

A day we’ve worked towards for months, indeed years, came today.

In April, John from Notts Bat Group set up a static detector in the garden and recorded:

• Common pipistrelle
• Soprano pipistrelle
• Brown long-eared
• Daubenton’s
• Noctule
• Natterers
• Leislers?
• Whiskered/Brandts?

.. and possible serotine bat when he monitored the

garden again in September.

We were amazed by this. We’ve worked for a decade opening up our woodland, encouraging native trees to thrive, building up the stock of deadwood throughout the garden as well as creating meadows and ponds. 

All of these measures create food and a nurturing environment for bats but our trees aren’t

sufficiently old with enough fissures to provide lots of roosting and nursery sites for bats. 

We wondered whether our garden is attracting bats from further afield and then wondered how we can provide opportunities for bats to breed in the garden..

To provide more places for roosting and breeding we successfully applied for funding from Severn Trent to provide Schwegler nursery bat boxes for the garden. NBG consider that these boxes are the ones preferred by bats.

Today, members of the NBG joined us and put eighteen bat boxes up onto our trees. We recorded which tree species, height of box, orientation and grid reference for each box. We also relocated two other unused boxes because they were positioned in a tree where branches restricted bats access.

We are entering the quiet time for bats but hope that, when spring comes along and bats become active again, that our boxes will start to be used.

NBG must have enjoyed their lunch because they offered to come back and help monitor the boxes in 2025.

As we sat together, I think we all felt immediately at home with one another, sharing as we did so many things in common including a passion for nature and a determination to make a difference.

Huge thanks to them.

This blog moves to www.sustainablegarden.co.uk soon..

Atmospheric

15 November 2024

The low cloud and mist have woven through the deciduous trees giving us a long, atmospheric autumn that has been quite lovely to walk through. Beech, birch and even sycamore contribute shades of gold. My ‘rake-athon’ continues, sweeping leaves from the drive onto the shrub

borders.

The garden is full of bird movement and calls. Goldfinches are enjoying the big stand of teasel. 

A straggling skein of migratory pink-footed geese in characteristic V- formation overhead. 

Fieldfares, redwings and blackbirds queue on the empty quince to take rich, red crab apples.

A scratching mouse woke us at five this morning, busy in the roof void.

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This blog moves to www.sustainablegarden.co.uk soon.

Beans ..

Tsar (white) , Borlotti (speckled)
and Cobra (black) beans. 

27 October 2024

We grow beans for drying.

They climb up our sticks over the summer, flowering and then, when pollinated will grow pods.

We leave the pods on the plants through summer and into autumn until they begin to dry then finish them in the house.

Mulched climbing beans

We sow Tsar (white) , Borlotti (speckled) and Cobra (black) beans. 

You can plant different beans together and they won’t hybridise as beans are cleistogamous which means they are self-pollinating.

The dried beans are reconstituted and cooked during the winter. They make a great contribution to hearty soups and casseroles.

Some seeds are saved for sowing next year.

This year we’re trying something different. We’ve read that climbing bean plants, if protected from frost, can overwinter in the way that other perennial plants e.g. dahlias can.

The advantage of overwintered plants is that they already have an established root system and should, therefore, be quicker ‘out of the blocks’ than seeds.

It will be interesting to compare any overwintering plants that do survive and plants grown in spring from beans. 

Leaf fall

27 October 2024

Leaf fall.

The leaves of our deciduous garden trees are yellowing.

Sycamore. Silver birch. European larch. Beech.

Spent leaves play a huge part in the natural systems of woodland as well as being a treat to scrunch through.

My ‘Forth Road Bridge’ is our drive. We welcome leaves on the grass and beds but leaves make a squelchy

mess in the drive gravel. No sooner have I cleared leaves than more flutter down to take their place.

You’ll find me clearing leaves several times of the week at this time of year.

I clear leaves onto the soil where they will make a splendid mulch ideal for fungi, invertebrates mammals and foraging birds and then nourish spring bulbs and shrubs.

Southern hawker

22 October 2024

Warm and still.

Dragonflies and damselflies are hunting over the meadow. 

An impressive male southern hawker (Aeshna cyanea) in between forays.

A pancheon of soup

21 October 2024

Busy continuing with the vegetable garden autumn tidy. As compost bins fill, order returns. Much still to do.

In the birch a single linnet in subdued song. A grey wagtail calls overhead.

Parasol mushrooms are impressive stinkers!

I half fill a bucket with big carrots for storage. Early Nantes had been sown, interplanted with tiny kale. Our netting has done the job and all the carrots come up clean. None of the telltale wiggly lines that indicate carrot fly. The once-tiny kale is now in its pomp.

Visitors tomorrow so a ‘pancheon’ of seasonal vegetable soup has been ordered.

Mum spoke of a ‘pancheon’ of soup. I think it’s a dialect word. D.H. Lawrence describes a large cooking pot as a ‘pancheon’ in Sons and Lovers.

Leaks. Carrots. Potatoes. Garlic. Squash. Tomatoes. Fresh rosemary sprigs and dried bay leaves. All from the garden.

Plus a Parmesan rind.

Dried peas are soaking and will be cooked tomorrow for addition to the soup at the end. it’s an old variety we grow called ‘Ambassador’ that is a marrowfat.

If you’re counting that is seven plant species towards your week’s total of thirty - in one bowl.

Home made bread. Of course. Wheat.

Eight.

Beetroot

16 October 2024

Beetroot harvest, a big one too.

We’ve been growing by mulching the soil surface with our own organic compost for five years. We’re seeing evidence of a cumulative improvement in plant health and productivity.

The head gardener grows a pinch of seed in modules and then plants out clumps of little seedlings into the mulched soil. Each little family bunches together and provides shelter and support as the plants grow.

The wet conditions that characterised the first half of the year probably gave momentum to our growing beets. By harvest, let me tell you that some were huge: certainly the biggest we’ve ever grown. Even those bigger than cannonballs weren’t woody as they hadn’t seeded.

Beetroot has tremendous benefits for health - this from the BBC Good Food site:

• Rich in protective antioxidants
• May have anti-cancer properties
• May have anti-inflammatory properties
• May lower blood pressure and heart disease risk
• May improve exercise performance and support energy levels
• May improve digestive health
• May protect the gut
• May support brain health and reaction time
• May be a useful addition to a post-menopause diet
• May relieve symptoms of Raynaud's 

Let me tell you that it is excellent for turbo-charging the gut. We’ll leave that there.

And to multiply up the benefits to the gut microbiome, use grated beetroot, red cabbage and carrot to make a superb, so easy and super-tasty sauerkraut.

Here it is in preparation. Very tasty too.