the waxing moon
It is a waxing moon. Nature is waking.
Throughout the night lapwings call from the fields. Unearthly cheap trumpet toots accompany crazy display flights on overbalanced wings. During the day a tawny owl calls.
Twenty lots of frogspawn in George's Pond so far - the most we've recorded on our site.
Frogs and toads have been on the move. We've placed signs along the lane to warn of frogs and toads crossing. A depressing text from our gamekeeper friend telling of many squashed overnight. Utterly horrible. Safe in the garden, little male toads in the pond chirrup in the moonlight. No sign yet of hedgehogs.
I sited a nest box within our boundary privet hedge and today it appeared to have attracted a pair of tree sparrows. In the orchard it seems that another nest box has been adopted by tree sparrows. We make no assumptions.
Our first house sparrow male seems to have adopted the colony box above the kitchen door. He sits calling from the clipped standard bay. I need another dense evergreen shrub that can sit beneath the bay in our Fragrant Garden. House sparrows like the protection afforded by dense growth. And with good reason. A male sparrowhawk swooped in and took a brambling from the feeders this week and the following day thumped into the kitchen window. It flew away unharmed.
Bramblings remain our most-numerous garden bird. Lesser redpolls and siskins are still with us although all will depart next month. Sedentary greenfinches, chaffinches and goldfinches will surely breath a sigh of relief when their competitors leave.
Having been organic vegetable gardeners for forty years, it came as a surprise to have our gardening world 'turned upside down' by the talk given recently by Charles Dowding. We're now fully converted to using his methods of no-dig cultivation. These days, the Head Gardener can be found watching Charles's youtube videos whenever she can find a quiet half hour. I've used all of the manure we've had stored mulching the Vegetable Garden beds. I've turned one of the compost bays - a tonne of compost. But the winter weeding saw too many small weeds with soil in their roots to allow the compost to reach the temperatures it should to kill weed seeds and soil pathogens. It will have to be turned again incorporating fresh lawn clippings to reach the temperatures of 65F or 18C necessary.
Seed week is this week which reminds us to use our own-collected seed. My aim this year is to allow a few stronger plants (not F1) to set seed which will be collected and sown the following year. By doing this I should build up a seed collection from plants that are especially suited to my conditions.
The Woodland Garden took the worst of Storm Gareth. We've had a deliciously rotting dead old tree trunk as standing dead wood but it was toppled by the winds. It was honeycombed with holes and will now dissolve into the soil. Eighty per cent of the life in woodland is dependent on dead and decaying wood. These saproxylic organisms will benefit from the dead wood as they do from the leaves collected and used as a mulch during the winter months.
We've finally created our small bog garden. A metre square, it takes the overflow from the Dragonfly Pond where our grandsons goldfish live. I know how much the Head Gardener is looking forward to getting it planted.
Tonight we try the moth light for the first time in ages.
Throughout the night lapwings call from the fields. Unearthly cheap trumpet toots accompany crazy display flights on overbalanced wings. During the day a tawny owl calls.
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| Frogspawn |
Twenty lots of frogspawn in George's Pond so far - the most we've recorded on our site.
Frogs and toads have been on the move. We've placed signs along the lane to warn of frogs and toads crossing. A depressing text from our gamekeeper friend telling of many squashed overnight. Utterly horrible. Safe in the garden, little male toads in the pond chirrup in the moonlight. No sign yet of hedgehogs.
I sited a nest box within our boundary privet hedge and today it appeared to have attracted a pair of tree sparrows. In the orchard it seems that another nest box has been adopted by tree sparrows. We make no assumptions.
Our first house sparrow male seems to have adopted the colony box above the kitchen door. He sits calling from the clipped standard bay. I need another dense evergreen shrub that can sit beneath the bay in our Fragrant Garden. House sparrows like the protection afforded by dense growth. And with good reason. A male sparrowhawk swooped in and took a brambling from the feeders this week and the following day thumped into the kitchen window. It flew away unharmed.
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| Sweet violets provide a welcome food source for insects beneath the Himalayan Birch. |
Bramblings remain our most-numerous garden bird. Lesser redpolls and siskins are still with us although all will depart next month. Sedentary greenfinches, chaffinches and goldfinches will surely breath a sigh of relief when their competitors leave.
Having been organic vegetable gardeners for forty years, it came as a surprise to have our gardening world 'turned upside down' by the talk given recently by Charles Dowding. We're now fully converted to using his methods of no-dig cultivation. These days, the Head Gardener can be found watching Charles's youtube videos whenever she can find a quiet half hour. I've used all of the manure we've had stored mulching the Vegetable Garden beds. I've turned one of the compost bays - a tonne of compost. But the winter weeding saw too many small weeds with soil in their roots to allow the compost to reach the temperatures it should to kill weed seeds and soil pathogens. It will have to be turned again incorporating fresh lawn clippings to reach the temperatures of 65F or 18C necessary.
Cells of multi-sown spring onions, beetroot and leeks will be first of the spring plantings soon. Early Nantes carrots will be sown in the next couple of days as will the wildflower seeds we're adding to areas of the meadow. Seed sowing needs to be done when the moon is waxing.
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| View across the Woodland Garden |
Money saved and better plants!
In the polytunnel, winter kale (Kestrel) is cropping well with spring cabbage hearting. White flowering broccoli is strong. Our concern is that the polytunnel will be too hot for the brassicas forcing them to 'bolt' - flower. We collected cuttings of perennial kale at the weekend and experimented by attempting to root some in pots and some directly in the ground. If successful, they should make a useful addition to the brassica harvest.
The Woodland Garden took the worst of Storm Gareth. We've had a deliciously rotting dead old tree trunk as standing dead wood but it was toppled by the winds. It was honeycombed with holes and will now dissolve into the soil. Eighty per cent of the life in woodland is dependent on dead and decaying wood. These saproxylic organisms will benefit from the dead wood as they do from the leaves collected and used as a mulch during the winter months.
We've finally created our small bog garden. A metre square, it takes the overflow from the Dragonfly Pond where our grandsons goldfish live. I know how much the Head Gardener is looking forward to getting it planted.
Tonight we try the moth light for the first time in ages.
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