Winter's Coming

Poppy

It's getting colder and the dark nights are coming but it's sunny and crisp today.

Outside in my little wildlife patch there is still some life, which is lovely at this time of year and quite unexpected in one case.

After a summer of defending poppies from snails and slugs, this lovely flower is just about to open.  I would have thought that it would be too late for poppies still to flower, but perhaps it's taking the opportunity of flowering when there are hardly any snails around.



Also, all the autumn bulbs are now flowering and they look lovely.  They seem to
survive winds and today they are open and looking happy in the weakening autumn sunshine.  These crocuses are supposed to be bee friendly, but there are no more bees around (at least here on the cliff top where we live).  Anyway the last bit of colour is great.

October Activity

You can tell that autumn is here and winter is drawing on, but we have had some beautiful clear blue days and quite mild weather.  There's not much happening with regard to bees and no more butterflies, but things are still happening in my little wildlife garden.

Crocus Conqueror

The autumn flowering bulbs that I planted in September are now starting to flower. Here is the most advanced of all of them.  We did get a small flower from the Colchicum Autumnale Album, but that did not look anything like as impressive as I hoped or indeed as it does in the link I have given.

My home made wild flower beds now are completely dormant but I have planted some snowdrop bulbs, which will I hope show themselves early next spring to show that new life is approaching in the garden.  I have also planted some dwarf tulips in another border, where they will be protected from the worst of the winds that we get early on in the season.

To attract wildlife and provide a shelter for bugs, I have finally started a log pile from a variety of logs collected at Forge Valley Woods.   I will try to add to it over the winter in order to get a variety of wood types, but here it is as it stands at the moment.  I shall see over the next few months if it attracts anything to settle in it.

I have also now got a stinging nettle plant, which is a very important plant for wildlife in the UK.  It is used for the growth of butterfly larvae and nettle patches are good places to see moths.  I'm not sure where I am going to plant it yet, but will find somewhere in the next week.

Another project for this month will be a bug home.  More news of this later.

Autumn Shoots, Colour and Optimistic Signs

After the depressing north wind that nearly finished all the growth in my wildlife area, I can now see hope of regrowth and some late summer colour.

Nasturtiums

The colour is provided by nasturtiums that are growing strongly and managing o escape the snails that were eating them previously.  I do think the egg shells that I put around the pot has given them a fighting start.  These bright red flowers are lovely to see as summer draws to a close.  The poppies are also growing, but as soon as a flower appears it gets eaten, usually at night so I can't tell who the culprit is.


As you might be able to see from this picture, there is one bud about to flower and one eaten flower off to the left.  I cannot guarantee I will ever see the bud flower as if it comes out at night again it won't be there in the morning!

Tasty Poppies

     
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had planted some autumn flowering bulbs.  These will provide some colour and also attract and bees that might

Two tiny shoots mid photo

still be around.  I have finally  noticed some growth as you can see from this picture.  There are four coming through like this in the same pot. No sign of others at the moment, but it shows that something is happening..



The Sea Thistle (Eryngium Gigantium) that was so popular and good at attracting bees withered and died, or so I thought.  But now there is the tiniest shoot coming out of the broken stump proving that there is still life and this plant might come back bigger and stronger next year.

Sea Thistle Shoot

Finally, the buddleia which was so badly battered by the wind, is now growing leaves again and looking quite healthy.  Proving what a tough little plant it is.   I haven't seen one butterfly on it, but I have in the last two weeks seen a cabbage white butterfly and two red admirals.

Prompted by this I have now put a log sheet in the front of our Wildlife Watching folder so that we and guests can log any interesting wildlife sightings either in the grounds of Phoenix Court of the nearby area.

Bad storm = bad news

Oh dear, a really strong northerly wind on Thursday, together with torrential rain has made my buddleia look quite ill.  I hope it does manage to pull round now things have got calmer as it still hasn't attracted one butterfly.  Obviously this points to what a bad year it has been in 2012 for butterflies.  With any luck the buddleia will come back stronger next year and butterflies might get weather that gives them more of a chance.

I'm not going to attach a picture of the buddleia, it's too depressing!

The bulbs I planted about 10 days ago still have potential to bring some late summer colour and nasturtiums are still flowering and dodging snails!

August Success

August is a very busy month here at Phoenix Court and I have very much had to let my tubs do their own thing, with the occasional bit of watering from me during dry periods.  I now find that each time I go out to my garden patch there are often three bees or so buzzing around the plants, which is a lovely stage to get to.  The absolute star performers in bee attraction are the sea hollies and the hebe.  The sea holly shown in the video was planted last year and is looking much healthier than the one I planted in a large tub this year.  But both are popular with bees.

Other things that are also of interest are flowers on the herbs such as golden marjoram and mint.

Flowering mint

Still no butterflies showing an interest in the buddleia.  In fact I haven't seen any butterflies around here this summer other than a loan cabbage white fluttering at the front of Phoenix Court.

To add some late colour and further interest to bees, I yesterday planted some Autumn flowering bulbs - Colchicum Autumnale Album and Conqueror crocus.  These should flower in the next few weeks.  Obviously still at risk from slugs but the egg shells appear to be working on a poppy, which is starting to flourish again.

Evasive action

I have mentioned a few times about snails eating my poppies and nasturtiums.

Well I heard a while ago that snails and slugs don't like going over egg shells. So I have used egg shells from three breakfast servings, crushed them up and put them in the tubs that are being attacked.

I'll see how it goes and hopefully the plants will get a chance to recover.

Progress Update

It's good to see the occasional success from my efforts and earlier today I noticed this.  It's not the clearest picture, but just underneath the tied up bamboo canes there is a spider, which was making it's way in and out of the canes.  It's the dark little speck against the stone wall.  Well, I know it's there and it's very welcome.

Bumble bee on Sea Thistle

Also, I am often now seeing bumblebees around the plants that are
flowering.  These really are the most lovable insects that are lovely to see around my plants and it is so important that we all do everything we can to help
and aid their survival.

Bumblebee on hebe flower

After a slight battle with snails, who have been thriving in the damp weather, it's great now to have nasturtium plants flowering as these are very popular with bees and other insects.  I have a few flowering around the tubs and plant beds now.  They make up for the poppies that were enthusiastically eaten by snails.  I actually saw one snail eating a flower, but was too incensed to take a picture.  Looking on the internet, I am not the only person suffering a the hand of snails but at least now the two poppy plants are starting to fight back although there are no flowers at the moment!

Garden Bioblitz 2012

Last weekend I took part in the 2012 Garden Bioblitz, which involves finding as many wild flowers (those in your garden that were not deliberately planted) and all wildlife that is in your garden or flying over your garden for a 24 hour period.  This involves taking pictures, identifying the items/creatures and recording the pictures on iSpot and details on iRecord.  I have a very difficult growing space, as I have mentioned before, but I thought I would give the Bioblitz a go as a way of finding out how, if at all, I have managed to attract wildlife and wild flowers.  It was a lovely sunny, warm day so there was no hardship being out and about taking photos.


Here are some pictures of what I did manage to find.  

Ribwort Plantain

Some identification of plants was given by most helpful twitterers who were also doing their Bioblitz at the same time.  Examples of this are:-  Ribwort Plantain, a weed, which grows very successfully on our lawn.  Obivously not a rare component of grass land, but it's there and now I know what it is.  It does seem to be like be insects.  

White stonecrop

Also identified by a twitterer was White Stonecrop.  This nestles on a part of a wall where some of the brick work has come away and again seems very popular with insects.  As a type of Sedum, I guest that's why it's quite hardy and also popular to wildlife.  Anyway, now I know what it is it can stay!

Almeria with a bee

Then I suppose there were the usual things.   You might just about be able to see this bee on one of my almeria plants.  I noticed it first of all on the White Stonecrop, but it moved around and I managed to get a picture here.

Then I noticed this spider, which looks suspended in mid air, but was actually building a web between to the railings around our carpark.

Spider building a web

We always have clover growing on our lawn and I have tried to move some to my wild flower area, but this is an example of the genuinely wild growing clover.

Red clover

As I moved tubs and rocks around I realised we have a whole population of wood lice.  These were very difficult to photograph as the moment they were exposed to the sunlight they scurried away down cracks or into the earth.

centipede

But possibly my most exciting find (although not remarkably rare) was this centipede. Also hidden underneath a tub but in one of the wells at the front of Phoenix Court.  These areas get very little light and so it's difficult to grow anything, but they do seem to be popular areas for insects and bugs.

Obviously I also had to note the ever-present seagulls but didn't get a picture of any of them flying overhead or nesting on the roof.  Other sightings were a ladybird, an unidentified and difficult to photograph bug on a car tyre parked on our car park and a type of daisy that I am still trying to identify.  

Still though no sign of any butterflies on the buddleia, which is flowering away.  Maybe this will happen later in the year.

Not mega results and I do hope that by Garden Bioblitz 2013 I have more to find but it's a start.

Buddleia

It's a lovely day here in Scarborough and my Buddleia is starting to flower. No butterflies and I've just heard it's a bad year for them because of the wet weather. Let's hope the Scarborough butterflies find my Buddleia.

Clover

I did mention that I had surplanted some clover from our lawn to my wildlife area. This is doing well and on a lovely sunny morning like today there are insects buzzing around all the plants.

More planting

Hebe, Poppy and Sedum

With a few more tubs moving from the front of our guest house to the back I have done a bit more planting.  This might be it for this year as I want to now see what happens, ie what attracts wildlife and what actually also survives, but we will have to see as the year progresses.  Anyway, I have put in the following - sedum selskianum, achillea x lewisii King Edward, and Hebe Blue Star also another Iceland Poppy.

Achillea x lewisii King Edward

These all are hardy up to grade 9, which appears to cover northern coastal areas.

I already have one hebe, which is recovering from a bad stay at the front of the guest house with north winds battering it.  So 2 hebes, might work quite well together.

Last weekend we had a strong wind battering all the plants I have put in and they all survived.  The most pleasing success was the buddleia, which still looks very well, although slightly bent.  It appears to be much hardier than I originally thought and has developing buds, which I hope will flower soon.

A sliver of success

It was a beautiful evening yesterday and so I went out to take a picture of the sea.  As I passed this geranium plant I noticed a bee buzzing around all the flowers and enjoying the plant and the sunshine.  It's really the first one I have seen so far as the weather has been so dire, but this at least shows that things I have planted are of interest.

On clearing out an area at the front of our guest house, I discovered some daisies flowering quite happily.  Obviously the old idiom is correct that a weed is a plant in the wrong place.  Because I took up a few with their roots and planted them in my little attempted wildflower garden.  At first they looked as if they were thinking - we didn't say we wanted to move,  but now after the sunny evening and some rain today they look much happier, so I hope they do settle in.  I also transplanted a couple of clover cuttings to another pot in the hope that they might grow.  Fingers crossed!

Wildflower Area

This is another piece of optimistic gardening!  Today, in the beautiful sunshine that Scarborough has been experiencing, I have finally managed to start a small area that is going to become a wildflower garden.

It is made from three of the trays that our breakfast mushrooms are delivered in.  I have put a base in with holes and then covered the base with small stones.  Around the exposed edges I have put moss and then potting compost in the middle.  As it's now too late to plant true wildflower seeds I have bought one poppy, and also some marigolds and pansies.  From experience one poppy is enough as it will produce seeds to create more plants next year.  Marigolds attract butterflies, and can also deter unwanted aphids.  Pansies are loved by bees and butterflies.  Marigold and pansy seeds were included in a pack of seeds to attract birds and butterflies in our local garden centre.

My cornflower seedlings are still coming through but taking their time.  If they succeed then some of them can be transplanted into this area.

A further bug b&b

Bamboo cane bug home

As a follow up from my last post,  I now have the tied up bamboo canes in place and here's a picture on a lovely sunny day in Scarborough.

I have decided to put it by the sea thrift and also the sea holly, which you can just about see here.  But as this is starting to grow a couple of lovely thistles then it might just be a good place.

Today I have seen a hoverfly buzzing around a hebe I recently moved to the wildlife garden and also around the sea thrift underneath the cane bundle.  It's only a start but does mean that the flowers are of interest and they are getting noticed.

Cornflower Seedlings

I have started to see the cornflower seeds coming through.  Not very dramatic as yet, but obviously going the right way.  There should be some to move into the wild flower patch I am creating.

Poorly hebe

I moved a small and struggling hebe to the wildlife garden area earlier this week.  At the front it was being bombarded by wind and also not getting much sun.  So I cut it right back to the new growth that was fighting its way through and moved it to the back of the guest house, where there is more sun all day.  It looks slightly pathetic at the moment but obviously now has a chance to grow to its potential.  Here's how it looks now.  Hopefully in a few weeks it will look much better and will start to flower.

Wildlife homes

Well the weather is still fighting against me and I am sure everything must be later than last year.  However, all things planted are still alive, and some are thriving.  The cornflower seeds planted at the end of May are starting to show and I am  in the process of planning a small wildflower garden area.  More on this later.

For now, I have created two trial wildlife homes as suggested in http://www.wildonwight.co.uk/doyourbit.

The first is about 20 pieces of bamboo cane cut to roughly 15cm long and tied together with string.  I can't quite decide where to site it yet, so no picture in situ, but it will hopefully attract the attention of some insects when put in a permanent home.  This will most likely be from the railings of our car park near some of the plants that should attract the insects in the first place.

The second one, which has proved rather difficult to photograph is an upturned drinks bottle, with rolled up corrugated cardboard inside.  I have put it behind a bench to protect it from the worst of the weather.  Despite some heavy showers and thunder storms the cardboard inside is still dry.  This is placed near my buddleia, herbs, cornflower and lavender.  So again these plants will attract the insects that will hopefully wish to explore this home.

Fingers crossed!

Chelsea Inspired

Well the sun's out, I've been watching the Chelsea Flower Show all week and also got some inspiration from Grows on You.  Hence a further bit of planting has taken place.  This is Golden Marjoram, which has been suggested to me as another beneficial herb for butterflies and bees.  It adds to the other herbs to make a slightly bigger herb section.

Alongside this I have planted some cornflower seeds.  Nothing to see there as yet, but hopefully a lovely bright blue flower to attract insects of all types.

My most optimistic bit of planting is a buddleia.

This has been suggested by one of our guests and somebody on Grows on You.  It seems to be fairly hardy to coastal weather and wind, also it appears to be able to grow out of walls and other strange places so hopefully a large tub in sunlight will be OK.

Fingers crossed!

Bumble Bee Friendly

After watching a programme about the Chelsea Flower Show last night I found out about the Bee Kind campaign running by the Bumblebee Conservation Society.  You can list the plants in your garden on the site and you get a score for the bee friendliness of your garden.  We scored 837.  I struggled with the type of garden.  This is a good score for a window box (500 average) but poor for a small garden (2500 average).  I can't work out whether we are more a window box or a tiny, evolving garden.  Anyway, its a start.

I have recently also started using a site called Grows on You.  This is a good way of listing plants that you are growing and also asking queries from other gardeners. I posted a question about coast hardy bee and butterfly friendly plants and got loads of interesting and useful suggestions.  So that will give me something to work on over the next few weeks.

Progress in May

Well, it's been a while since the weather has been good enough to check the progress of planting.  Or at least take any pictures.  Today is windy but there is a lovely blue sky and sun.

Nasturtium seeds planted in March

Things are continuing to grow and progress to a state where they might attract any brave wildlife that wishes to venture out.

Firstly, the nasturtium seeds are doing well.  These were planted in March.  Elsewhere in other borders some seeds planted in April are starting to show.  I did wonder whether they had been drowned by all the rain, but they are hardy little plants and are now pushing through.

The herbs I planted are surviving the winds well and the chive plant is looking particularly healthy, producing flowers, which are the things that will attract insects.

Sea thrift planted this year.

Sea thrift plants are popular with bees and are also particularly hardy in harsh coastal conditions.  As mentioned before in this blog, one survived well last year and so I planted a few more.  These are all producing flowers and brightening up the flower beds.

Sea thrift planted last year

Meanwhile, I have also found out that Rutland Terrace is one of about 5 major sea gull nesting sites in Scarborough - aren't we lucky!  They are nesting on the roof, dropping moss out the front of Phoenix Court and generally making themselves at home.  And, of course, they managed to take out the television aerial again yesterday.

Sighting of a Blue Tit

          

                                                                           

Well one thing you can say about wildlife is that it never ceases to surprise.  Just when I thought the only birds around were seagulls and the one viewed pied wagtail I saw this. 


It does prove that I am not a wildlife photographer, but this little blue tit was sat high on a branch in St Mary's Churchyard.  It was singing its heart away in the morning sunshine and grew quite a crowd of fans.


What the RSPB says

Too cold to action

Rain, rain and more rain.  What can I say.  North winds too.  At least everything is getting a good watering and things are settling in well and starting to flower.  Nasturtium seeds are bravely peeking the first leaves out of the ground and all things planted are looking settled.  The chive plant has got buds, which should flower soon.

It's lovely to sea the seagulls out of the front windows enjoying the north wind and obviously having a game floating on the wind.

No sign of anything else yet, though.

When its a bit warmer and drier I will take some more pictures of how things stand.

Drip, drip, drip, little April showers

Well, it's been so wet for several days now I haven't done anything else to the garden area.  However, despite all forecasts we have had two dry days.  Here's the same view when the rain stopped.

This picture is taken just after St Marys Church, a very historic church close to Phoenix Court.  The grave yard includes the grave of Anne Bronte and the church itself has suffered attacks in the first world war and during the English Civil War.  It still stands bravely on the cliff top.

I suppose we need the rain and it will be benefiting all the plants I have put in already.  Today I did see a huge bumble bee, quite early I thought, but it was lovely to see it.  As soon as I get time I am going to make a bee log.  I have got all the necessary bits - more on this in future posts.

Pied Wagtail

Today we saw a pied wagtail wandering peacefully across our car park.  It was grazing on the grass area, obviously looking for bugs and insects - looked very peaceful.  This isn't the first time we have seen a pied wagtail on our car park and it seems an unusual bird to find around here as we normally only see Seagulls.

Not the one that likes our car park, but it was like this.

An alternative name is the Gypsy Bird and it appears to have a variety of widespread locations - it does like water.   Anyway it was lovely to see it.  I tried to get a picture but as soon as I got my camera it flew away.  I will persevere, but here is a picture of a pied wagtail in another location.

Herb Planting

Well, most people don't know how to cope with the weather changes over the last two weeks, I can't imagine how wildlife are coping.  Last week was warm, sunny and dry.  It was a false start to summer and obviously far too early for this lovely island we live on.  This week has seen a fierce north wind followed by an easterly wind and rain for a whole day.

Waves coming in across the North Bay

Obviously we can't complain about this as we do need the rain.  However, during the warm sunny week I was filled with enthusiasm for planting and gardening.  I planted a few nasturtium seeds, which should start to germinate over the next few weeks.  Also I planted four herb plants.  Rosemary, Chives, Sage and Thyme.  These will all be useful for cooking, but also seem to be popular with bees and butterflies.  At least they got the warmth when first planted and then a fantastic drink of rain water.  So they should start to thrive.  The mint from last year is definitely looking extremely healthy.

Not grand enough to be called a herb garden!

No surprise, though, that I moved them all out of the way of the wind when it was at its strongest point.  I didn't want them to get destroyed before they had a chance to make an effect.

Sea Thrift

Sea Thrift -one year old

Last year a sea thrift plant survived very successfully in one of our flower beds.  This is an extremely hardy sea side plant (armeria maritima) and is well loved by bees, moths and butterflies.






This year I have planted three more - two pink, one white.  This is one that has been planted in the gravel area to the side of our car park.

One of three new plants

It's been lovely weather this week so they are starting to look quite settled in.

What we are attracting without trying

It seems we are not the only people who have large numbers of ladybirds around the garden area.  There seems to be a massive surge in their numbers.  From a look on the internet it appears that this can happen occasionally and so long as they have aphids to feed on they will continue to thrive.  It just seems odd that there are so many around at such an early stage in the year.  If anyone has any further information, please let me know.

The other thriving creatures are of course, SEAGULLS.  Once again they are nesting on the roof so we are starting to see dropped bits of nest material at the front of the guest house.  Also the annual event of our television satellite being out of order has once again occurred.  The long suffering television repair man knows only too well that seagulls like nesting in satellites and also with the amount of additional movement that happens on the roof at this time, any wiring can easily be dislodged!  Just one of the joys of living by the sea.

First actions of the year

Sea Thistle

Last year I started planting things that would hopefully attract wildlife.  This was a mint plant, a sea thistle, lavender and nasturtiums.  After a long winter it's time to look at what has survived from the items planted last year.  Surprisingly the mint, which looked dead to the world last autumn, is thriving.  The one sea thistle also looks healthy.  We removed the remains of the rambling nasturtiums and will recycle the seeds at the right time.  The lavender is also doing well. 

Lavender

Optimistically I have now planted another Sea Thistle, this time Eryngium Gigantium.  Any thistles will attract insects and these are particularly hardy and look quite dramatic.

Eryngium Gigantium