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.
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| 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!
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| 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
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| 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.
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| 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.
