The Arrival of Spring

Well I say Spring but we are experiencing temperatures colder than last December.

Apparently yesterday (11 March) was the coldest March day since 1986.  Consequently I am reluctant to carry out spring pruning until things warm up a little and there's not very much going on in any of my planting areas.


However, bulbs are starting to come through and green shoots
are appearing everywhere.  The star player though is this little snow drop.  It's the only one to surface and is determinedly showing it's face in the freezing temperatures.

It is to be hoped that the weather warms up soon and then the other bulbs will start to flower and I will be able to get down to business with pruning and planting.  So watch this space.

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.