Pond life

Well, the pond and wildlife garden are both coming along well - I went down this morning and the Cardamine pratensis was in flower and I swear that hadn't happened the day before yesterday! The pond is full of tadpoles and the insects are beginning to find it too.



There are also loads of bumble bees, which is even better news as I want it to be a bumble-bee focussed area as one of the main aims. Now if I'm getting loads of them this year when there aren't any of the flowers in bloom yet (it will need next year for spring planting to have happened) that's good - a lot are really going for the Osmanthus delavii which is in full bloom this week and which we inherited.

Spring!

After the big freeze, then the sodden thaw, it's all happening!

1) The snowdrops have appeared from nowhere and are looking great
2) We have two big clumps of frog spawn in the new pond, and we've also had our first sighting of a frog in there too.
and
3) First bumble-bee of the year today. Not down in the new wildlife area as that's a big bare, but on our winter-flowering Jasmine.

Sodden

After a week of being frozen solid, it's now thawed and everywhere is now sodden. This means I can't get out there and finish digging, and get planting, as it's too wet and cold!

It's also pretty 'orrible tramping down the garden to do the bird feeders in the morning - at least when it was frozen the walk down to the end of the garden was pleasant, now it's like Pashendaele down there.

A new one for the bird lis

We had our first ever fieldfare in the garden this week, and it's been around for a couple of days. This is a new tick for the garden list.

Been too frozen up to do any work on the wildlife garden this week - I've got a couple of winter heathers to provide early food for bees, but I can't get 'em planted. Hopefully better weather on the way

Digging day

It's been a good digging morning here, so I've been working on the new bed by the pond, trying to get all the old roots, Vinca and ivy out. I've managed to shift most of it - leaving some Vinca and some ivy where it was actually trying to climb the fence. I've also got the late honeysuckle and the Pyracantha planted.

Found that one of the windfall apples was actually a hibernating frog - it was uninjured though it's dignity (such as frogs have dignity) was dented. There was of course a robin who took advantage of the cultivation process to look for an easy meal.

I came in this afternoon, at which point the long tailed tits showed up and spent the rest of the day hogging the bird feeders!

Resident Woodpecker

We now definitely have a resident Great Spotted Woodpecker in the garden - he turned up soon after we put in the suet log (though doesn't feed on it!) and has been back pretty much every day since. Mainly he likes the peanuts in the mesh feeder.

I also went down the garden and found a starling having a paddle - he seemed totally unconcerned by my turning up!

Pond - December 2008

Here's the new pond - ignore the garden lights arranged like sentries as they're just there to prevent people walking on the particularly grotty edge of the turf. They won't be there in the end, though there will probably be some form of lights.

The "border" next to it is all going to come out and be replaced with more wildlife-friendly plants. The evergreen honeysuckle will stay I think, but I'm going to cut it back hard to give the new planting a fair chance.