Beautiful Birds - The Eurasian Wren

#wildlife #birds #uk

A windy day in the garden 17th february 2023

Strong breeze with occasional stronger windy gusts but the air feels warm so really nice to be out in it, a few crocus and snowdrops out and leaf buds swelling everywhere. #weather #crocus #snowdrops #fatsia #water

Rainbow chard isn't all that tender

I sowed my chard in summer last year because I'd mislaid the seeds. despite the late start it grew well and I had a few small harvests later in the autumn before the cold weather set in. On the whole the winter that came was fairly mild but we did have two cold snaps withe temperaures were below zero every night for a couple of weeks, it was enough to kill some brassicas and that's quite unusual I've not really known that except during the exceptional winter of 2010. The chard suffered with die back as I'd expected but I decided to cover it with enviromesh (fleece never seems to last on our veg plot it gets damaged by the wet and wind and just creates a mess) this seems to have been enough to get it through the second prolonged cold snap and it's now growing away so hopefully I'll get more harvests in the spring and I'll also sow more and earlier this time. Must get better at successional sowings! #allotment #growyourown #veg #chard #rainbowchard

Sieving one year old leafmould to use in a seed sowing medium

Sieving one year old leafmould to use in a seed sowing medium, Most of the leaves were oak which I read takes at least two years to break down, apparently not always as most of it is done here in 12 months, great. #compost #allotment #leafmould

 

Sparrows garden 2nd December 2022

After years of House sparrow numbers declining where I live in south Birmingham they appear to be making a good comeback, they're once again the most common bird on my garden feeders and that the familiar squabbling chirps from the hedgerows are back. It's great to see and hear because I remember in the 2000s noticing an almost total absence, the blue tits seem to benefit and they became the most common visitor for us. https://www.savethehousesparrow.com/post/why-are-house-sparrows-dying

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in

Brussels Sprouts

I've never been able to grow good brussels sprouts and find the plants are always affected by anything and everything that is possible to go wrong. Whitefly, moulds, buttons that should be tight blowing (opening instead of forming recognisable compact sprouts), stunted growth and even worse they taste very bitter. I've followed all the usual advice trampling the soil down firmly and adhering to planting times strictly. This season as per usual was full of distractions and as a result, some of my brassicas were left in their trays for far too long before being pricked out and then left too long again in their module trays. They were planted late and had hardly grown so I expected nothing from them. The results have been surprising. Both the brussels and cauliflowers have settled in and grown better than any other previous year. The soil wasn't cultivated very thoroughly either just weeded, raked and covered in a thick mulch of leaves and a sprinkling of blood, fish and bone for each planting hole. This was all done in almost pitch blackness as an afterthought at the end of the day. yet here they are thriving the only concern now is to protect the sappy lush growth from the cold so a bit of fleece covering may be in order.