Travellor's Joy - Wild Clematis - Old Man's Beard - (Clematis vitalba)

 Saw a great load of Travelor's Joy wild clematis on a walk today and it's made me want to grow it from seed for it to scramble among hedges in our garden, 

The flowers are attractive to pollinators and that's something I always look for in a garden worthy plant I think the flowers are unshowy quite plain and white but I can do subtle it doesn't all have to be blowsy, the seedheads do put on a show though. 

Planting bulbs

 

 

 Planted all the bulbs that arrived a few days ago except for the tulips (Tulipa batalinii 'Bronze Charm') which are going on the allotment as they always last longer there. I plant them deeply (around a foot), without grit and even on our heavy clay most larger flowered hybrids glower reliably for at least five years, and if we're lucky some varieties such as Tulip 'gorilla' last a decade or more.

 

The bulbs I actually did plant began with Ipheion 'Jessie' which oddly arrived in the green, I'm not sure if that was deliberate I suspect not but hopefully they'll still flower. I've never grown them before and my combination with crocus may not work but we'll see.  Then I planted six Hyacinthus 'Blue Jacket' I try to do some hyacinths every year and hopefully they join some of the ones I'd planted in previous years. They remind me of Easter at infant school when large tables of potted bulbs were on display in the assembly hall filling the whole place with scent, hated school but there are some memories like that I like to revisit and the best way to trigger the strongest memories is through the snozzle. I really enjoyed the school library as well both for the many nature books and the TV. I also planted some white Hyacinthus 'Carnegie' both varieties layered with Crocus vernus 'Flower Record'. Glancing at the website I bought them from I see they're now all out of stock so I'm glad I caught them when they were available. The Hyacinths are for me and the crocuses are for the pollinators, they were popular last Spring.

 

I put a bird cage over the pots and four big rocks, between the foxes, badgers and squirrels  it's a battle but without wildlife the garden loses its main purpose for me. I never saw badgers and foxes here when I was young, and I rarely heard tawny owls but now it's a familiar sound after dark, at a time nature seems to be losing it's good to recognise these successes. The long warm summer was also good for ladybirds and butterflies I saw my first 11 spotted yellow lady bird and my first ever hummingbird hawkmoth on the rose campion (Now Silene coronaria it used to be Lychnis coronaria) grown from seed collected from a neighbour's plot in 2023 I planted it in the flower bed behind the potatoes, I hope it self sows. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to stop cats crapping in your crocus

  

 

I like to encourage wildlife so won't be blocking any gaps in the fence, plus I doubt it would be effective because cats climb gates and fences, might work for the big lug of a ginger tom I doubt he's that agile.

 

In raised beds and newly dug ground I poke sticks in at regular intervals this makes it a more complicated task for cats to sit and do their thing, still harder for them to attempt to bury it, although on our heavy clay their attempts are futile they usually end up just spreading it around, lovely. The regular feline visitors have avoided my protected areas and have used other parts of the garden to muck all over instead yay I'll just have to eat more oranges and grapefruit. 

 

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.

Gender fluidity / binary

People are always scared of change that's why there is ridicule and angst against the whole idea of gender fluidity. An anti PC backlash as venomous as any veganazi. Referring to a group in a genderless way feels like the majority's "normal" gender status is being taken awake for the sake of the feelings of a few, but it isn't. We're all used to being called them or they in plural or when someone doesn't know our name and if an individual wants to be called these things it's their right and doesn't affect anyone else. We need to stop being so weak and defensive thinking our rights are infringed everytime someone merely speaks up for their own. I was born a man and identify as one but I get it and don't care if a gender spectrum is "real" or not. That it's physiological, psychological or "fake" doesn't matter a jot because it's not my business what others decide. It requires little effort to change how I describe them (yay I remembered). To go on and on that it is all made up and not real is just making excuses for yourself and pretending it isn't actually you projecting and forcing your feelings on to others rather than vice versa. Just be happy with who you are and allow others to do likewise and above all grow a fucking backbone you snowflakes and stop seeing threats where there aren't any. It's good to be a man or a woman and always will be, celebrate it. But if you want a bit of both or neither go for it. It can only make life richer and more interesting.