shirls gardenwatch

On safari - Redpoll first

2012-02-21T10:00:00.007Z

After snowy/icy roads & car trouble, our third recent attempt to visit SWT Loch of the Lowes was a successful one in more ways than one. Our Sunday Safari took us to the benches inside the Visitor Centre, at the observation window, where we joined others in watching the very busy feeders outside.

Redpolls were definitely not on my list of expected birds to see on our visit. Their presence was like a gold star for finally making the trip! There was a little snow around the area so perhaps that’s what brought in the Redpolls this bright afternoon.

I had never seen a Redpoll before. Not being a birder I was guessing what bird this was that was sharing a niger seed feeder with a male Chaffinch. Just look a the head size difference below...

My ID guess had been a Linnet (not seen one of them before either). I asked a member of staff and she told me she could see why I guessed that (it was really the red markings I was going with not knowing where they should be).

We were told we were looking at a male Redpoll. We were also told what the female might look like and shown it in a book. Yep... as per usual it would be duller than the male. I didn't expect we would see a female too but as you can see above... some time later we did :-)

Coffee in one hand and video camera on tripod at the ready I always look to catch something different on my visit to this Centre. I was delighted, I’ve also had a bit of fun with my short 2 minute film. Note there is background music as I need to cut the sound of people’s voices. Enjoy…

I’ve looked out this observation window many times but perhaps not during February as winter weather is usually a problem my car journey to the centre. Gosh there were more Chaffinches on Sunday than I think I have ever seen there.

Mallards and pheasants joined the Chaffinches on the ground below the niger seed feeders. Frantic feeding was seen there as well as considerable acrobatic flying from blue, great & coal tits above as my video shows.

Not caught on camera, one amusing moment saw a male Mallard and male Pheasant have a bit of head on squabble. On this visit I was hoping to get some photos & video of the Red Squirrel. Unusually for our visits we never saw a single squirrel.

My next lookout was going to be for the tiny well camouflaged Treecreeper. After capturing images of the Redpoll my eyes turned to one particular tree I have seen them feed on before. I just adore watching this charming little bird but don’t see it on every visit. You need a sharp eye to spot it. However, spot it I did despite the distractions from so many birds at the feeders.

Switching back and forth with still and video camera for the Redpoll, when it came to the Treecreeper it was video footage with better light I was looking for. As Treecreeper viewing time would be short I gave the still camera to my daughter and the girl did good! I caught some video which you can see below too.

The conditions were good for filming despite the usual reflections on the observation window from movement inside the centre. The Treecreeper swooped over to the bottom of a tree trunk from a cut down tree just in front of me and started making its way spirally up it.

I lined up my camera, caught the Treecreeper in the frame and it spent quite a while feeding in the one area. This was brilliant – a good, clear close-up view. I was thrilled.

You can imagine my disappointment then, when I got home and realised that I was too busy enjoying watching the Treecreeper and I hadn’t hit the record button on my video camera… doh! I doubt I’ll ever get quite a view like that again :-(

However, shortly after, the video was recording for view of a Jay feeding at a bird table right in front me. I had never seen that before. Window reflections were more of a problem here, but even so the view of the Jay’s head with eyes and beak were quite a scoop for me. I’ve never seen the Jay so close – what a pretty face it has.

The short video compilation below also shows a capture of a female Great Spotted Woodpecker (my best so far). You can see the difference in size, shape and use of the beaks between the three birds. I always find that fun to watch.

Finally, our Safari quickly concludes with a photo of the female Great spotted Woodpecker that I managed to get, an arty shot of a male Pheasant by my daughter and her quick capture of the Jay on the tree branch just above the bird table.

We hope you enjoyed sharing this trip with us and will consider going on Safari with us again :-)

Quickly, before you go I have a question for you - I’ve asked around and been told it was a Lesser Redpoll we saw. Can others confirm this?

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in February 2012. The images above were taken on February 19th 2012.

GBBD: planting in lawn

2012-02-15T18:59:00.004Z

Every year I look forward to seeing my lawn spring into life. Without a shadow of doubt one of my better gardening decisions was to plant a large number of mixed Spring bulbs before seeding an area of lawn a few years ago. Crocus are the first to say hello.

As of now we haven’t had the coldest of winters and very little snow. Postings on previous year’s 15th of February for GBBD tell me that crocus usually begins flowering at this time. The exception there was during the very long prolonged cold and snow spells of the previous two winters.

I adore the crocus growing in my lawn. Narcissi, Fritillaries will follow with the wildflower Lady’s Smock joining the lawn party now too. I plan to experiment more with planting in lawn over the next few years.

Another experimental planting of wild primroses on a small grass mound seems to be a success now too. This is early for the primrose to be in flower in my garden. Only one flower… and I nearly missed it when out with my camera today as I wasn’t expecting it. Last year I planted Lady's Smock down the gentle slope. I'm looking forward to seeing if this will be a success or not.

Planting in lawn works particularly well for my style of gardening where I am always lifting and relocating plants in my garden. Doing this disturbs the bulbs and the depth they need to flower and then I wonder where they went come the next Spring.

Bulbs in gravel work better than in soil borders for me but as I will move plants in gravel too then this results in losses there too. However, on the positive side to this they alliums seed themselves further around after I disturb them and I get a more natural planting. I do like that.

Today I’m joining Carol and other garden bloggers on posting on what’s in flower in my garden just now. Orientalis Hellebores have been giving a good show with many wonderful deep read buds just about to open.

As we’ve had a much warmer winter with fewer hard frosts my perennial wallflower Erysimum 'Bowles' Mauve' still has nice grey/green foliage and a flower.

A border revamp at my back door after replacement paving after frost damage from last winter seems to have lost my snowdrops (unless I’ve put them safe in a pot somewhere) but my snowflakes are breaking through the ground just now.

Berries on the Skimmia japonica 'Olympic Flame' are adding a bit of colour to a border seen from my window. This suggests I have a female plant but in order to get berries next year I’ll need to get a male to plant nearby. There begs the question – how can you tell the difference when standing at a plants table?

Crocus planted in in areas of my garden that catch longer spells of sunshine at this time of year (making the ground warmer) are not surprisingly seen in flower earlier than in areas of grass or borders that see less sun. I quite like that as it spreads the flowering period especially in my partially shaded back garden.

Final image for today shows a brief preview of a revamped back door border where I’m hoping to try to successfully ‘not disturb’ the considerable number of crocus bulbs planted there. I’m hoping it will be a great show from my kitchen window this year.

Perhaps I should laminate a small image of this area in flower and peg it to a stick in the border as a permanent reminder to keep my gardening tools out!

A major attic sorting of my daughters’ school and childhood stuff has taken time away from blogging this last couple of weeks. This has been an overdue job. It has been a wonderful trip down memory lane. I am trying to keep my focus to finish this job so once the gardening year starts I can take on another overdue and equally big job – my wildlife pond build. This year – it is going to happen!

Wishing a Happy GBBD to everyone taking part today. Sending my thanks to everyone who has visited and left comments on my blog in the last few weeks. I’ll get to answering them and visiting you very soon.

Finally, to my gardening visitors I have a treat for you with an overdue garden visit posting to The National Botanical Garden of Wales coming up very soon. After much trouble in deciding which of the many photos to use I decided on a slideshow video. This is a garden visit I would recommend for all ages.

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in February 2012.

New Hedgehog Hibernation Survey starts 1st FEB 2012

2012-01-31T00:46:00.007Z

F.A.O. Everyone who joined the RSPB last weekend with their Big Garden Birdwatch: I hope you enjoyed your bird count and now I’d like to invite you to wander along to Hedgehog Street. There’s a survey there that you might be interested in too - I hope so :-)

The People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) has been regularly catching my attention since I joined Twitter. Hedgehogs have been catching my attention since I began garden blogging.

It’s no surprise then that a campaign to safeguard the future of Britain’s endangered hedgehog through a new survey that is a joint campaign by the PTES and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society also caught my eye.

If you are a blogger and my Hedgehog picture below with info on the survey catches your eye then I’d like to invite you use it in a blog post. If you are unable to copy it just email me and I’ll send it to you :-)

In support of the Hedgehog Survey I am reaching out to everyone who puts up bird feeders in their gardens – hence the RSPB Birdwatch connection. If you have hanging bird feeders you most likely have some spill of food on the ground below.

Come night time, foraging Hedgehogs could be discovering this extra food bounty! You might even be able to catch a glimpse of one if you are lucky. Pre blog & bird feeders I had never seen or imagined Hedgehogs could visit my garden. I am thrilled that I have been able to see and record their visits.

With an IR camera in a Hedgehog House that my daughter made we have watched Hedgehogs take advantage of a warm dry place to rest during their night of foraging. This hedgehog is waking from a nap of just under an hour one evening back in September 2009.

This new survey is asking members of the public to record their sightings of hedgehogs as they start to emerge in spring after hibernation - as they awake from a much longer nap than the hedgehog above.

The survey is easy to do and starts tomorrow 1st February 2012 (running through till August) and can be completed online. As with the RSPB Birdwatch, survey stats we can supply the PTES and BHPS could make a huge difference to conservation of this rather special endangered animal.

The PTES kindly sent me a Press Release and have given me permission to quote from it so I can share it with you. It makes for some interesting reading. Perhaps you’ve heard enough and would like to take part? Ok… just email to tell them you are interested and they’ll take it from there.

Wait a minute before you go… you don’t have IR cams watching your garden or in hedgehog houses so how would you know hedgehogs have passed through your garden? Lol... keep an eye out for Hedgehog droppings…

So what do you think...

“Forty years on – is climate change affecting our native hedgehogs?”

“The People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) are appealing to people to take part in a new wildlife survey to help determine whether climate change is having an impact on when hedgehogs emerge from hibernation and how this might be affecting their survival.

“Last year, PTES and BHPS published The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs, an independent study which confirmed evidence from eight existing UK wildlife surveys that hedgehog populations have plummeted by at least a quarter over the last decade. The decline of the species is attributed to a number of environmental factors, but with more extreme weather fluctuations recorded in recent seasons, might climate change be another contributing issue?

“Research in the 1970s by Britain’s foremost expert on hedgehogs, Dr Pat Morris (formerly of Royal Holloway, University of London), revealed a direct link between hibernation and climate: hedgehogs came out of hibernation up to three weeks earlier in the South West of England compared to Scotland. Furthermore, in East Anglia, hedgehogs similarly spent longer in hibernation than in the London area or South West. This marked difference in hedgehog hibernation patterns across the UK shows a general trend of prolonged inactivity in proportion to the coldness and length of the winter.

“Dr Morris explains: “Age, sex and weather all appear to influence the timing of hedgehog hibernation. For example, young animals may remain fully active into December, no doubt seeking to develop sufficient fat reserves to ensure survival during subsequent hibernation. Also, adult females that have had late litters or may still be lactating will need to feed intensively before hibernating, causing them to be active for longer than adult males. However, mild weather can also delay hedgehogs entering into hibernation or elicit premature awakening,impacting on the creature’s fat reserves and breeding times and consequently affecting the long-term survival of the species.”

“Several organisations are independently monitoring native British wildlife populations, while others are studying changes in the timing of natural events, known as phenology, particularly with regard to plants and birds; however no single study is focusing on changes in seasonal mammal behaviour, let alone a specific species like threatened hedgehogs.

“PTES and BHPS hope that with the vast people power of citizen science, they can identify any changes in the timing of waking hedgehogs since the initial research 40 years ago. The information gathered will be used to help scientists understand the hedgehog’s life cycle better, including hibernation behaviour which is an energy saving strategy when food is scarce.

“The hibernation survey is part of the charities' joint campaign to safeguard the future of Britain’s endangered hedgehog. In the early part of the last century, hedgehogs were abundant throughout Britain, with an estimated population as high as perhaps 30 million in the 1950s. By 1995 it was estimated to be about 1.5 million (1.1 million in England, 0.31 million in Scotland and 0.145 million in Wales).

“To help these prickly but endearing creatures, the charities launched Hedgehog Street last summer, a hands-on project to encourage hedgehog conservation action at a local community or neighbourhood level. Nearly 18,000 volunteer "Hedgehog Champions" up and down the country have registered to help to date and the campaign is ongoing, but we still need your help to make a difference. Furthermore, a programme of practical research projects, funded by PTES and BHPS over the next three years, also aims to further scientific understanding about the causes for the decline in hedgehog numbers and most importantly what can be done to reverse this threat to this iconic species.”

And finally… keep an eye out for hedgehog footprints in the snow. The ones above were seen in my garden back on 31st March 2010. Through my IR cams I roughly knew the routes they took at night but it was wonderful to see their wandering footprints during daylight as evidence. This morning I have emailed the PTES to support this survey. I do hope we see hedgehogs visit my garden in 2012 :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in January 2012. If you missed my last post with my RSPB Birdcount (including video of winners here) you can see it here.

The Siskins have it for 2012

2012-01-30T19:06:00.000Z

… in my Perthshire garden that is. The time slot was on the early side yesterday at 8:15am-9:15am. Blackbirds, Blue tits, a Robin and a Dunnock appeared as expected. However, I did think it was a bit early for the Finches but for once the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch pulled out a surprise!

Quite unexpected during this early hour, Siskins, Goldfinches & Chaffinches jostled for position at four feeders with sunflower hearts. It was a tad tricky counting with the light still low. If a wren managed a visit round my small pond then I missed it completely – we’ve had a regular visitor there.

I’m delighted that our regular male Sparrowhawk was having a Sunday lie in during my count although I’m a little disappointed that the Male Brambling we’ve seen recently didn’t join our early mixed finch group. That would have been the icing on my birdcount.

This morning the Siskins were back at the feeders and as I wasn’t counting I got my video camera out to share a flavour of the activity at my feeders during my birdcount yesterday morning….

For those who can’t view my videos the stats for my 2012 count read as: 10x Siskins, 6x Chaffinches, 5x Goldfinches, 4x Blackbirds, 3x Blue tits, 2x Robins, 1x Great tit & 1x Dunnock. That was a species count of 8 which I think was pretty good for an early January morning.

The usual suspects that were missing from my count were the Coal tit, House Sparrow, Wren, Woodpigeon and recent invasions of Starlings. So that’s it for another year. Now, I need to submit my results.

March (mid-end) is usually the month the RSPB announce their results. I guess 600,000 birdcount submissions take a bit of time to collate and sort! I wonder if Siskins will make it into the Top Ten UK Birds for 2012 – could my garden feeders actually be trending for 2012. A fun thought :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in January 2012.

Wordless: Reminder for RSPB Birdwatch

2012-01-25T11:30:00.002Z

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2012

Register, Download counting sheet, How to take part

Events near you, Friendly community group,
Share your photos, #Birdwatch on Twitter

Little brown birds in your garden?

This post was by Shirley at shirls gardenwatch in January 2012.

Dunnock – usual suspect #1

2012-01-23T17:05:00.009Z

If a little brown bird is jerkily running along the ground, stopping at cracks in paving and disappearing down the earthy edges around your lawn before scuttling off under plants and out of sight then you could be looking at a Dunnock. This bird is one of my garden favs.

Watching the Dunnock you could easily see why for many years it was known as the hedge sparrow. However, the Dunnock is not related to the sparrow at all. The species name for the Dunnock is Prunella modularis. It comes from the family Prunellidae and the order Passiformes.

Wait a minute … don’t be put off thinking this is going to be a full-on bird profile. Considering how many websites have information on this 'not so dull’ little brown bird I have decided to add links at the end of this post to explain via videos and other reading.

Considering this post as a help to ID the Dunnock for people here in the UK (new to birds) and those taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch (this weekend) for the first time I thought some visual clues would be best. I know this would have helped me. Hopefully this format will work for visitors outside the UK too.

So… does a Dunnock visit your garden?. Here are some visual clues…

Looking at the colour of legs any bird has is a great clue to what it is and the shape of the beak tells you what kind of food it usually eats. In the case of the Dunnock, it needs a thin sharp beak to search for insects in hidden places.

Lol... the live mini mealworms (in what was thought to be a hidden spot) for a single Mum Blue tit using our nestbox a few years ago didn't last long when the Dunnock parents found them!

However, when it comes to winter months when every morsel of food foraged for goes to getting enough energy to survive a very cold night you will find birds eating a bigger variety of foods. You may also see the Dunnock take seeds from bird tables. In my garden they will visit bird tables throughout the year.

Videos are a great way to help ID a visiting garden bird. I have found them very helpful myself when I see a new visitor to my garden.

The Dunnock doesn’t often perch out in open for long except on high tree branches when singing. Although a very short video capture I was thrilled with the first video below.

Very short, close-up capture of Dunnock taken in garden, October 2011

Equally special was the video capture of a Dunnock juvenile being fed by a possible parent (see further reading) back in 2010. I had never seen this before.

The capture below was taken with a previous video camera so the quality is not as sharp but it is still okay quality and a nice one to see. It also shows the birds feeding along edges and jerkily hopping for cover.

Dunnock parent and juvenile being fed taken in garden, August 2010

In my garden, Dunnock juveniles are the first juveniles to be seen in my garden each year. With the video above being taken in August I could take a reasonably accurate guess that they have 3 broods a year here.

However things don't always go to plan for this little bird which measures just 14cm (5½in)in length. The Dunnock is also one of the host species for the Cuckoo (32-33cm/12-13in in length).

Back in December 2011 I posted a brilliant photo of a Dunnock parent standing on the back of the fledged Cuckoo. There is also a video showing how the newly hatched Cuckoo chick removes the host bird's eggs and chicks (this time the host is a Reed Warbler). Although fascinating the video is hard to watch too.

In summary when it comes to the breeding season this is not a dull little bird species at all. Females (after mated) often court other males to ensure an adequate supply of food for their chicks. More details can be found in the video links below together with lots more info and images - enjoy!

Video from BBC NATURE WILDLIFE Life of Birds: Dunnock females give up on monogamy to enlist more male support. View Devoted Dunnocks?

Video from BBC NATURE WILDLIFE Birds Britannia: Drab and sobre-looking, the dunnock indulges in just about every sexual strategy there is. View Scandalous birds.

RSPB Dunnock Profile including song and video.

BTO BirdFacts for Dunnock includes lots of stats, images, video and sound.

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in January 2012.

Blooms & Bramblings...

2012-01-15T23:15:00.017Z

But first…. drum roll please…
and a cake for Carol at May Dreams Gardens to celebrate 5 years of hosting Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day! Thank-you Carol :-)

I don’t imagine for one minute she expected this would still be running with the same enthusiasm from bloggers all around the world. Many from the early days are still sharing their blooms on the 15th of the month – congrats to them too. For newbies just pop over to Carol’s post for this month to read all about it – you might want to join in :-)

Hellebores are my contribution to GBBD tonight (Yay… my roof tiles didn’t fall on them!) Although the two flowers that have opened were weighted down with heavy frost when I went out in the dark tonight to take my photos.

The montage below shows the next hellebore buds ready to burst open. My ceramic bumblebee skelp with leafy bergenia nearby also caught my eye sparkling with frost. I'd love if a queen bee decided to nest in it during 2012.

The main pic in this montage is of a Pieris in a planter near my back door. It was moved there about 6 weeks ago and it has been holding on to the blossom plumes since then. More exposed to the elements, time will tell if it will be happy there. I hope so as I’ve planted over 300 crocus bulbs in this area.

Today’s frost is the coldest we have had in a long time and usually that brings in many birds to the feeders. Mm… they weren’t that busy today.

December 2010 with its prolonged snow and cold spell brought large numbers of birds to the garden feeders. It also saw the first appearance of the Brambling which was wonderful to see. The Bramblings (both males and females) had followed large groups of mixed finches. I hoped we might see it again but without snow I wasn’t looking for it just now.

Friday the 13th wasn’t unlucky in my garden then… to my great surprise a male Brambling visited again! This time on a sunny day. I’ve only noticed the one and no females yet but since then it has become a regular which has delighted me greatly.

Also delighting me have been the Robins visiting just now and a Wren which is becoming a regular at my small rockpool pond. The Wren is becoming quite comfortable with me going out and in my back door too which is brilliant.

Capturing photos and video in this area at this time of year is tricky with low light levels (bit grainy). However, back on Friday the 13th the male Brambling stayed quite a while over lunchtime allowing me time to get my video camera out…

Male Chaffinches were on the feeder behind the Brambling giving a good comparison between it and the Brambling. Other finches that are visiting my garden just now include Goldfinches, Siskins and Greenfinches.

We are also seeing plenty sightings of House sparrows, Blackbirds, Blue tits, Great tits, Coal tits, Dunnocks, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Starlings and Sparrowhawks. The feeders are fun to watch just now.

Now, although the Sparrowhawk visits suggest a healthy bird population I do hope it keeps away during my hour count for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of the month. As well as my request for it not to attend this event I’d like to invite the Wren and Brambling to join my other usual suspects to be included in my count. Yes, I know, wishful thinking :-)

Mmm… the bird population of my garden (and many others too I’ve heard) seem to be wise to this count and make themselves very scarce… I wonder why that is. I’m thinking more feeders get filled and hung up at this time so the birds are either spoilt for choice or suspicious of the increase in food supplies and stay away. What do others think?

Finally, a very happy GBBD to Carol and all the bloggers joining her with posts sharing what’s blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month - albeit belated wishes here in the UK as I post past midnight. Yawn… time to select publish post I think :-)

This post was written by Shirley at shirls gardenwatch in January 2012.

Hellebores... don't look up!

2012-01-04T14:00:00.010Z

Phew… luckily for the flowers of the hellebores in the photos below they don’t usually. They’d be a tad scared if they did though as above them there are some perilously perched roof tiles! Perhaps they will sense this and stay in bud for a little longer. It’s cold, wet and still windy out there today anyway.

Yes, our house is in the stats of those in Scotland/UK with roof damage after yesterday’s winds. However, our roof isn’t as bad as our neighbour further down the street so for that we are quite thankful. Although, we also have damage at a corner and if it doesn’t get repaired before more winds pick up we could be looking at some similar damage. As you might expect our local roof repairers are busy and looking at the worst cases first.

Many trees and fences have had and caused damage too. In last week’s wild winds, our fairly sheltered boundary fence got damaged with two posts breaking at ground level. We quickly got new posts, got the panels down and the old posts finally prized from the panels only to find massive concrete blocks below ground.

Hard as we tried we couldn't break up the concrete blocks. As our neighbour has dogs we had to return the fence panels (post-less) with emergency fixings to our shed and a wall trellis. Thankfully it survived the winds of yesterday.

Plan B is to add more new concrete to bring the concrete level up. We will work with what we have and drill down through it to secure metal braces for our posts. The new cement will need time to harden first so our emergency fixing will be there a bit longer.

Yesterday, we had a bit of an early wakening with the wind as its force through our letterbox managed to open our internal door setting off our burglar alarm just before 6:30am. The weather forecasts hadn’t given any indication that we were about to get such speeds and force of wind. We are all wondering why.

Anyway, it could have been so much worse so I’m not really complaining. Here in my garden I’ve an Arch leaning over but it wasn’t strong before and we were planning to replace it. I have had an imaginative idea for this so perhaps it’s time to give this a try :-)

Apart from leaves and rubbish in my little pond my recently moved pine tree is leaning again. The ground is pretty wet so I’ll need to find an imaginative way to support it. Actually, I could maybe risk some twine across to the tree beside it which has been there longer. That might work. Brr… but it’s cold out there... its getting windy again too :-(

Sending my thoughts and best wishes to everyone with damage to their properties and gardens just now. However, my thoughts also go to the men (possibly women too) that will be climbing ladders and working on our roofs just now. Stay safe everyone :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in January 2012.

HAPPY NEW YEAR… but first...

2011-12-31T11:00:00.002Z

… it’s HOGMANAY! The traditions here in Scotland are still very strong. Hogmany is the Scots word for the last day of the year. Although the world sees Scotland bring in the New Year with Edinburgh’s Street Party and fireworks it is the households of Scotland that keep the traditions of Hogmany alive.

I’ll not have much time for gardenwatching today but the birds have clean feeders and food so they’re already catered for. Ah yes… that cleaning and food catering is a huge part of Hogmany here in Scotland.

Let’s start with that cleaning and the reason I am up early today! Hard as I try every Hogmany not to succumb to the urge to clean everything I can reach, I never really succeed. It really is in our genes.

Yes, l will end this year with an evening washing of the kitchen floor and making sure every bin is emptied before the bells ring in the New Year. Sad but true, this cleaning of the house on December the 31st is a tradition here in Scotland. All my friends and family will be doing the same although not necessarily in the same order. Some will do more, some will do less.

Whenever its light this morning (by the time I have finished this post probably) I’ll be outside cleaning my windows… after recent winds they need it. Nope… I can’t miss out the window clean ;-)

Then there’s the food! Just why do Scots fill up their food trolleys even higher than they did for Christmas just the week before? Well, for one the shops are closed for longer than at Christmas but that isn’t the main reason.

All the Scottish homes that stay up to ‘bring in the bells’ will have a bounty of food and beverages to welcome any visitors they get. Again that can vary from a selection of cold snacks to hot buffets.

Oh… that reminds me I need to buy some packets of shortbread! You see, the street parties really began in the small streets in our villages and small towns where we wandered between each other’s houses taking with us bags containing a first-footing gift for each house and some beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic).

We would always knock on the door to be greeted by the householder so we could pass over a gift. When my parents had a coal fire we would have a piece of coal wrapped in paper to give as our gift. Now, I usually have packets of shortbread wrapped.

Traditionally, this first-footing (first foot over the doorstep) gift was to bring good luck to the household and if there was a male (preferably with dark hair) he handed over the gift. We would shake hands and exchange kisses as we wished everyone in the household a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

If someone was bringing in their first New Year in their house then they stayed there and neighbours, friends and family would visit them. That’s when the tall, dark first foot through the door for the New Year is followed more to give that new home good luck. This is believed to be a throwback to the Viking days when blond strangers arriving on your doorstep meant trouble.

I can remember fondly our first-foots of our first New Year (newly married) in our first new home. My parents had driven through, waited around the corner listening to the bells come in on the car radio before ringing our doorbell just after midnight. They brought coal too! That was a quite a surprise :-)

Traditionally when first-footing, from our bag, we would pour a small drink for everyone in the household. The household will also pour a small drink from their selection for us. We would raise our glasses wishing each other Good Health & Happiness for the New Year. We would then be offered food. Lol… yes spirits could be high by the end of the night in some occasions but as the night could be a long one drinks exchanged aren’t always alcoholic.

It is the hospitality tradition that is still followed here. This tradition can be followed over a few days (weather permitting) as visits to families and friends living further away are made. First-footing gifts are still given even then as you are still wishing the household good luck for the following year. Once again food is offered and many toasts to the New Year will be non-alcoholic ones as people are driving around houses.

This New Year, we’re not expecting visitors as the bells come in. Our street is a quiet one at New Year. That’s ok. We will stay up and bring in the bells whilst watching Hootenanny with Jools Holland and his live guests on the television. Our daughters are going to friends parties locally and will probably be back before it ends which will be nice they might even bring back friends with them. Lol… and I’ll have hot food for them sitting in a slow cooker :-)

Stovies was what my Mum had waiting for us when we came in. She made hers in the tradition way of leftovers from the Sunday Roast. She’d keep the end bits of her roast beef (chopping them roughly up) and the dripping from the roast.

For my Mum’s stovies, she’d add potatoes, roughly chopped onion and beef sausages (pre browned and cut in pieces) to the dripping with seasoning and a little water. The potatoes would cook until almost mushy and once the sausages were cooked the bits of roast beef would be added to heat through. She would also let the stovies almost burn in her pan so there were brown crispy bits of potato through the softer potatoes which she would stir through. These were the really tasty bits we all loved.

Tonight’s planned slow cooker meal I’ll have for any visitors is almost a version of my Mum’s stovies. I’m making a potato and sausage casserole. My recipe has sausages, bacon, onion, garlic, potatoes, fresh sage and vegetable stock in it. The warm smell of it cooking will fill the house later. We will be smelling one of my families tradition of Hogmanay :-)

However you spend this last day of the year, do enjoy it and share it here too if you’ve time ;-)

Wishing everyone that has visited my blog all my very best wishes for Health and Happiness in 2012. Have a great one :-)

Oh… that gardenwatching thing… just looked out my window and a good sized group of long-tailed tits have just breezed through my garden feeding on a variety of feeders. Now that’s a lovely start to Hogmanay :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch on the last day of December 2011.

Baby its wild out there!

2011-12-28T11:05:00.001Z

You could easily get knocked off your feet like the ducklings and Mum Mallard in the video below. Thanks go to my daughter for passing me on the link last night. As she says… don't worry, there is a happy ending :-)

Source: YouTube Channel Derbydanx

Looking out the window to my small Scottish garden this morning, it's wild out there too. I see large leaves spinning around the ground and my first thoughts went to those tiny ducklings seen rolling and spinning along the ground in gusts of wind.

Today garden birds are venturing into my garden but with feeders being blown about and branches of trees and shrubs being battered by the wind getting to them is another matter. The regulars will know there are some sheltered areas and ground feeders so will find food there.

It’s been pretty quiet with garden birds at the feeders this last week. The feeders were due to be cleaned before refilling but after seeing a possible fat finch (with tricho disease which ends in death usually after 5 days) I delayed the refilling. My plan was that visiting groups of mixed finches (lots of goldfinches) would disperse a little and so perhaps halt the spread of trichomonosis. Clean feeders and birdbaths are the first line of defence.

The feeders were only unavailable for a few days but since then the birds really have not returned in any significant numbers. We’re only seeing odd numbers and visits. Even blackbirds have been pretty thin on the ground. That has surprised me.

Mm… don’t know who got the surprise though when I was hanging my newly cleaned and refilled feeders of sunflower hearts on my feeder Arch. There is a large bamboo planted beside the Arch. I never saw the Saprrowhawk and it clearly only saw my hand as it flew close over my head!

Since then, I’ve seen quite a few Sparowhawk flights through the garden. Guessing there could be more than one visiting and I did see one successful snatch from a feeder pre cleaning and refilling too.

On this wild, windy Wednesday I am expecting to see a Sparrowhawk visit. Not just a fly through either. I’ve noticed that on wild, windy days they will sit on a perch (usually my Arch feeder) and wait for the birds to come to it.

You can see Sparrowhawks listening hard for any bird chattering above wind noise. They also appear on very wet days without wind too. I caught video of a wet day visit earlier this year where the male hawk waited patiently for some time before giving up and flying away. I’ve already posted it but here’s it again for anyone that missed it.

After five years of regularly feeding birds my garden when they don’t it just isn’t the same place. However, I am absolutely confident that when the temps drop and there is snow and ice on the ground my garden will come alive again. Then, I feel happy that my food can help keep them alive on cold nights.

Ah… as I am about to post this some brave birdies are coming out from their hiding places and hanging on branches en route to the feeders. It really looks a struggle for them today. Oh… but thinking of those poor little ducklings again – what a moment that was for them. A great video capture too!

Finally for anyone interested in the date for the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdcount it’s Sat/Sun the 28th & 29th of January 2012. If you’ve never taken part before I’d suggest now would be a good time to put up a bird feeder (or two) so the birds find your garden in plenty of time for your garden to get some regular visitors :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in December 2012.

Garden Visits (Video): Biddulph Grange

2011-12-22T01:11:00.010Z

Biddulph Grange Garden was the pick for last weekend’s virtual garden visit. Sorry I’m late with this but I am guessing blogging time for everyone is running short just now.

If you are looking for some time out then perhaps pouring yourself a cuppa and taking a virtual stroll round this garden in Staffordshire, England might just be the ticket. I’ve two videos for you this time (each being just over 3 mins).

The first video concentrates on the many garden views in styles from around the world. There is gentle background music. Look out for the stumpery and the dahlia walk. I have many favs at this garden and have visited it on three ocassions.

The second video, I discovered on the National Trust page on wildlife at the garden. It is a chatty mix from volunteers and staff at the garden encouraging us to take a closer look on visits to Biddulph Grange. I enjoyed this one too. I’d say the message of taking a closer look rings true to any garden visit and to our own gardens also.

Let’s take a good look round the garden that is Biddulph Grange…

Video by UK Tourist Attractions.

Video by National Trust.

Aside from these wonderful views and possible wildlife sightings at this garden the absolute favourite image that comes into my head from this garden was on our second visit. Our daughters were quite young and enjoyed skipping just ahead of us along the many paths and doorways (dahlia walk shown below).

Of course once these little legs had skipped and jumped around the themed gardens from China (including Great Wall), Egypt (including Sphinx) and Italy that last walk along the Pinetum to a pretty Cheshire (English) Cottage was tiring them out...

On our third visit to Biddulph Grange our method for enjoying a garden visit with children pre-teens was to let them film it with their own interview chat.

Yep… the video cam garden tour was a winner and entertained us for many years on future garden visits! I remember the fun they had on this one. I also remember the feeding of the rather large carp in the pool below and a lovely lunch in the Tearoom in the main house at that time).

So what brought us on our very first visit to Biddulph Grange (pre children)? Nope… Alan Titchmarsh hadn’t been there yet for the filming for BBC2's Secret Gardens. So just how had we (me really) found out about a garden in this area of England? Here’s a clue…

Ah yes… regular blog visitors will know how much I enjoy visiting the Chinese Hillside garden at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (see my recent visit here). That was only part of the attraction here though. I have been searching (alas unsuccessfully) for info on the real reason. Okay… so we’re raking back the memory cells on this :-)

Back (pre 1990) we watched a television programme (BBC or possibly Channel 4) on the restoration of a statue in a garden. The statue was the gilded water buffalo that overlooks the Chinese Gardens at Biddulph Grange.

From memory the rather large statue was worn and possibly had a break in the horns. Again from memory, I believe the buffalo was lifted from the garden and taken to a studio for its restoration where it was also re gilded.

I also have memories of the ground being muddy when the statue was either removed or returned. It was after following this story we were keen to see it restored and back overlooking the garden again. I’m thinking the Temple and bridge saw some new paint and gilding too.

Now then, my searching for info on the Buffalo did lead me to one particular document that caught my eye. The document was a Consultation Draft for the Biddulph Grange Conservation Area Appraisal by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council back in 1988. Yep… some history on this garden!

Scanning through this document there are some wonderful old maps and some fascinating facts about the garden including:

“The garden was well maintained up until World War 1. However in 1924 the Heath Family sold the estate following the collapse of their business. Biddulph Grange, the house and gardens, was given to the North Staffordshire Cripples Aid Society and became a hospital in 1924. The gardens nearest the house were buried as hospital wards were extended. The rest of the garden continued to be managed for 60 years by 3 gardeners. However by the 1960s neglect and vandalism were taking their toll.

"The importance of the gardens was recognised in the 1970s, when the Conservation Area was designated and a number of buildings were listed. In the 1980’s the Garden was included on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens, maintained by English Heritage and further structures were listed. A steering group was then formed to take on the long term maintenance and restoration of the garden. The Garden was surveyed and its profile was raised by a number of articles.

"In 1988 the Health Authority sold the Hospital. Staffordshire Moorlands District Council took over the estate and formed Biddulph Grange Country Park, which has over 10, 000 visitors a year. The National Trust purchased the garden and carried out its largest garden restoration project."

Oh wait a minute… I should add who created the garden at Biddulph Grange …

"The second James Bateman (1811-1897) created the gardens at Biddulph Grange. As a boy he was fascinated by plants such as tropical fruits and orchids and as a student at Oxford, he commissioned plant hunting expeditions abroad. In 1837 he published his first volume of botanical studies, The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, which established his reputation as Botanist."

There are 34 pages in this document, perhaps over the holiday period I’ll get some time to come back and read through more of it. Don’t you just love historical documents like this? Even the way they are written captures my imagination. I adore old maps too :-)

Oops, I’ve posted far too much text here… sorry, I got a bit carried away on this one. Don’t know if I’ll manage another post before Christmas but just in case I don’t I’d like to wish you and yours a wonderful time over the festive/holiday period.

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in December 2011. The photos in this post were pre digital, they were scanned and enhanced to be shown.

Coming across the Cuckoo…

2011-12-16T11:11:00.004Z

No… I don’t have a new garden visitor. I wouldn’t see the Cuckoo at this time of year anyway as UK Cuckoos are likely to back in Africa for the winter. For those that are interested, Satellite tracking by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) shows where five cuckoos travelled on their migration to Africa which I found fascinating to see. Maybe you would too.

But first, I came across info on the Cuckoo whilst searching for info on one of my favourite garden visitors - the Dunnock. I discovered (along with the Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit and Reed Warbler) it was one of the most common host species for the cuckoo. That was news to me.

Back in July 2010 an image of a Dunnock standing on the back of a fledged Cuckoo chick (five times the size of the little Dunnock) made the news.

The image shown opposite was taken by Mike Stuckey in his garden in Somerset, England. What a brilliant garden watching capture don't you think?

For those that don't know what's going on here, this Dunnock believes it is feeding its newly fledged (oversized) chick!

It seems the parasitic breeding habits of the Cuckoo are notorious. The BBC video shown below (with narration by David Attenborough) shows us how this Dunnock parent would have found itself in this position via footage of another host, an equally small, Reed Warbler…

How fascinating is that? A blind, newly hatched chick (whose parent left it as an egg in the nest of another bird for it to raise) instinctively knows to remove other eggs and chicks from the nest so only it gets fed by the parents.

Add to that, after it has fledged the young Cuckoo gets fed for a further 2 weeks by the host parents and any others that can’t bear the begging noises it makes. I guess, as with all living species, it simply comes down to survival.

You’ve got to feel sorry for the host parents but the Cuckoo as a species really does need help. That’s why the BTO have tagged five Cuckoos. Information gathered from the tracking device will help understand more about this bird and then what can be done to help the worrying decline in its numbers.

Another news article (published in August this year) suggesting Cuckoos are heading to Scotland caught my eye:

"An analysis of three years of bird sightings within 10km sq plots across the UK - for the British Trust for Ornithology's Bird Atlas 2007-11 - reveals cuckoos are thriving in Scotland, and in mass decline in England and Wales.

Dawn Balmer, Bird Atlas co-ordinator with the BTO thinks cuckoos are growing in number in Scotland even faster than thought.

"Figures do suggest Scotland could become a refuge for cuckoos," she said.

Experts have theories about the change. These include varied food availability, loss of habitat in England and climate change causing shifts in breeding times.

"One thought is that adult cuckoos like fairly big caterpillars and maybe the food supply is better in Scotland," said Balmer. "This could have happened because of climate change."

It could also be linked to the cuckoo's ability to find a nest in which to lay eggs.

Cuckoos are parasites, laying their eggs in other birds' nests, but if the host bird, such as the meadow pipit, has started breeding earlier, their nests may not be available at the right time.

"They could be getting out of sync with each other," said Balmer.” "

Next year, the BTO intend to extend their Cuckoo tracking project to Scotland. That makes sense. However, Satellite tracking isn’t cheap so more fundraising will be required. The BTO are getting support from Heatherlea on this.

Coming back to the current tracking of five cuckoos by the BTO, they (Clement , Martin, Lyster, Kasper and Chris) have their own blogs. If you’re keen you can meet and follow them here. You also get an option to sponsor their tracking too.

There was an offer to sponsor a Cuckoo for Christmas but the order deadline was the 14th of December. You can still make an order but there is no guarantee your pack will arrive before Christmas now.

Sorry about my late post with details… as I said above I only came across the Cuckoo via a search on the Dunnock. I’m very glad I did though and I hope this post gives just a little more awareness of the plight of the Cuckoo.

Ah yes… Christmas prep awaits us all just now. I hope this little story and video helps break the treadmill you may be on now. Enjoy your weekend :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in December 2011.

The Story Behind the Name

2011-12-13T11:45:00.018Z

Picking your blog name – was it easy or did you ponder over it for some time? Did you know, out there in the blogging world, there is a real Garden Faerie and her name is Monica? Well there is... and she has cast her spell across Blogland…

s-h-a-r-e…. t-h-e…. s-t-o-r-y… b-e-h-i-n-d… y-o-u-r… b-l-o-g…. n-a-m-e….

My name is Shirley… when I began my blog (over five years ago now) I didn’t want people to know that! I was a secret blogger…

shirls… came about as it was a connection to my name but not really me.

Oh… but that missing apostrophe has niggled me over the years… but I was happy (yes I was) with my deliberate plan of no punctuation at the time we hit the create blog button.

Anyway, I have been called Shirls in the past and I wanted quirky and (almost) anonymous. Mm… but then I should have an apostrophe after...

Oh…. It wasn’t likely I would continue to blog for more than a few months so did it really matter anyway? Oops… got that timing estimate well wrong!

gardenwatch… came about as that was what I was going to do. Quite simple. I was going to watch my garden for a Robin to visit.

I deliberately joined the words together. I wanted a longer, descriptive word to follow a short one. Simple... or was it...

Oh... but I never considered the whole comment thing when I started blogging. I wasn't a blog follower or reader. So when it came to leaving comments... that missing apostrophe came back to haunt me once again. Preceeeding ‘says’ its abscence stood out too much for me so in the end I reluctantly dropped the shirls to shirl as my name in comments :-(

For the record (UK readers) I never considered the whole Autumnwatch and Springwatch names of the BBC programmes. I was definitely not blogging on the back of that. I was an occasional watcher of the programme at that time. Things have changed somewhat there then! I had no idea when I began that my blog would evolve as it has.

So why was I looking for a Robin to visit my garden - in winter preferable with a snowy background? Again quite simple, but a sad story this time…

My homesick friend living in Australia had lost both her parents (back here in Scotland) within three months of each other. I wanted to help keep her connection to Scotland through her time of heartbreaking grief as even after over 20yrs in Australia she was still a Scottish lass at heart.

My friend loved our cold, Scottish Winters and seeing the Robin (not known to me until the day of the second funeral). Her Mum would regularly send her items with Robins on it (from days out) when she was alive.

I started this blog to share images of Scotland and the Robin with my friend. I had no plans for it other than that. I was persuaded by my husband it would make downloading sense and it went from there. I can remember very easily my first attempts at photos and video capture for her. I am confident I have improved since then :-)

Now with a (basic) HD Video camera I’d like to get a really good capture of the Robin in winter for my friend and everyone else that has since enjoyed seeing footage of the birds that visit my garden. However, I’m still very pleased with the capture below taken in December two years ago. I had fun adding a festive jingle to it :-)

Oh my… that Garden Faerie has cast a spell on me… however… believe it or not (even now after five years blogging) I am still a bit of a secret blogger… it's funny that.

Don't know why I keep this blogging life from some family and friends. I guess I don't think they would be very interested but for some reason I do feel a tad awkward and embarrassed at thought of telling them anyway... so I don't.

For any first time visitors reading this blog, I do blog on my garden plants and wildlife as well as watching out for birds visiting the garden. I post on garden and nature reserve visits too.

I’d like to end this spellbound post with a ‘Hello and Thanks’ to Monica at the Garden Faerie's Musings, we haven’t come across each other in this vast blogging world. I found your post after seeing VP’s blog. It’s been fun reading about other blogs in via your Mister Linky list. I’ll add mine now and check back on your post to see who else has been caught by your spell :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in December 2011. The first image was by produced by Bren for the Garden Faerie.

Garden Visits (Video): Benmore Botanical Garden

2011-12-11T23:23:00.006Z

Benmore Botanical Garden is the pick for this weekend’s virtual garden visit. It can be found in a magnificent mountainside setting on the Cowal Peninsula in Argyll. For those not familiar with Scotland’s landscape that’s on the west side of the country.

Benmore is steeped in history and surrounded by dramatic scenery. As a garden it doesn’t stand alone either. In fact, back in the 20th Century, together with two other Botanical Gardens here in Scotland (Dawyck & Logan) it was acquired by The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh which I’ve been covering this past week.

Benmore isn’t open to visitors through the winter. It's open daily 1 March to 31 October from 10am to 5pm/6pm. We don’t need opening times for our visit though - just six minutes to see this stunning Scottish Garden…

This is not my video. See source on YouTube.

Over 300 species of rhododendron and over a third of the world's winter hardy conifer species can be seen at Benmore. It’s a garden with wealth of flowering trees and shrubs and something of interest throughout the year. Talk a look through the seasons highlights in Spring , Summer & Autumn.

It’s a number of years since I’ve visited this garden (daughters quite young) but I do remember being in awe of the size and variety of trees there. It was a bit of a trial down memory lane for me when I discovered this video. I loved seeing the avenues of trees and other areas once again. I hope you've enjoyed your virtual visit too :-)

Next weekend, I think I’ll take you to a garden in England. I’ve not decide which one yet but I have decided the one for Christmas. It’s a very special garden indeed. I’ve a bumper helping of video for this one :-D

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in December 2011.

Garden visit, in search of berries...

2011-12-09T09:55:00.011Z

... at The Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, last week, pre stormy weather, snow flurries and temperature drops. I’d take an accurate guess that the garden won’t look quite the same a week on. Yesterday alone will have changed the landscape – it was a quite ‘orrible day.

Have one tree to straighten here today - moved 1 month ago so not properly rooted to spot. Fortunately my night cam survived the double storey (wooden) guinea pig hutch fall on it. Unfortunately the small gorrillapod tripod has been broken at the head. Better that than the cam.

The hutch was sighted under my pergola in a (lol) sheltered spot. The wind pushed through a substantial planting of ivy and that's after a wind breaking ranch style fence and another structure with ivy just a few metres before it! We heard it thud down suspecting our chimney had come down... phew!

Okay... let's leave the storms for now and we'll try not think of likely damage to the Botanical Gardens and head back to a calmer, chilly, sunny morning last week...

As mentioned on my recent garden visit video post of this garden, here are the photos of what caught my eye on the first day of December. In search of plants and trees with berries, I went to my favourite area of this garden – The Chinese Hillside. I wasn’t disappointed.

I’m not sure on the ID of the black berries shown below (any suggestions please) but the red cotoneaster berries were very familiar after seeing them being eaten by Blackbirds in my garden. Actually, it was after that post I decided on the theme for this visit to the Botanics.

The orange/brown berries above, catching the sun, high up on a tree caught my eye. I never read the label when I took my photo before moving on (it was chilly, I wasn’t wearing gloves) and now realise that they were in fact fruits on the Malus, yunnanensis. Okay, not berries then. Pretty though :-)

Not so pretty was the sight of the pink/white berries (Sorbus aff. filipes) on the ground beside the path. Shame, I thought, I wondered if the birds will eat them from there. Maybe the Blackbirds will find them as they scurry about the ground. I heard them clearly calling and chattering as I walked through this part of the garden.

The Hillside garden is my fav because of the thick planting of trees and shrubs that you wind your way through. I know so many birds will be in there but it isn’t until this time of year that you can get a chance to see what you hear singing, calling or chattering.

I only took my wide angle camera lens so couldn’t get close-up shots but was thrilled to be able to see what looked like a pair of Bullfinches – definitely a male (deep pink breast, bottom corner pic below) and female Bullfinch.

Hopefully, the montage below captures the feel of this area of the garden just before winter takes hold. There is more depth to the planting and design than is perhaps seen on first impressions. You can see the waterfalls were in full flow then.

Many visitors may just walk along the winding paths through large shrubs, bamboos and trees, over the small Chinese bridges and down to the Pagoda and pool at the bottom. Lol… chatting as they go too. I hear them when I stand with my camera. It's good to see a garden come alive with 'people' visitors too especially families of all ages/generations getting out together :-)

Catching my eye above, top pic RH corner, (yours too probably) was the Liriope platyphylla flowering. It’s one of those plants that is listed as having a blue flower but for me it was a wonderful purple/blue. With an upright flower spike growing above an evergreen grass-like clump it would fit nicely into my garden. Yep… flowering at this time of year too… definitely on the wishlist :-)

My garden visit wasn’t long so I headed to my new (next favourite) part of this garden – The Biodiversity garden sited beside the John Hope Gateway Visitor Centre.

You can see below that this area has a naturalistic style of planting with flows of grasses, cornus and a variety other plants grouped en masse. You can also see we have paved, straighter winding paths here as well as soft curved ones. I’ve chatted long enough… it's the weekend, I’ll let you enjoy a quite stroll by yourself :-)

That Calendula on the path edge and poppy flower buds made me smile and show that plants do their very best to survive and set seed. I suspect the Calendula wont’s be looking like this today but perhaps the poppy will have held on. With a stronger drop in temps, its days are probably numbered though. Winter is on its way. Oh yes... not sure on that orange wall at this time of year.

One last thing before you go… note the bird feeders in the Biodiversity Garden. Yes, it looks like there is a camera there (perhaps images shown in the centre) but what interests me is that there are no plants below the tree with feeders on its branches (I try to do this too). Perhaps there were plants earlier in the year but now during winter when more birds come to the feeders visitors, people and birds, will get a clearer view of the area. For the gardeners who tend this area it makes for weed damage control too when uneaten seeds germinate. Win, win all round :-)

Well, that’s enough from me, hope you’ve enjoyed (my) brief visit… lol! Wishing you a great weekend. Stay safe and warm :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in December 2011.

Snow doesn’t always put the garden to sleep

2011-12-06T23:13:00.003Z

Quite the reverse here anyway, my garden is coming alive with more and more bird visitors with each day since our temps dropped and the snow arrived. Over the weekend, I heard Long-tailed tits fly over my garden shed and head to the feeders. I headed straight indoors for my camera but alas they were gone :-(

This morning it was the return of Male Bramblings to my garden. I was thrilled! Last winter was the first time we had seen them and I didn’t know if we would see them again. I was lucky to be looking out the window at the time :-)

It was a tricky choice between video camera or still camera to capture images of the Brambling today. It was looking particularly colourful with its warm orange breast as the sun lit up both it and the red stems of my Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'.

This sunny moment only lasts a short time but the tree and the birds on it look so eye-catching at that time. I chose my video camera but the Brambling wasn’t too cooperative in staying still for very long so my footage was a bit jumpy. However, the video grabs below give a flavour of his visit…

Looking up my favourite RSPB BIRDFEEDER BOOK, I see it mentions that when Bramblings come to gardens they will take sunflower seeds and peanuts. Yep… I can confirm that I have seen them do that. It also goes on to say that Bramblings have learned to use feeders… I can also confirm that and that they don’t go for the easy ones either! They’ll tackle the clinging feeders where they will hung around to feed or grab and go :-)

Yep… the garden isn’t always a sleepy place when it snows. Put up a few bird feeders up and see what happens! Oh yes… and remember to clean them regularly to avoid the spread of disease when big groups visit. Getting a camera out and taking photos from indoors is fun too and can help when looking to ID your new visitors. That’s what I found anyway :-)

Being completely honest I’m not really a fan of snow - childhood memories of being cut-off in our village and skidding in cars. However, the cold and snow does bring in big flocks of birds and that is exciting as then you have a ‘window of opportunity’ to see new bird species you may never have seen before.

If you have the time… pull yourself up a chair at a window with a good view of your garden and watch… it makes for great viewing :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in December 2011.

Garden Visits (Video): Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

2011-12-04T12:16:00.002Z

Link collecting for Edinburgh Botanical Gardens whilst sorting/editing photos from a visit this past week picked up the video below. I’ve collected footage in the past but this one (at 6 mins 15 secs) covers all areas. I liked it and thought it would be a good one to share.

For those considering a garden visit for a day out, a holiday or if neither and a virtual garden visit fits the bill I thought I’d add it here with a post all to itself. Have yourself some garden therapy… pour a cuppa and enjoy….

This is not my video. See source on YouTube.

Sunday is probably a good day for a short video blog post. No chat, just some garden visiting images with background music. It might be fun to keep this one going as a regular theme. If anyone would like to join me please leave a link in a comment. I’ll look forward to finding new ones for each week :-)

This was published by Shirley at shirls gardenwatch in December 2011.

Caught in the act…

2011-11-30T23:26:00.003Z

That would be the Blackbird, on the Cotoneaster tree with a berry its mouth! I've spent ages trying to catch a berry in the mouth like this. Pity the light was poor but I'm still pleased with my capture.

Who eats the berries in your garden? Perhaps, like me, you have planted especially to feed the birds. What shrubs and trees would you recommend for attracting/feeding birds at this time of year?

Here in my small garden the only berries I have for the birds (at the moment) are on a fairly small tree. The RSPB chat about Birds and Berries here where they go on to say:

“The winter is a good time to consider planting fruit and berry bearing trees or bushes in the garden. As well as the many native berry-bearing species (including rowan, holly, whitebeam, spindle, dog rose, guelder rose, elder, hawthorn, honeysuckle and ivy), attractive shrubs like cotoneaster, pyracantha and berberis are especially good for a wide range of birds.

Berry and fruit bearing trees provide food for a range of insects and animals, too: hedgehogs, badgers, mice, squirrels and even foxes will all happily feed on them. All sorts of fruit are attractive to insects, and if you leave them where they fall in the late summer and autumn they will attract numerous butterflies to their syrupy goodness.

Fallen fruit can also provide birds with a cold-weather treat: pop some in the freezer, and save it for the winter bird table.”

Now, that’s interesting… I didn’t know hedgehogs would eat berries too. At the moment, we’ve a regular young hedgehog feeding up on crushed unsalted peanuts, dried mealworms and sunflower hearts. I am thrilled to be able to help it just now.

I’ve had my night cam out watching in the evening after seeing two hedgehogs visiting the ground bird feeders last week. That was a surprise sighting. I guess they are taking advantage of the late feeding opportunities to fuel their winter hibernation. Soon our temps will drop and we won’t see them again until Spring.

Pre blog I never considered the Ivy growing up and over my Pergola would flower and produce berries. Lol... call me a plants person... I know :-o

I planted the ivy Sulphur Heart (shown above) on a trellis along one length. I planted it purely as a wind break and sun shelter to be completely honest. I do prune it to encourage growth and keep it as a neat backdrop for the plants in the border in front of it. I was surprised when I started to see the odd looking ball shaped flowers it had.

As the Ivy ‘took hold’ on my pergola, pruning the higher growth became difficult and as a result more flowers were beginning to cover the top. Getting photos became tricky too but as I now know black berries may follow the flowers I am very keen to see them.

Back at the beginning of the month, another Ivy (shown above) was already ahead of the Sulphur Heart and fully in flower. This was a small, shiny dark leafed common ground covering one that I spotted growing (not planted by me) under my hedge. I pulled pieces up and started training it up the pillars of my Pergola. Gosh… it has grown some since and has had many flowers this year.

Taking a look out a bedroom window I could see the extent of flower coverage after spotting large numbers of insects visiting one sunny, blue sky day at the beginning of the month.

I caught some video footage from the ground level with my camera strongly tilted back on my tripod. I hoped we’d get another day like this where I would get up on a ladder with my video camera to get a closer look at the variety of insects that were feeding there. We didn’t… but the video below has caught enough of the feeding frenzy on the ivy flowers...

It’s wild, wet and windy here just now so maybe I’ll just lean out an upstairs window again to see if we have berries yet. If we do there will be lots and of great interest to the birds in the coming months. I’ll try to get up a ladder to get a closer look before we get snow and ice.

Now, I wonder if my garden birds will actually eat the ivy berries. Has anyone seen them do this? If so, which birds? I’m guessing it would be the Blackbirds and Thrushes :-)

This post was written and published by Shirley at shirls gardenwatch in November 2011.

Let me entertain you...

2011-11-24T23:26:00.016Z

Let me… invite you to enjoy the video below and come up with captions (should I have a competition?) for the following selection of images of a Grey Squirrel eating apple whilst visiting my garden earlier this week.

Being honest, I didn’t know they ate apples but it seems like they are not so popular with people growing them. I do know Grey Squirrels can be a serious pest but… you can’t tell me they aren’t entertaining to watch too :-)

Living in Scotland , generally regarded as last stronghold (here in the UK) for native Red Squirrels which I adore to see BTW, I shouldn’t be enjoying seeing the Grey at all. However, I don’t see it often. They are such a brief visitor to my garden (usually only in November for a few days) I can’t bring myself to dislike them.

I've added had fun with some upbeat background music here... watch the volume on your speakers :-)

Doing the whole Yin & Yang thing I should promote a website that is protecting our wonderful, charismatic and threatened Red Squirrel. In all honesty, I do support our native Red whole heartedly and the link I am giving is to pages covering the whole UK.

It’s been a wild windy night here but I’m thrilled to share that I’ve seen some hedgehogs on my night cams tonight. That is great news! No video caught tonight but I did see two hogs visit last night and captured some video of them then :-)

Now… the big question now is… would anyone want to be entertained by some live images of hedgehogs visiting my garden?

Oh yes… and to all my US blogging friends… hope you’ve enjoyed a great Thanksgiving :-D

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in November 2011.

A Treecreeper to celebrate 5 yrs blogging!

2011-11-21T23:20:00.002Z

My blog (shirls gardenwatch) has officially been online for 5yrs as of the weekend just passed. Wow… I honestly can’t believe it myself! It all began with a video of the European Robin from my garden for a homesick friend in Australia. I had absolutely no thoughts on how long I would keep it going – until Spring the next year?

During the last five years, this gardener and plants person has continued to garden and move plants as much as I always have. Many garden borders have changed, changed and changed again. In this time, my garden has evolved (slowly at first) into a wildlife garden. This wasn’t something I had planned. I can’t imagine my garden any other way now.

As a plants person, planting combinations with colour and texture still matter. Propagation by division has developed many areas with ground cover which cuts down on maintenance.

More importantly for me now though is how the ground cover affords safety for birds, hedgehogs and other creatures making their way around my garden. Don’t laugh now, but now I do consider hedgehogs when spacing evergreen plants so they always have a few ways through :-)

So where do you begin in a post to mark five years of blogging?

I could recount many sightings and re-post a variety of photo montages and videos - keeping you far too long and probably boring you silly if you've heard the stories before.

How do you find best bits over five years anyway?

I had thought a video would be good but alas… that old thing called time ran out. Cake anyone?

So, what are the chances of being at a window to see a bird that I never imagined I’d ever get the opportunity to see in my garden (no mature trees) appearing just a few days before my 5th Blogaversary? I’d say perfect timing for a celebration… a new blogging year lies ahead with new discoveries within a small garden. Now, before we chat Treecreeper...

My thanks go to everyone that has answered my queries and requests for advice with my blog and my garden visitors. Although huge now, the blogging world is still a very welcoming place. To my fellow bloggers, I’d like to say a huge thank-you for your friendship, links and comments over the last five years. I know how very difficult it can be to keep up with both new and old blogs. I very much appreciate your loyalty.

I dearly hope my enthusiasm for enjoying the mini wildlife reserves that our gardens can become has been a little infectious to blog visitors via searches, blog rolls, feeds or comments. After five years it would be great to think there are a few more nestboxes in gardens, bird feeders up, hedgehogs getting fed and plants being planted that feed bees, butterflies and other insects. That would be just brilliant :-)

However, I am not alone in my blogging enthusiasm. It has been wonderful to exchange chat with garden, bird & wildlife bloggers and enthusiasts over the last five years. I was a bit wary of the blog/email chatting at first but now I can’t imagine my blog without it.

Next, I’d like to apologise once again for my absence with postings, comments and blog visiting recently. I keep saying I'm back to posting and something comes along and takes up my time and attention.

What are the chances of two family members having a Laparoscopy within 9 weeks of each other? It was my youngest daughter this time and her appendix was finally removed. My husband is continuing to improve. Thanks again for all your good wishes for his health. It has been a scary and exhausting time that’s for sure.

So with everyone on the mend, let’s get back to the business of celebrating five years of blogging with our newest garden visitor but first I have to admit to…

Pre blog my bird identification was pretty much in the category of “oh… there’s a robin, blackbird, blue tit and what’s that little brown bird – a housesparrow?” I used a basic camera for holidays, days out and special occasions. I didn’t have bird feeders in my garden. Phew... that's my conscience cleared :-)

This morning, in complete contrast, a DSLR camera (with zoom lens) was sitting on a tripod beside my window… and a wildlife camera was outside showing live images on the corner of my monitor desktop. Both cameras were pointing in the direction of a tree.

The tree in question (shown above) is my red barked palmatum 'Sango-kaku'. Why such interest? My blog post title says all.

Last week a Treecreeper Certhia familiaris was spotted jerkily creeping round and up the slim trunk and branches of it. I couldn’t believe it. Although my camera was at hand I was too fascinated by what I was seeing that I never picked it up.

Yep… five years on I was able to spot and instantly ID a small brown creeping bird with a white underside. Wow… I knew this was a special visitor! I would dearly love if it became a regular (not getting carried away though as that’s probably not likely) as this is a wonderful little bird to watch. I feel quite privileged that it came to feed in my garden.

Since adding our first garden bird feeders (just 2 months before my blog began when my daughter was doing a school bird project) I have enjoyed watching the variety of birds that have visited my garden. I began taking photos or video of any new visitors so I could research what they were and what foods they liked to eat. I then started experimenting with feeders and foods. More birds came…

The Treecreeper that I spotted in my garden (certain on ID) last Monday morning has taken my garden bird species total to a staggering 31! I honestly can’t believe this. The majority of birds that are now regular visitors to my garden (like the finches) I had never seen (in or outside my garden) before I sat with my daughter trying to help her ID birds at a window for her project. Wow!

I have seen Treecreepers a few times at SWT Reserve Loch of the Lowes. It has been towards the end of the day we have spotted them. The image below was taken there yesterday after a brief visit. Being truthful, I went hoping to get a photo. I did...

Have you any guesses as to why I have joined this image with a coal tit (on the right, taken in my garden a few years ago)? Well the clue is in the word join :-)

Last Monday when I spotted the Treecreeper in my garden I was very much aware that there was a lot of activity at the feeders by Coal tits, Blue tits and Great tits. There was quite a crowd of them. When I was at Loch of the Lowes yesterday I spotted lots there too. I started to wonder if there was a connection. I picked up my books when I got home. Ah…

For those that don’t know, in winter, Treecreepers will often join in with mixed tit flocks. They like to take advantage of other eyes looking out for food. It helps keep them safe from danger too. It is also suggested that you are twice as likely to see a Treecreeper during winter months.

Oh wait a minute… what was I reading? Goldcrests and small warblers do the same… Ooooo!

What else was I reading? Ah… peanut cakes rubbed into tree trunks or similar surfaces might attract Treecreepers. Now… I had a tub of natural (unsalted ) crunchy peanut butter in my shed… bought for the birds :-)

This morning, as soon as it was bright enough to see in my shed I found my tub of peanut butter. I also found a handmade tree branch feeder I bought on a visit to Loch of the Lowes two years ago. Starlings showed too much interest with this feeder as it had wine corks nailed to it as perches. It was taken down.

The close-up insert in the garden image (seen earlier above) shows the tree branch feeder (with cork perches removed) jammed in and tied to a branch junction on the Acer tree where the Treecreeper was spotted. Some peanut butter was spread into the holes. Not too much, don’t want to attract too much attention at this stage. We don’t want Starlings descending and scaring away the Treecreeper!

The big question now is… did I see a Treecreeper feed from this feeder today? Nope… but that would have just been too easy! Oh… I also spread some peanut butter on a few pine cones I pulled off a small tree in my garden. I jammed them into tree branch junctions too. A Blue tit has spotted one of them :-)

So, there you have it… a new challenge in gardenwatching to start a 6th year of blogging. What fun I find these feeder challenges. Of course, if a Treecreeper does return… the challenge of getting photos and video will then begin :-)

Enjoy the challenges in your garden be they growing plants or encouraging birds and wildlife. Looking through our windows, our gardens can be pure theatre to watch with a cast of many - especially at this time of year. Thanks for garden watching with me :-D

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in November 2011.

Wild Flowers via some housekeeping

2011-11-16T23:24:00.010Z

There’s nothing quite like a good de-clutter is there? The time has come for my (never really updated) plant photos blog to go. However, I do want to keep one post after getting help from other bloggers with it. This post was originally published back in July 2007 and linked to from this blog.

The images below were all taken on a family holiday in North Wales and the Isle of Anglesey. On this holiday I decided to have wild flowers as the topic for my camera. I have to admit I found it fun scanning the verges as we sped by in the car - I wasn't driving of course :-)

I was thrilled with my collection of images at the time even though (different camera) many are a bit out of focus – I could barely stand with the strong winds when many were taken! However, I am not a wild flower expert so I invited suggestions from the wild flower enthusiasts to help identify these plants by comments or email. I found that great fun too.

Identification thanks went to Bloggers Celia at Purple Podded Peas and Sara at Farming Friends . There's a few left without ID's so if anyone has any suggestions please do add them in a comment, thanks :-)

C1 - Spear Thistle, C2 - Creeping Thistle,

C3 - Marsh Thistle perhaps?

D1 & D2 - Self Heal - seed head & flower head (Thanks, Celia)

D3 - Red Deadnettle (Thanks, Celia)

E1 - Lesser Trefoil or Black medick ? tricky with only flower (Thanks, Celia)

E2 - Common Centaury & E3 - Ribwort Plantain (Thanks, Celia)

F1 to F3 - Clovers in various stages of growth

G1 & G3 - Any suggestions?

G2 - Himalayan Balsam (Thanks, Celia)

H1 - Herb Robert - a type of wild hardy geranium (Thanks, Celia)

H2 - Common Mallow (Thanks, Celia) H3 - Bell heather

I1 to I3 - Bird’s Foot Trefoil (Thanks, Celia)

J1 - Scarlet Pimpernel? ( Thanks, Celia
J2 - Fox-and-cubs (Philosella aurantiaca) orange hawkweed

J3 - Any suggestions?

K1 - K3 Hawkweed - various forms (Thanks, Sara).
When I photographed these flowers,
I had no idea how varied the petal structures were.

L1 - Hawkweed again (Sara suggests). At the time, I thought
it was a dandelion but on looking again at the original photo
I agreed it could be Hawkweed (Thanks, Sara)
L2 - Perforate St John's Wort. I thought so (Thanks, Sara)
L3 - Ranunculus but leaves would help to identify whether it is
the creeping buttercup or the lesser spearwort (Thanks, Sara).
I looked again at the original photo and looking at the foliage
I agreed it could be a spearwort - but perhaps the greater one? .

M1 - Cabbage family but need leaves to identify (Thanks, Sara).
This was a very windy shot and all foliage was blurred.
M2 - Lady's Bedstraw (Thanks, Celia)

M3 - Tormentil, I thought - Sara agreed (Thanks, Sara)

N2 - Soldier beetle & N3 - Ladybird. I also came across
many insects including bees and the occasional mushroom!

O1 - Red Valerian (Thanks, Celia)

O2 - White Cinquefoil (Thanks, Sara)

O3 – Any suggestions?

P1 - Hogweed? (leaves would confirm) (Thanks, Celia)
P2 - Yarrow (Thanks, Celia)

P3 - Bindweed( - large perhaps?
(Bindweed spotted growing twining through plants up a wall)

Q1 – Bramble flowers?

Q2 – Bramble fruits?

Q3 – Dead nettle? If so which one?

R1 - Maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes)
R2 - Barley grass perhaps small low grass
(photo taken at the top of the great Orme in Llandudno).

R3 - Rusty-back fern (Ceterach officinarum) spotted growing in walls.

This has been fun revisiting this posting although I suspect many regular visitors to this blog may have missed it first time round. I hope you enjoy this little look back at some summer flowering wild flowers especially now that our gardens are winding down for the year. Oh yes… and if you can help me with any ID’s that would be great :-)

Now… wait a minute… I think I have some pkts of wild flower seeds somewhere. Perhaps more house keeping is required there too.

Have you fav wild flowers growing in your garden? Red Campion (introduced by me) is perhaps a little too well settled in my garden and I’m hoping Lady’s smock (the Cuckoo flower) will do the same :-D

This post was written by Shirley at shirls gardenwatch
in connection with this original posting Wild Flowers July 2007

Garden Fireworks & Wildlife

2011-11-05T14:29:00.000Z

Catherine wheels (Japanese Anemone flowers), Sparklers (Catmint, Red Campion & Erysimum)…

Fountains (Verbena Bonariensis)…

Fireworks fizzled out on the ground (Hosta & Fern)…

Wood stacked for bonfires…

Don’t worry… I’m not making a bonfire in the shady (back of the fence) border shown above. I’m not planning a big tidy up here either… except for a little weeding and the winter protection for my Gunnera.

However, looking for shelter, wildlife will wander for into a stacked pile of wood pallets set out for a bonfire just the same as they would this wild(ish) corner of my garden. I’d say the advice of not building a bonfire until the day it will be lit is a good one. Hopefully the mostly nocturnal hedgehogs, mice, frogs and toads will not shelter in them and stay safe.

Coming back to November’s garden fireworks we have the crackles (aka weeds & dried broken flower stems)…

Next we have the smaller gentle rockets (short stemmed seed heads)…

Cover your ears now for the Grand Finale (tree seen from window glowing with evening sun last night)…

Phew… no firework accidents! Do take care if you are handling fireworks in your garden tonight. Sometimes fireworks appear in places you don’t expect (new mealworm feeder hidden in small Acer tree)…

You might come across a hidden/missing firework and not know if it is safe or not (Blue tit discovered this new feeder after just ten minutes)…

I’m guessing many cameras will be out in force tonight trying to capture the colourful displays. I suspect tonight/tomorrows blogs will have lots of great images.

I never considered the camera opportunities this morning’s newly located (hidden) feeder would afford me… it’s going to an excellent photo spot :-)

Finally, I can’t let this post go without a birthday mention… my eldest daughter was 21 this week (Halloween) and tonight she is back in the Granite City to celebrate with her friends. She’s beginning with the organised fireworks display at the beach…

Wishing wildlife and everyone watching firework displays a great and safe night tonight… looking forward to seeing the photos and hearing all about it :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in November 2011

Missing Salmon Leaping?

2011-10-19T08:59:00.011+01:00

Not any more… what about you? Do you know where the nearest Salmon jumping/leaping location is in your area? I would absolutely recommend seeing this breathtaking Autumn spectacle if you are out and about just now.

For those visiting/living in Perthshire, Scotland you can find a list of some locations here. I’m going to check out a few others now! This is the thing, I’ve found with garden/nature watching over the last five years, you often miss what’s in your own garden/on your own doorstep.

If you have any Salmon Leaping locations you would like to share (from whatever part of the world) please do add them in a comment or email me them. If I get lots of locations I’ll update this post listing them at the end.

Last year, visiting The Hermitage at exactly the same time, we were completely oblivious to what was going on in the River Braan and especially at the main waterfalls – which I now know are Black Linn falls. Last year, I didn't take my video camera. I was just out trying to get pretty Autumn photos but that post took an unplanned topic change with pretty and ugly images.

Ossian's Hall image taken from Wikipedia. See source here.

We would always take the walk from the car park to the viewpoint at Ossian’s Hall to see the incredible loud and fast flowing waterfalls. On our visit last Sunday, we had great difficulty getting parked in either of the two car parks at this National Trust for Scotland location.

The carks parks were certainly buzzing with people. Lots of walking boots, cameras and locally made ice creams & takeaway drinks could be seen. My daughter and I enjoyed ice creams while other families were seen with picnics.

I’d like to briefly step on a ‘picnic table’ here and say (in my opinion) television programmes like BBC’s current series of Autumnwatch have had a role in the increasing numbers of people getting outdoors and enjoying what it has to offer. I’m sure many will feel healthier both physically and mentally now too.

It will be an absolute travesty if any future BBC cuts take progammes like this off our screens as they ultimately connect to an audience (especially children) that could offer support to wildlife conservation now and in years to come when it is likely to be needed - be it volunteer/financial. I’m off my ‘picnic table’ now :-)

I’d like to dedicate my Salmon Leaping video, shown below, to the team behind BBC Autumnwatch. Don’t laugh now… I know it’s not remotely to the standard of film captures of Leaping Salmon by Charlie Hamilton (in Scotland) shown on the programme last Friday. However, after seeing this I was inspired to head outdoors to see this spectacle for myself. Being completely honest, when I carried my tripod along to the likely viewpoint I didn’t expect to be using it… how thrilled I was that I did. I'm in awe of these Salmon now :-)

My video of Salmon Leaping up Black Linn falls on the River Braan.
(watch volume settings - background music & noisy falls)

Finally, just a couple more plugs for Autumnwatch, Salmon watching and BBC Wildlife filming. The Autumnwatch programme has live cams on Badgers this week if you want to see them. I've taken a few looks but so far haven't spotted any Badgers. You’ll find times when the Live Badger Cams are running here. Now that I've posted this link I'll be back this week checking it out. Sorry, don't know if this works outside the UK - you could try.

When I upload videos of subjects I’ve never covered before I always take a look at what is already out. Two videos of Salmon Leaping caught my eye. The first was also taken at the Hermitage and at first glance appears like a family video - but stick with it. I particularly enjoyed the footage shown in the last third of the film taken from steep edges of the river to the side of the waterfall. I wasn't brave enough to go that close sticking only to the path edge.

Video by PuffinLove see source here.
(watch volume settings - background music & noisy falls)

At first glance, the footage by The BBC shown below showing Grizzly Bears catching Salmon does feel a bit horrific on the Salmon when you consider the exhausting journey they take. Yes, I know the clever bears need to eat too. However, as Sir David Attenborough narrates, the sheer numbers of Salmon secure hundreds of successful passes by the Bears for every Salmon caught.

Video by the BBC, see more short videos here.
(watch volume settings - you may want to turn this one up to hear narration)

Is that not just amazing to see? Needless to say this last video wasn't taken in Scotland ;-)

Just a couple more links for you today – this time to a fellow blogger who isn't new to watching Salmon leaping. I didn’t spot this post by David at Orchids, Nature and My Outdoor Life before I went out Salmon watching, capturing video or starting this post. He's got nice photos and from memory he has shown video footage in a past post.

Ah… reading David's post... I see now why the car parks on my visit to the Hermitage were so busy… BBC Autumnwatch posted a few salmon watching links on a blog post on their site - which included David’s area and ours. I'll now take a look through the comments there to see the chat.

So there you go, more proof that nature programmes on television screens takes people outdoors. Oh yes... and for those that are unable to get outdoors or travel to see wildlife spectacles like this... television can allow them to wonder at them too. Just brilliant... well done guys :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in October 2011.

Getting back to business

2011-10-11T22:02:00.003+01:00

That would be the business of watching what’s going on in the garden through the seasons. Being fully autumnal now, its Anemone flowers bobbing about in the breeze and Acer leaves falling that are catching my eye from my window.

A closer look on a garden wander with my camera late afternoon yesterday shows how much darker the light it is getting. I do like the depth colours of this time of year. Ah yes… the Anemone flowers did shout out ‘photograph me’ once again and I duly obliged.

Wonderfully some of the deep blue Gentiana sino-ornata flowers could still be seen on my wander. This is one of many ‘first garden plant favs’ and I had big plans for it. Ahem… they are yet to be realised. It is planted on the top of a low stone dyke and the plan is to have a sloped bank of it all the way down to the water edge of my new (to be built) wildlife pond. The idea is that the blue will reflect in the water on grey days.

Once again another year has passed and I have not fully committed to completing this (talked about many times) wildlife pond. In my defence, it’s a big job and an even bigger step to make such a large permanent feature in my garden. I am a tad nervous of this. With our Leylandii hedge overdue its annual trim (brother will trim it this year for us) and a few other essential garden jobs needing done before winter any pond work isn’t going to happen this year now.

The seed heads of the ornamental grass Miscanthus sinensis 'Kleine Fontane' I have also admired from my window with the pink flowers Anemone September Charm close by. Out of sight around the corner of my house and scrambling up an archway structure Golden Hop (Humulus lupulus 'Aureus') can be found. Most leaves have succumbed to the season, have been feasted on (probably slugs) and look quite spookily skeletal but I did find a few hops and fresh leaves… yay :-)

Autumn for the gardener is a ‘rush against time’ season in some ways (my thoughts anyway). Weather hampers work in the garden (like hedge trimming and moving plants). Daylight hours and available gardening time hampers the tidy-up jobs (from borders to sheds).

My absence from garden work over the summer is clear to be seen by walking round my garden. Deciding which jobs to tackle is going to be a tad tricky. Short regular walks are also needed to help my husband recover from his recent major Op and I want to join him with that. Thanks once again for all your good wishes. So where the garden is concerned, I’ll do what I can :-)

This Autumn I had planned to collect leaves to make leaf mould compost. See this blog post by Emma Cooper for the BBC Gardening Blog (spotted yesterday) if this is something that might interest you. Emma uses plastic bags. I had been considering trying jute sacks I spotted earlier in the year in the RHS online shop. They have an offer at the moment with 3 for the price of 2. Mm… I doubt I could fill too many bags of leaves from my garden. However, it might be interesting to compare compost results between the jute and a plastic bag. I might give this a try.

Getting back to business in my garden has to be planting (ahead of frosts) a number of plants in a small border near my back door which are sitting on the top of the soil. This area saw a bit of a rethink after paving was laid there over the summer. There was quite a dramatic change/feel to the area with the removal of an arch. We also removed a piece of 3ft high trellis replacing it with a fence panel but I just couldn’t get into the planting bit here. This must happen soon. I’m thinking some bulbs would be a good idea… Mm…

Another seasonal job that needs to happen soon (again watching out for frosts) is the winter protection for my Gunnera. I’ve been chatting annually about this since 2007. Probably that first post still shows the best images of what I do with mine except that now I use dry hay (borrowed from the Guinea pig stash) in the layers between the Gunnera leaves. This method works for me and my Gunnera has survived the last two particularly harsh/cold winters we’ve had here.

Getting back to business with the bird feeders – well that will happen gradually. My bird café went short on supplies during some parts of the summer due to my absence in the garden. Birds looking for regular supplies of food would have found alternative gardens. Last weekend, I went out (in the rain) and pruned back climbers taking over an arch where feeders hang. With feeders cleaned, refilled and visible again the birds are slowly returning… yay!

Ground bird feeders have also been reinstated but for some unknown reason (to me anyway) the birds are opting for the soggy bread and odd seeds I scattered in preference to the dish full of high energy sunflower seeds and peanuts. However, the rather pretty female Chaffinch shown below was seen solo in her quest to search out the sunflower hearts. She was successful.

Not so successful were the bird counts I attempted on Sunday morning. Two different cats appeared on two occasions after I decided on a restart. However, on a brighter note outside my incomplete counts I spotted a Song Thrush which I was delighted about. The usual suspects of Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Blue tits, Chaffinches and Goldfinches were joined by Coal tits, a Robin and a Greenfinch. It’s great to see there is still a variety of species visiting my garden.

Now… I wonder if hedgehogs are still visiting. Perhaps they have already gone into hibernation. I must set up my IR camera to look out for them in the evenings. I used to really enjoy doing that. Hope I’m not too late for this year.

I also hope I'm not keeping you too long/late with this post. I'd just like to add that it's great to be back in blogging business again... oh yes and I'm posting before midnight... now that is a result ;-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in October 2011.

Bee is for BENIGN :-)

2011-10-05T13:15:00.001+01:00

Such brilliant news to receive yesterday – the absolute best! There were tears of relief but beaming smiles are breaking today :-)))))))

Thank-you for all your good wishes in comments and emails. I really cannot believe this nightmare is coming to an end for our family. However, my thoughts go to all those living it just now too. It’s a truly heartbreaking and exhausting place to be no matter how positive you are.

For those who missed the reason behind my blogging absence this summer see my previous post. You don’t need to read it all but perhaps you might find the last image as surreal as we did.

Now the road to a full recovery beckons for both my husband and my garden. Today strong winds are battering my neglected plants. The wind will also be battering my car as I set out shortly for the road trip to the hospital to bring my husband home.

We will take things easy. We do know how very, very lucky we are to be on this road to recovery at all. To my brave, brave husband you are an inspiration xx

This post was written by Shirley for the blog shirls gardenwatch in September 2011.

Second chances

2011-09-29T23:55:00.011+01:00

Infrequent postings without mention of a blogging break might suggest something is amiss. How much to say in a garden blog on plants/birds/wildlife is a tricky one. It would be very easy just to say there’s been no free time to blog this summer. That would be partly true.

As the UK sees some late September, balmy weather I’d like to wish everyone the time and opportunity to enjoy this second chance of summer! I’m guessing the barbecues and garden tables will be coming back out of storage. I was hearing in the news this morning that many pruned plants have re-flowered which must be great for bees and butterflies in particular.

My front garden sedums are looking wonderfully rich in colour now (not images shown here). I haven't seen butterflies on them recently but I’m guessing they are visiting now. Back in the first week of September the you can see the tiny sedum flowers were only just opening and I captured a few butterfly visits with my cameras.

Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies can be seen feeding on buddleja (now past flowering) in my previous post. The Small Tortoiseshell butterfly can be seen in this post just a few days later and the day before we received the news we had feared all summer.

For visitors just popping by for a bit of light relief over a coffee, I hope you've enjoyed these photos and are enjoying your own garden visitors and plants just now. I’ll post again soon when I am able. Wishing you a great weekend :-)

~~~~ 0 ~~~~

I’d like to dedicate this post to the Consultant & Radiographer at our local Hospital (Perth Royal Infirmary) who felt they didn’t have a good enough image of my husband’s kidney stones (annual check) and requested a more detailed image. They picked up a much bigger problem.

During the waiting times between hospital letters and further scans my garden with its plants, birds and hedgehog visitors should have been a place of comfort. However, as my blog and subsequent cameras and nestboxes only came about due to my husband’s encouragement and support I could face neither.

I actually avoided looking out the window (weeds have taken advantage of this) and my PC remained in a tidy, unlit corner of the room in the evenings. Cameras also remained in bags and being truthful bird feeders were being filled infrequently and hedgehogs lost out completely.

The dreaded news we received the day after the photos in this post were taken was that my husband had a tumour in his pancreas. This news came from a specialist in a different hospital. Three weeks ago today we had no idea how quickly things were about to happen.

We only had the weekend to break this news to our daughters (18 & almost 21), my husband’s elderly parents, my elderly parents, immediate family and close friends. Although very hard to do, we had one clear message for everyone – this was positive news too.

The stats we were given by the surgeon was that in 85% of the cases where a tumour is found in the pancreas nothing can be done. My husband was already in the 15%. Although not a small tumour, it was in a rare position in the centre of the pancreas and surgeon’s deemed it operable. Although a scary operation lay ahead this was a very lucky break.

I’ll fast forward past a laparoscopy (to see if Cancer had spread outside the pancreas - it hadn't). I’ll fast forward past the operation that involved the tumour being removed with a large part of the pancreas (my husband will inevitably become a Type 1 diabetic) to test results being expected any day now. We are back at the waiting game.

This has been a major operation where the whole Spleen and Lymph nodes were also removed. My husband was in a High dependency Unit for five days but incredibly he was actually walking again within a couple of days of his Op. Now he is eating meals (with checks on blood sugars) and has only one tube left attached to him! He is looking well too :-)

My carbon footprint isn’t looking too healthy at the moment, but I’d like to share a final surreal image/moment with you. The night before my husband went into hospital for his Op we knew would be hard – especially for our daughters. We couldn’t stay in.

Don’t’s ask me why but I decided to drive everyone into the Centre of Edinburgh on a bit of a road trip. It was a Saturday night with Uni freshers out in force, Stag & Hen night’s, Tourists and locals. The streets were buzzing and with windows down we went people watching!

Driving was a tad tricky at times with pedestrians and Taxi’s going unpredictably in every direction. After many street changes (not planned) I found a parking space. We got out, grabbed Starbucks’ Takeaway drinks and joined the medley of people buzzing about the streets that night. It was just what we needed :-)

Now, here’s the surreal part, purely by chance, we passed by a particular building on our way out of the city. We were on a road that I’ve driven only maybe once before. For locals, I was driving behind Stewart's Melville College and in front of the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art. It was dark but look what caught our eyes...

This is not my photo, see original image here.

The striking blue neon text above is by the Scottish Turner prize winning artist Martin Creed. This work has been on show much longer than the gallery had originally intended. I wonder how many other people have found this as spookily poignant as we did that night.

‘Everything is going to be alright’ with my husband’s health - well we’re a bit away from knowing that yet. We are keeping our positive outlook. I won’t ever forget the moment my daughter read the text above out and I looked across to see the words. We won’t forget that night we spent together either.

Tonight, is the first time I have sat at my PC writing a blog post around midnight (my usual time) in quite a long time. When I uploaded my photos earlier this morning, I wasn’t sure I would actually post this and how I would write it. I also had no idea that I would get a call from my husband to say he is being let home from the hospital for the weekend. He called it his weekend pass. He is now fast asleep upstairs as I publish this :-)

Enjoy your weekend with those that are dearest to you. Thanks for listening and thanks for putting up with my infrequent posting :-)

This post was written by Shirley in September 2011 for shirls gardenwatch.

Buddleja, Butterflies & Fledglings

2011-09-06T21:21:00.008+01:00

The late summer garden gets a huge thumbs up from me. Late butterfly visitors are sometimes seen on sunny days feeding in my front garden. They do make me smile. They also make trying to capture photos and video quite a challenge. As others will agree, this can be a tad compulsive too :-)

I never see large numbers of butterflies visit my garden at any one time and I’ve only seen a few species. Seen (so far) here in my small Scottish Garden have been Red Admirals, Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Painted Lady’s & Small Whites.

However, as regular blog visitors might expect, I do try my best to encourage wildlife to visit my garden by providing a variety of food. My nectar feeders didn’t appear to interest the butterflies (that I saw) but at the moment the plants in my front garden are.

Understandably known as the butterfly bush, my young Buddleja with only a few flowers is proving very popular as you will see here in a few of many photographs taken. Considering the butterflies will pass this way I have increased a planting of sedum earlier this year which is nearing flowering time.

Where butterflies/insects are concerned I am working on the theory of grouping plants that they may visit all in the one area to attract them. Some gardeners may call this a nectar bar. Lol... short on space for planting in my front garden you could call mine a mini bar ;-)

Winter damaged plants that were left to regrow sadly haven’t. So planting space free, with a bit of revamp to my window border we have the return of Verbena Bonariensis.

Yep… Verbena Bonariensis will be a very popular tipple in my butterfly mini bar when it flowers. I’ve a plan in mind to protect it this winter and plan to take cuttings too. Oh yes… and I have a pkt of seed to make sure I have some plants for next year.

As ever, I am optimistic that I will see new species arrive in my garden one fine, sunny day. This gardenwatch blog has shown me to expect the unexpected and always to keep a keen eye out the window!

Looking out my window tonight to wet, windy weather where bird feeders have been knocked off their tree hooks my thoughts went to the people and wildlife of Texas as wildfires rage there. I hope my blogging friends are safe and well.

Safe and enjoying the Buddleja in my garden on Sunday were bees and a Peacock butterfly. Safe too yesterday was a Red Admiral butterfly - although it did have a challenge holding on during gusts of wind.

My eye is always drawn to the eyes of the bottom wings of the Peacock butterfly.
Wings out fully like this it isn’t easy to miss.

It’s easy for the eye to miss the Peacock butterfly
when it feeds vertically with its wings tighter together.

In contrast, the Red Admiral is easily spotted when it feeds vertically.

Most butterflies can be easily missed when their wings are folded completely up and they show their camouflaged underside pattern. Photos of the Red Admiral yesterday switched back and forth to the activity at the House Martin nest built at the front of my house.

Youngsters could be heard chirping excitedly for food with the fledglings of earlier broods hanging around the nest too. I’m not sure how many broods we have had since nest building began back in June. Books suggest they could have 1-3 broods.

I might guess our House Martin nest has had three broods but how successful they have been I couldn’t tell. They are pretty high up under the eaves of our house and I have great difficulty seeing the camera screens when trying to capture images due to light coming in from the side angles.

As it was windy yesterday and the grasses and bamboo next to my Buddleja were making a rustling noise I was able to get closer to the Red Admiral butterfly with my camera which was a bonus.

Round in my shadier back garden there has been even more activity with late juvenile birds arriving at the feeders. Getting photos from my window is tricky and not so clear but I loved this shot with the juvenile Goldfinch with a sunflower heart taken at the end of August. Much fluttering of wings was done to get it too.

The middle of August saw begging Blackbird juveniles too. Note how close the seed feeder and fat ball is too! Taking photos in this area is a tad tricky too with extremes of shade and strong sunshine together.

A little closer and a bit easier to adjust light levels for images is the area right under my window. I had to end with this shot of another juvenile and one that has been a delight to watch from my window. The Dunnock is more of an insect feeder but this juvenile has taken a liking to sunflower hearts.

At a guess, based on when the first juvs were seen in my garden earlier this year, I’d say the Dunnocks may have had three broods but definitely two. I’d say both Goldfinches and Greenfinches have had two broods (maybe three). I’d also guess our Siskins have had two broods too.

What a busy place the garden is isn’t it… then there’s the border revamps… just how many can a gardener have in one season? What are you up to in your garden just now? What birds and butterflies are visiting you? Do share them in a comment – we’d all love to hear about them.

Sorry, you’ve not been hearing so much from me lately. Hope to get back to normal blogging service soon :-)

This post was written by Shirley for the blog shirls gardenwatch in September 2011.

Wordless Wednesday: Hedgehog in me Heuchera!

2011-08-17T22:55:00.004+01:00

Screen grabs from video footage taken this evening just after 10pm.

This post was published by Shirley for the blog shirls gardenwatch

August Blooms: GBBD

2011-08-15T23:55:00.000+01:00

August Perseid Meteor shower over for another year, it’s now time to seek out the star performers of the garden. If you’d like to see lots and lots of garden stars and starlets from all over the world head over to the monthly blogger event that is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Your host Carol and many blogging friends will be waiting for you :-)

Usually my photos for my GBBD post are taken on the day. However, we’ve had a fair bit of rain and wind this past while. A brief camera outing yesterday morning captured the images shown below.

Drumstick alliums are finally in flower and are attracting lots of insects including bees and many Hoverflies. Taking photos of these blooms are tricky as the stems catch the wind easily and the bees don't stay still long :-)

Japanese Anemones are a serious favourite in my garden and my plantings are slowly increasing. I am delighted about that. I think the variety above is September Charm.

I have another two pink varieties in flower too and the white ones are just beginning to open. Once again this is a great flower for insects – seen above with Hoverflies.

The seed heads of my yellow Meconopsis are looking great just now. I plan to collect them soon. This plant is surrounded by the Japanese Anemones at the moment.

Finally to a border view in my back garden which shows that we’ve not been having drought issues here. All greens and foliage are wonderfully lush.

Note the chunky stone pavement in the middle which I added this year to make it easier to reach the bird feeders hanging on the tree here. It works a treat and will be particularly handy in the winter months.

Flowering with the Drumstick Alliums above there is Red Campion and Borage in the background. Astilbe Sprite is in the foreground with Heuchera and Thalictrum delavayi 'Hewitt's Double' (from memory) in the middle. I love those tiny purple flowers of the Thalictrum.

The pink/purple flower spikes on the right I don’t have an ID for. I do remember they were labelled as a Piet Oudolf collection and bought fairly locally. The bees and Hoverflies love it. I’d welcome an ID if anyone recognises it :-D

So… I’m guessing… you’re guessing… we had rain today as I used these photos. Nope, that’s not what prevented my camera from snapping and sharing more blooms.

Today, was a lovely warm day and I managed to catch up on a few garden jobs needing my attention – naturally I took this opportunity to mix up the plantings again too and I had so much fun that I forgot to take my photos :-)

Other plants in flower in my garden at the moment include Rose Madam Carriere, Clematis Niobe, Picardy and another that I need to find a label to ID.

Nepata Walker’s Low was flowering too as was Erysimum 'Bowles' Mauve', a Rhodendron (small yellow bells) and a perennial with tall spires of pink flowers that are loved by insects – I’d love to find the label for that one too.

Knautia Mars Midget is still holding on to flowers in my front garden where the Red Campion growing there is finally bowing out. I’ll collect Red Campion seed capsules if it’s dry tomorrow then cut the plants to the ground so any younger plants have a chance to flower.

So that’s it all wrapped up for another month. I’m a tad late (UK time) in posting this so it will be tomorrow now before I can get browsing the Blogs over at Carol’s. See you then - wishing everyone a Happy GBBD.

That’s the annual Perseid Meteor shower over for this August too. We had a lot of cloud so visibility was hampered. Last night was a clearer sky but disappointingly I never saw a single Meteor. On previous years I have been lucky enough to see them so I do know what we were missing. Ah well… hope you enjoyed some sightings where you are :-)

This post was written by Shirley for the blog shirls gardenwatch.

The peak of the 2011 Perseids is near…

2011-08-11T23:45:00.002+01:00

Take a look outside…have you clouds tonight too? Don’t worry… Saturday morning just before dawn has been suggested to be the busiest time for the annual Perseids Meteor shower here in the UK. Someone correct me here if I have this wrong - other parts of the world will have different times. Please do share yours if you know them.

Perhaps I’ll set an alarm for Saturday… pre blog I never knew this annual spectacle happened. Seriously though… this really is an amazing piece of gardenwatching and I’d definitely recommend it!

I should say, I’m not a science geek but I have to confess to be being absolutely fascinated and blown away to see trails of meteors dart through the sky by my naked eye over the last two years. In my head I’ve heard a whoosh as the meteors dash through the sky but there is probably no sound to be heard... or is there? Maybe I should get out a sound recorder ;-)

Anyway, if this is something that might interest you too there are probably many websites with info. Meteorwatch is the one that has caught my eye again. Here is their video for 2011…

Enjoy your sky watching this weekend :-D

This post was written by Shirley for the blog shirls gardenwatch.

Nature of Scotland Awards

2011-08-08T11:18:00.004+01:00

It’s a giant leap from observing and chatting about the nature from a small town garden to the nature conservation of a country but this caught my eye when an email on the Nature of Scotland Awards came in. Feeling it would be a tad remiss of me not to promote this here I am with a few Scottish Scenery pics thrown in :-)

The RSPB have teamed up with the Scotsman newspaper, BBC Scotland, Black Grouse Whisky, SNH and Marine Scotland to recognise and celebrate excellence, innovation and outstanding achievement in Scottish nature conservation.

I’d take a guess that there are a good number of unsung heroes here and if you know any you can see a list of the six categories here. You can nominate suitable initiatives and encourage them to enter. You’ll find full details here.

What is required?

“A summary of no more than 1,000 words, illustrating why your nomination is head and shoulders above the rest.

Succinctly outline the project, initiative or activity. What does it aim to achieve and how did the project or person achieve its objectives? Highlight dates and any partnership working where relevant and provide evidence of any impact made. Please include:

•what makes your nomination outstanding
•evidence of results or expected results
•partnership working
•relevant dates
•any impact on climate change

The closing date for entries is Friday 26 August, the awards are free and easy to enter. The shortlist will be announced in November.”

View from Bridge of Orchy on West Highland Way.

View from Bridge of Orchy on West Highland Way.

Kinshaldy Beach, Tentsmuir Forest.

Finally, a few encouraging words from Stewart Stevenson, Minister for Environment and Climate Change:

"Delivery of conservation is critical to the preservation and quality of Scotland’s biodiversity. The innovation, dedication and hard work of those striving to make a real difference remains more important than ever.

“I encourage those who have done something exceptional for the conservation of Scotland’s precious natural environment to enter the Nature of Scotland Awards and make sure this important work receives the recognition it rightly deserves. I look forward to learning more about these unsung success stories and wish all the applicants the very best of luck!”

This post was written by Shirley for the blog shirls gardenwatch.

A spot of moonlighting

2011-08-03T16:35:00.001+01:00

Car boot itinerary: a half moon (lawn edger - but not for lawn use); two watering cans (it isn’t always raining in Scotland); a garden trug; hand tools; a small bucket of self-sown young plants with water at bottom; gardening gloves and boots. Oh yes… and my small (well used) sack trolley to carry everything from the car park to the garden in one trip ;-)

An hour earlier… back in my garden… there was a small production line going on…

A new bag of compost had been opened. A newspaper had been cut into strips. String was cut into measured lengths. A shallow tray had water just covering the bottom. Self-sown seedlings from my garden (with roots in the water) waited in the departure lounge in preparation for relocation.

Meanwhile a few metres away… leaning on a house wall there were 12 paving slabs waiting their turn for our attention. Let’s just say some relocation of older slabs was necessary and the new ones needed to cover that area. Not exactly fun garden work for a sunny day… so sometimes we've gone out instead ;-)

Okay... why on earth (I hear you say) am I bothering moonlighting on another garden when I have a list of on going projects in my own garden? Well… you know what it’s like when you’ve a huge ironing to do at home and you happily iron for a friend/relative at their house… no?

Getting a tad serious for a minute, as regular visitors to my blog will know, my garden has had the New Zealand flatworm as one of its residents. I have few earthworms. This flatworm was first discovered probably about 15 years ago now.

I’ll not distract this post by repeating what I have said in the past. You can read about my experience in this back post. If you find a flatworm in your garden you should destroy it. If you want to see a photo I posted one here.

Suffice to say, knowing I spotted a flatworm egg during the last month, it would be incredibly irresponsible of me to give away plants from my garden in a pot of soil. As a rule, if I give away plants, it is generally done with soil washed or shaken from the roots.

Last Friday, I lifted self-sown seedlings of Red campion and Borage from my garden. Without any soil, I laid them on some compost which I put on a strip of newspaper. The seedling was rolled up (with bottom folded over) and tied together with string.

The seedling parcel was then left to stand in a shallow amount of water, my theory being that the newspaper would act as a wick and draw up some water helping to dampen the compost which would keep the seedling from drying out.

Great in theory… yes! However, to transport my seedlings to their new garden location I transferred them into a smaller bucket and put a little too much water in it. I also stuffed too many in together. Result… some newspaper plant roll-ups lost their bottoms! No matter, they kept damp until I got to the garden :-)

Expecting the soil in this garden to be compacted and firm (wrong again… note to self… check soil condition prior to planting next time) I took my half-moon lawn edger to prize open a trench for planting. Little prizing was necessary so the job was easy.

A trench strip may have seemed overkill for an informal planting but my thoughts were of survival. I wanted to soak the ground these young plants were going to. I wanted the water to go deep as plants search out water with their roots.

When plants have their roots deeper in the soil, they have a better chance of survival in times of drought. The reality for these plants is that they will get little help from me once I leave them.

So... as much as not wanting to spread flatworms to another garden my 2nd plan for these little newspaper plant parcels was one of an experiment. Will these young plants survive without any more watering once planted? I have plenty more in my garden if they don’t. I'd say definitely worth a try :-)

I planted the Borage in strips together as they can grow tall. My thoughts were that they would need to support each other if it got a little windy as I don't plan to stake them. I also added a few other single plants around the trench to break up the formality.

Based on seeing how these plants grow in my garden, I decided to plant the Red Campion in clumps. Once again, I made a larger hole than they needed and soaked it well. I then clumped these groups together and then repeated this again for another area nearby.

Trenches well watered, they were back filled with the soil that had been removed. Plants then firmed in, they got one more top watering. Job finished then?

Well, not exactly… this is just the beginning! My ultimate goal for these fresh seedlings is for them to grow into strong clumps that will flower then self-seed increasing the number of flowers with each year for this and other parts of the garden.

Granted it will take a couple of years perhaps to really make a big splash of colour but during that time they will attract insects and bees on the way enriching this area for visitors too. It will be fun to watch the garden take shape too.

Talking a step back you can see the section of this garden I was working in with the plants ready for planting in their trenches as they were last Friday at lunchtime...

The mossy strip on the bottom right corner is the edges of a raised bed that has some herbs already planted in it. That’s why I planted the Borage along this path edge... to tie it in with other herbs.

Taking a walk around the path to the left and looking back to the raised bed (back in March when it looked quite different) you can see the area in the middle of the photo between the trees that will get a bit of height and interest for both wildlife and visitors.

Ah yes… the visitors :-)

This new wildlife garden is at the entrance to RSPB Nature Reserve Vane Farm. It was an area previously behind a fence along the entrance path that visitors just walked by.

A fantastic job was done by a group of volunteers last year. The site was cleared, paths and a raised pond built with homes for wildlife added. Planting that has caught my eye has been a strip of young plants that will make a wonderful mixed hedgerow in a few years.

Regular visitors to my blog will know of my trips to SWT Reserve Loch of the Lowes over the last few years. You can see a compilation video here taken with my previous (non HD) camera. Perhaps it’s about time I produced a compilation video from RSPB Vane Farm as this is a Reserve I’d like to share more from in the future.

Back in May, I popped along to Vane Farm to discuss being a volunteer there. Within a few weeks I was helping out with an event! I’ve been meaning to blog on that for some time but time does just run away with us at this time of year doesn’t it? I’ll come back to it another time... it involved talking ;-)

Since then, I’ve been caught up with lots of other things that have prevented me from being back at Vane Farm. However, the plan is (when I get more organised with free time) I’m going to get involved with planting up this new wildlife garden and perhaps blogging about it on the Vane Farm Blog too! Its early days and I’ve more people to chat to yet ;-)

Sounds fun doesn’t it? Coming back to reality with a bump… as mentioned earlier there are dull but necessary jobs still to be sorted here. Weather permitting, 2 paving slabs await laying, a hedge weekend looms, our shed needs a little TLC to face winter and….

All that being said… we have to make the most of sunny days we get over the summer. We have always enjoyed our family time… lol… hence the long list!

Finally, hands up… two days after planting the newspaper parcels of young plants at Vane Farm’s new wildlife garden I returned to check on the new recruits… they were looking remarkably well. Yes, they were still recovering from their move but I am now quite positive that they will be okay.

Taking my watering cans on that trip to give the new recruits another good soak was a good idea. Yes, I know I said I'd leave them as an experiment. Good job I did give them a little extra help as we've had some warm spells since.

Oh yes... and I collected some fresh Red Campion seeds from my garden and scattered them in the area of the plants too. In addition I left Reserve staff two generous pkts of Red Campion seed to be used in other areas too.

It's great fun sharing seeds and supporting other gardens and organisations. Now... its time to get back working in my own garden again! Hope you've been enjoying yours. What's catching your eye at the moment?

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch

Top 10 UK Garden Birds 2011

2011-07-29T08:30:00.001+01:00

Results for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch for 2011 were published back in March. The graphic way the RSPB have chosen to illustrate and compare the stats makes it a good read too. You can get the full PDF list here. Although a tad late, perhaps this is a good time to be posting this :-)

Since writing this garden, bird and wildlife blog I have taken part with a count. On posting the results each year, I now have stats for the last five years of this survey which you can see below. I’ve always found the comparisons interesting and perhaps you might too. But first, do you feed birds during the summer months?

Since March our garden birds have paired up, nested and brought their young to our gardens. Back in January, everyone was being encouraged to put up bird feeders prior to the count - held annually on the last weekend of January.

Now, with us in full summer (although it doesn’t always feel like it) leaves on trees and shrubs can make seeing the birds visiting our gardens a bit more tricky. In reality many parent birds will be hiding their bedraggled look of worn feathers at the moment.

However, birds are still visiting our gardens and will definitely appreciate food at bird feeders during this time of year too to get them back to full health again. Some birds do have more than one brood too.

Feeding young is tiring work for the parent birds and if food at feeders is not suitable to take back to their young than it certainly will fuel these hard working parents so they can find some.

I’d take a guess that our summer bird feeders do contribute greatly to numbers of garden birds in counts for the RSPB and in other surveys. If yours is packed away in the shed until winter, do consider getting it out again :-)

I have mentioned this before, but pre blog I really didn't think birds needed feeders during the summer. I was wrong.

Since continuing to feed the birds in my garden throughout the whole year I have definitely had the reward in seeing an increase in birds and species to my small garden. There's also the bonus of seeing so many newly fledged birds which is both a delight and fun to see.

Okay... to the stats! In summary first, during the last 5 years the Top Ten garden birds counted for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch has had the same nine birds with 10th place seeing the most changes. So this is how the 2011 Big Garden Birdwatch went…

Top 10 Garden Birds 2011

1. HOUSE SPARROW with an average of 4.16 per garden
2010 – (1) with 3.77 per garden
2009 – (1) with 3.70 per garden
2008 – (1) with 3.60 per garden
2007 – (1) with 4.40 per garden

2. STARLING with an average of 3.91 per garden
2010 – (3) with 3.13 per garden
2009 – (2) with 3.21 per garden
2008 – (2) with 3.44 per garden
2007 – (2) with 3.67 per garden

3. BLACKBIRD with an average of 3.27 per garden
2010 – (2) with 3.28 per garden
2009 – (3) with 2.84 per garden
2008 – (3) with 2.45 per garden
2007 – (4) with 2.26 per garden

4. BLUE TIT with an average of 3.16 per garden
2010 – (4) with 2.58 per garden
2009 – (4) with 2.45 per garden
2008 – (4) with 2.29 per garden
2007 – (3) with 2.82 per garden

5. CHAFFINCH with an average of 2.35 per garden
2010 – (5) with 2.19 per garden
2009 – (5) with 2.01 per garden
2008 – (5) with 2.15 per garden
2007 – (5) with 1.9 per garden

6. WOODPIGEON with an average of 1.93 per garden
2010 – (6) with 1.91 per garden
2009 – (6) with 1.85 per garden
2008 – (6) with 1.53 per garden
2007 – (7) with 1.53 per garden

7. GREAT TIT with an average of 1.56 per garden
2010 – (8) with 1.39 per garden
2009 – (8) with 1.40 per garden
2008 – (9) with 1.25 per garden
2007 – (8) with 1.37 per garden

8. GOLDFINCH with an average of 1.51 per garden
2010 – (10) Goldfinch with 1.29 per garden
2009 – (10) Long-tailed tit with 1.34 per garden
2008 – (10) Goldfinch with 1.16 per garden
2007 – (10) Greenfinch with 1.20 per garden

9. ROBIN with an average of 1.46 per garden
2010 – (7) with 1.49 per garden
2009 – (9) with 1.36 per garden
2008 – (8) with 1.26 per garden
2007 – (9) with 1.26 per garden

10. COLLARED DOVE with an average of 1.34 per garden
2010 – (9) with 1.33 per garden
2009 – (7) with 1.44 per garden
2008 – (7) with 1.43 per garden
2007 – (6) with 1.56 per garden

It’s great to see the House Sparrow give a good increase in numbers this year. You can see from my stats above that this bird is creeping up towards numbers back in 2007 which is brilliant news for a bird that is on the endangered list.

The House Sparrow has continued as top bird seen in UK gardens. In fact the top six species of birds seen in UK gardens this year has remained unchanged except for a swap around with the Starlings and Blackbirds for 2nd & 3rd place.

Starlings, another species on the endangered list, have returned to their 2nd place slot which they have held for 4 out of the last five years. However, once again the really good news is that their slowly decreasing numbers over the last four has seen a significant increase this year!

Starlings have actually shown a bigger increase in numbers for 2011 than the house Sparrows… aiming for top spot for 2012 maybe?

Sadly, this year we didn’t get any Blue tits nesting in our boxes with cameras. That was a shame, especially when I was testing out a new one for someone. Although on the positive side we have seen a young family arrive at the feeders and now see them regularly.

Wonderfully, last year we saw our first brood of Blue tits survive (via nestcam box see diary with pics and video here) so I’m particularly thrilled to see a good increase in numbers of Blue tits this year despite them holding on to the same 4th spot that they have held for four consecutive years now.

As you have seen, I have chosen to illustrate my list to show where a bird has been placed over the last five years. Perhaps I should explain what’s going on with the Goldfinch entry – it’s all about 10th place which wonderfully for the Goldfinch it is no longer in :-)

The Goldfinch has charmed its way up to 8th place this year! It has been outside the Top Ten for two of the last five years and taken 10th spot in the other two years. I have added who took 10th spot for the years it didn’t make the Top Ten. Sorry, if this has been confusing.

My garden has seen many Goldfinches visit this year and throughout the winter. One brood of young has come and gone at feeders with many becoming regular visitors. I’m pretty sure more than one family has visited too. I am expecting more new broods to come so it is no surprise to me at all that this bird has moved up in the stats.

Jumping back up to 5th place in the 2011 RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch and we have the consistent Chaffinch which has held 5th place for the past 5 years. That’s its UK place, but here in my part of Scotland it takes top spot again. That doesn’t surprise me either based on my garden visitors.

I’ll not go through all species in the list above but will end with 10th place and a mention of the Collared Dove. Although it has only dropped from 9th spot last year back in 2007 it was in 6th place so it’s maybe one to keep an eye on.

The date is already set for the 2012 Big Garden Birdwatch as Saturday 28th/Sunday 29th January. Until then… enjoy feeding and watching the birds that visit your garden :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch

The bag lady

2011-07-21T17:55:00.023+01:00

That’s what I am just now… are you a bag person too? Do little brown envelopes await filling with seeds collected from your garden just now? I, (and others I’m sure) would love to hear about your seed collection & storage system if you’d like to share it in a comment :-)

Perhaps you sow seeds fresh… which plants do you find the most success with?

Hands up… yes, I am a filler of little brown envelopes with seeds from my garden. Being really truthful, I also find myself quite OTT with my collecting once I start!

Oh yes… I do know I’ll not likely sow all the seeds I collect but find myself relishing what I can collect. Relishing, what my garden has given me back for free too :-)

Mm… I also know some seeds won’t be viable… but I keep them all anyway. I’d take a guess that I’m not alone there either. Mm… maybe I should look into tests for seed viability. Perhaps I should consider seed exchanges too :-D

Oops… and I am partial to buying seeds when I see an offer too… 50% off and I’m picking up seeds as maybes. Lol… I like the thrill of what I could grow. A hopeless case I am, I know… I hear you laughing… does this sound familiar to anyone?

Okay... although I do love my little brown envelopes for storing seeds I came across a blog last year on seeds being stored in spice jars by fer at my little Garden in Japan. It’s great that through comments we discover new blogs/bloggers isn’t it?

Anyway, I thought this a brilliant idea… you could see the seeds in all their different shapes, colour and types. I liked that idea a lot too. fer kept hers in a picnic style basket which you can see in her post. Do take a look :-)

Coming back to those home packed little brown envelopes of seed… you have to be careful where you store them. A dry place is essential. Keeping the sealed envelopes in a tin or plastic container is worth considering too but only if your seeds are completely dry. I wish I had.

Last winter, prolonged snow on my shed roof made its way into my shed and to the slim cardboard box my seeds were kept in. A big mistake on my part… but I liked this box, there was sentiment behind it. So… the box got soggy… and so did my envelopes. Seeds lost :-(

Coming back to the bags for collecting larger seed heads that need to dry before releasing their seeds (like alliums) what kinds do you use? I tend to use completely paper but they are not always easy to find in shops I know. Where do you find your bags?

In response to the comment in my last post: “Okay, million dollar question! Where did you get the paper bags for the seeds?” asked by fellow Scottish blogger Janet, I got mine in a small stationary/print shop in the City of Perth. Danscot is at 6-8 Kinnoull Street, Perth although they also have a larger trade unit at the North Muirton Ind Estate.

In previous years I have picked up standard brown and white paper bags at this city centre shop. However, earlier this week, I was delighted to find bags with handles which will be much easier to hang up and out of the way while the seeds dry out. Bought singly at just 10p per bag I thought it a bargain too! I was also pleased with my little brown envelopes (sold as wages envelopes) at £1.25 for 50 :-)

Now… I’m all set for a dry day or two of seed collecting… are you?

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch

July garden work, Blooms & Butterflies

2011-07-19T18:20:00.000+01:00

Blooms, we have a few. Butterflies, sadly we’ve seen fewer. Rain, well that’s a plenty and not exactly helping progress in the garden and butterfly visits in a count for the big butterfly count going on here in the UK at the moment.

Clematis Picardy & Niobe are adding a wonderful depth of colour in some areas of the garden. It is especially appreciated in an area under construction at our back door where a paving ‘move around’ has been necessary after winter damage.

Replacing all paving would be wonderful but quite costly so we are opting for (twice the work) lifting paving that matches in age from under the pergola. We will replace that with new ‘more of the same’ paving which will brighten that area. At present both areas are quite muddy with covers coming on and off to try and make some progress.

We also made a decision to remove an arch that is no longer in the right place due to different use in this area. Ah… have memories of our daughters on their small bikes riding through it when they were little. That was pre wheelie bins and guinea pig hutch of course. Clematis Miss Bateman is waiting a new location as she had to be removed too.

We have taken this opportunity to expand (just slightly) this area which will ease access to shed etc during winter. That’s’ the plan anyway. Re possible new arch and home for Miss Bateman, we will decide on that when the paving is completed. Perhaps a tall metal obelisk would work better.

During some rainy spells I’ve taken the opportunity to clean pots and trays in my greenhouse. I’ve plans for seed sowing and taking cuttings there soon. With the arch away the eye is drawn to the greenhouse so it’s time to tidy up and have a bit of a re-org there too.

For Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, I did try to get out with both video camera and still camera to capture the blooms we do have but rain/wind in the times I could get out didn’t make it possible. When I finally could get out many were a tad worse for wear. The plants above caught my eye.

My July Bloom Day flowers included (front garden) Catmint, Borage, Heuchera, Knautia, Cranesbill Geranium, Stipa Gigantea, Hemerocallis, Rose, Red Campion, Cirsium (going over to seed) and seed heads of Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ & ‘Christophii’.

My July Bloom Day flowers from my shadier back garden included Marsh Orchid, Thyme, Heuchera, Wisteria (odd ones), Campanula, Borage, Red Campion, Cranesbill Geraniums, Cone flower, Perennial Wallflower ‘Bowles’ Mauve’, Honeysuckle, Yellow Meconopsis (further down stem) and a few others that I need to find names for.

Fav flowers at the moment are red campion and heuchera. I love to watch the bees feeding on the tiny heuchera flowers and was thrilled to finally get a photo (see first montage). I'm loving the heuchera foliage just now. Oh… and there’s a special new rhododendron with its first flowers… Rh. SANGUINEUM spp DIDYMUM. I love it!

I have also loved my yellow Meconopsis and I am absolutely thrilled at the prospect of collecting seed from it and sowing it. I plan to sow some fresh and keep the rest. So…yesterday I went shopping for paper bags.

I was looking for paper bags big enough to also store allium seed heads until they dry and let go their seeds. I also picked up tiny brown envelopes to store the seed in too. I found myself wandering around the garden later (like a child in a sweet shop) with a pair of scissors cutting the dry capsules from Red Campion and the allium seed heads that had fallen.

Finally on the flowers… it’s just July but September is charming us already! The Anemone ‘September Charm’ had its first flower of the year on July 17th. Today I can see another two about to open. I do love the Japanese Anemones. I’m wondering if this is a tad early for them to flower.

Finally to the butterflies, I am delighted to say I’ve seen a small tortoiseshell butterfly in my garden. It spent quite a while feeding on my perennial wallflower, resting in the sunshine on leaves of a shrub before returning. It was a little difficult to get photos and video but I’m delighted with my captures. I have also been thrilled to see so many bees visiting my garden this year :-)

Unfortunately wet and windy weather doesn’t help butterflies as few sightings then suggest. I’ll wait for a dry sunny day for my 15 minute count. I tried to help further by setting up a feeding station beside the flowers that were popular. I made up a nectar solution and placed sliced banana out too but, as yet, no sightings. I’ll keep trying :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in July 2011.

What’s wriggling in my pond?

2011-07-15T11:10:00.011+01:00

Could it be mosquito larvae? Can you help ID the larvae in the screen photo or video below? They were absolutely tiny and were seen floating and wriggling just under the pond’s surface last night. They also appeared to be almost snorkelling which might suggest they were mosquito larvae.

It was suggested to me by blogger Victoria (Victoria’s Backyard) on twitter last night that if so the species likely to be seen in Scotland would be Culiseta morsitans or Culiseta annulata.

Victoria also added they could be midge larvae if I saw any red ones. I had been looking for that. I could see no red in the larvae. She asked if I had frogs or fish as they could eat them. To that my reply was sadly no.

A non-stop sprinkling of water on the surface of my pond could prevent female mosquitos from laying more eggs in my pond was another helpful suggestion by Victoria. This sprinkling of water could also prevent the hatching larvae to pause on the surface for their wings to dry too. I didn't know they did that.

I never considered that more eggs and larvae could be added to the large number seen in my pond already! However, I have been wondering why bats have been flying quite so close to my window during this last week!

Interesting info from Victoria indeed - especially as my pond pump hasn’t run at all this year. It’s faulty and we haven’t worked out what the problem is yet. A job to move up the list for this weekend then ;-)

Worrying for me (kitchen window nearby) and the guinea pigs in hutch nearby too, some larvae were seen diving as you will see in my video suggesting they all might do this soon. Mm… I slept on the problem ;-)

A quick fishing trip was my short term and immediate response this morning. Should I really have done this before breakfast though… no surprises… the answer is no.

In the absence of frogs and fish to control the high number of larvae in my tiny pond I considered that perhaps ground, insect feeding birds like Dunnocks or Wrens would fancy a tiny bite or two.

With my net I scooped along the surface area of my pond as a start. I left the contents of my net on paving nearby so other pond creatures could crawl back in my pond. I then repeated this deeper in the pond and repeated the whole fishing trip half an hour later… after my breakfast!

The bird 'breakfast buffet' did get a few more ingredients to attract as many birds as possible to it. My mosquito muesli had a sprinkling of sunflower hearts, fine breadcrumbs (so birds would search more) and the secret ingredient… grated cheese (left-overs from last night’s salad). Blackbirds were there instantly running away with cheese :-)

Tonight’s watch will be on the night cam then… for local pipistrelle bats hunting female mosquitos in my tiny pond! I’m not expecting to catch ‘the catch’ but I might see something albeit a bit blurred :-)

For all my fellow garden blogger’s today (being the 15th of the month) is Bloom Day with Carol over at May Dreams Gardens. You’ll get much nicer photos over there as everyone shares what’s flowering in their garden today.

I think to re address the video balance I should video my flowers today. I’ll be back… with pretty pictures later. Meantime, you might like to catch the Open Garden tour in my last post. Enjoy your weekend and Happy GBBD everyone :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in July 2011.

Open Gardens: Montrose

2011-07-10T14:11:00.007+01:00

Sat Nav was set to the Town Nursing Home. The familiar yellow Open Garden banner along the outside wall told us our man ‘Tom’ had successfully got us to the ticket buying/map collection point. We could see many others had just arrived too and the buzz of a town with Open Gardens could be sensed before we even parked the car.

Purely by chance and very fortunate timing we were in Montrose. We had just returned from holiday the night before and catching up on recorded gardening programmes with Breakfast last Sunday morning I got a bit of a surprise!

Scotland’s gardening programme Beechgrove Garden featured one of the gardens that would be open. I liked this garden a lot, but that wasn’t the real reason I quickly made up a picnic and woke my daughter to see if she’d like to come with me :-)

Ticket/Map bought from the friendly ladies sitting at their table in the sunshine, we could hear music playing from a marquee. They were playing for the visitors enjoying the teas. Not taking a drink with me, the plan was to get a coffee here first… mmm… and some home baking too :-)

It’s been some time since I’ve added a coffee cup warning for a chatty post but perhaps you might want to pour yourself a cuppa :-)

The Nursing Home had opened its gardens too. I have to say I thought it was lovely to see some of the residents enjoying the sunshine, music and the extra buzz of people.

Okay, browsing my map over coffee we had a planned route. I knew where the garden that I wanted to visit was so we were sorted there. Off we went... although initially in the wrong direction. Fortunately a local resident told us this and give us a few pointers. We met others and told them too :-)

Personally, I think the great thing about Open Gardens is the wealth of ideas and inspiration to be found there. For new/first time gardeners I would suggest they are better than Garden Shows especially if you are new to an area. The Open Gardens show you what will grow in that location which will generally save on losses of plants not hardy in the area.

As is often the case, unfortunately we didn’t manage to get round all the gardens open this day. I do have a pang of guilt when I don’t get to the ones a bit further out as was the case here. Having been in that position myself (a few years ago) I know how disappointing it is when visitors don’t reach you. My apologies now to the gardens of Hillside that we missed.

I’m guessing a deliberate move by the organisers not to give descriptions for the gardens on the maps ensured that all gardens would get visitors and all visitors would get a surprise on the style of garden they entered. I’d say that worked.

However, for my post I am concentrating on the garden that took us to Montrose this day. I should add that I asked permission to take photos at this garden. I recognised the owner from the television programme… oh yes… and her name from somewhere else ;-)

Let me take you on a town garden tour… to a long thin garden plot with a path to a vegetable/kitchen garden at the end. There’s a wall along one side, fencing on the other. Oh… and there’s a shed in the back corner. Mm… that doesn’t sound that inspirational though does it? Let’s take a closer look…

Yes, there were bold flowers like poppies in this garden. There were also delicate flowers and a wealth of wonderful foliage. Of course, being a foliage fan I was happy ;-)

Yes, the kitchen garden was hidden at the back of the garden but what a delightful area this was. It definitely didn’t need to be hidden. A productive space with healthy neat herbs, vegetables and fruit this area had a lot of attention from visitors reducing my photo opportunities.

On entering the kitchen garden through an open gate on the right, a quick scan around left to right clocked the tall fennel, full working greenhouse (I say that with envy as mine is being temporarily used for storage at the moment) and a main rectangular bed with veggies up the centre (width wise).

A grey garden shed in the back right corner was facing the gate/entrance. Dull corner? Oh yes… and there were spiders webs too… honestly… no dusting done for visitors then?

Lol… I smiled broadly to see the bug house tucked in the corner under the shed roof with webs covering part of it… spiders in residence then? What a brilliant place to put an insect house! Location, location, location :-)

A green shed roof had everyone smiling. It also had me suffering a little (green) envy once again as this is something I have toyed with myself. From the views I was able to get from the ground this was a very successful planting too. Mm… this is back on the list for possible garden projects :-)

Fishing creels (guessing to protect the young plants underneath) drew my eye right along to the back path to the left hand border. Fruit was trained up the back and side fences and seen in a small fruit cage. Lilies were flowering in a corner, grey paddle stones with young box hedging were growing in patterns under a tree (maybe apple?).

The creels, insect houses and a shiny, scarlet red garden seat facing the gate (which I missed when my eye was drawn to the smaller detail of webs on a bug box) show the gardeners here don’t lack imagination and flare for detail. Sorry, Gardening Scotland, something I felt missing from your show gardens and floral marquee displays this year.

Yes, from the minute we walked into this town back garden, the creativeness and skill of the gardeners behind it sang out! Admittedly, I had an idea of the plants, layout and scale but often photos or television views leave us disappointed when you visit a garden for real. Not in this case though!

A quick question... how many times have you heard gardening programmes suggest breaking up a long garden with a zig-zag path and placing plants so you don’t see the garden all at once? This garden executed that idea… and some.

Being absolutely genuine here, in my opinion, at a garden show this garden would take a gold medal and best in show. Again sorry to say, Gardening Scotland, this garden is way better than your show gardens this year. I was quite disappointed with them.

Let’s continue our tour by taking a walk through the kitchen garden gate and on to a slightly raised, decked walkway that zigzags to the back of the house and where we entered the garden…

The scale and planting combinations of this this garden absolutely captured and delighted me. At a glance the mass tapestry of beautiful planting wows you but even in darker smaller corners the planting sings out. Expect to stop a few times en route ;-)

The feet just showing (bottom right) in the photo above, show my daughter taking a stop while I’m taking photos. She is sitting on a bench seat to a wonderful, heavily styled dining table that is under a fabric sail canopy.

What a wonderful place to sit, relax and entertain. I can imagine this being well used. A tree fern takes main stage in the small corner of shady plants behind the table. I had one of these once upon a time until I decided one winter I'd try and harden it up by giving it less protection... bad idea!

I didn’t manage to get a photo without people sitting or looking here. This area is completely hidden from view from the back of the house. You can get a sense of the number of plants in this view.

Above, one of the path-side views that stopped me in my tracks had me going a tad green also. I absolutely loved the tiny white flowers of the sea kale, Crambe, against the white bark of the birch trees. Oops… thinking about this I’m a tad green on the birch trees too… that’s something I’d love to have a group planting of too.

Crambe, I did have in my garden at one time. It never really performed well enough where I had it and I was never lucky enough to see the wonderful frothy flowers like this. Guessing not enough sun was my problem, and perhaps the fact that I moved it around my garden.

On the positive side I successfully took root cuttings. On the negative side something found the leaves tasty and I was left with ugly spiders webs of leaves. My plants were shown the garden gate… and live in another garden now :-)

So, above, waist height in front of me here was a froth of flowers with Crambe and Astrantia as a backing choir to the large, dark poppy flowers. My eye was drawn to the colour detail here of the pink edges in the Astrantia echoing the poppies. I also loved the blue/green tall foliage here which was in strong contrast to the planting on the other side of the path...

Taking a closer look at the planting at my feet now, I smiled to see a Tiarella planted with Heucheras. Being a Heuchera fan, this year the Tiarella has caught my eye in garden centres. I fancy adding it to my garden especially when I have so many shady areas. I see it can be propagated by division just like the heuchera... excellent!

I also smiled at the almost hidden water feature with water gently flowing over a steel/mirror orb. I am certain there were many more details that I and others may have missed in this garden. Let’s take a longer view…

Above, we can get a feel of height and scale with another tree and a visitor taking a closer look at another water feature that all visitors were enjoying…

Wonderful ripples of water ran down a steel/mirror vertical slab which also reflected the purple/blue flowers that skirted around and in front of it. I thought it a great touch to use a blue flower here as if to continue water into the planting area. Maybe that wasn't the plan but that's the way my eye saw it and shows a garden is no different than a piece of art when it comes to intepretation.

Meanwhile, above on the other side of the path, a bit more subtle but just as inspiring a beautiful deep red/orange peeling bark on the tree growing through the Heucheras tied them together. Lovely detail there especially with the sun backlighting the bark ribbons just as Heuchera leaves can be lit with sun too. Nice touch :-)

Let’s change direction now and look at a couple of planting combinations at the beginning of the zigzag path…

Did you spot the sculpture in the 2nd photo above? Once again a hidden treasure and a wonderful colour too. I do believe there were others that matched in colour and style in other parts of the garden.

As I said earlier, there were so many details to this inspiring garden… many just took a closer look to find them. I like that about a garden and try that a little in mine too :-)

I admired these plantings as I waited for an opportunity to chat to the lady behind this garden. Yep… I was now converted to bringing back some poppies in my garden for next year. Also after much chat about adding Astrantia every Spring for the last few years it must happen now!

Oh… and those unusual blue flowering stems of Cerenthe… perhaps it’s time to look at what conditions they like. Yep… visits to Open Gardens also give reminders of what plants we have loved, lost and would love to have again as well as new ones to add to our gardens :-)

So, it was a glorious day all round, the sun was shining and I was wearing a hat especially for the occasion! There was a reason for this ;-)

Once the lady of the garden was free to chat, I tilted my hat quite squint to the one side… “Hello there, Janet” I said with a big smile.” I’ve worn a hat especially for you today”. With that Janet smiled broadly back… telling her husband who I was. Wait a minute though, we had never met…

Ah… remember when your cuppa was warm at the beginning of this post and I said that I got a surprise when watching the garden shown on the television programme. It wasn’t the garden that I was surprised at but the lady showing the presenter around… I thought I’d recognised her from a photo.

A quick rewind on the programme and I caught her name and then I was sure… Janet is a blogger I know!! Her garden was open and I could get an opportunity to see it and meet her too. I left her a comment on her blog suggesting I might come :-)

We had a nice chat, but knowing it wasn’t fair to keep her to myself when others wanted to chat to her too I smiled broadly, before asking the big question… can I take photos and blog on my visit?

Her husband turned to her and laughed suggesting this would be fun to see her and her garden as subject for a post. I looked to her tilting my hat again to persuade her a little ;-)

Poor Janet has waited a week for me to get time to do my visit to her garden justice. The anxious wait now will be at my end as I await her response to my post.

I do hope you and she has enjoyed my lengthy chat and photos of her garden and that others will read all the way to the end of this post to find out this was a Scottish Bloggers meet too :-)

In all honesty, I’ve not ‘bigged’ this garden up as Janet is a blogger. I really did enjoy her garden immensely and it is so nice to have a real face behind any comments/mail we exchange from now on. Janet blogs at Planticru notes if anyone wants to pop by to virtually visit her her to chat about her garden :-)

Oh... wait a minute, here's a late update... I've just disovered that another blogger, Hanni at Sweet Bean Gardening, has posted a before and after post on Janet's garden. Very interesting. I enjoyed seeing these photos and hearing a bit about the progress :-)

Would you believe it... I'm now adding a second update! I've now discovered a post with photos of the transition of Janet's garden on her blog. Great stuff. I love to see these sort of photos. Take a look here :-)

That’s me all chatted out now… phew… I hear you say! Spookily I am posting this at the time we arrived in Montrose last Sunday all set to see this garden! Enjoy your day :-)

This post was written by Shirley at shirls gardenwatch in July 2011.

July: Butterfly count & Parks week

2011-07-07T09:15:00.001+01:00

Butterfly visits have been a bit on short supply in my garden this year so far. I’ve heard others mention this too. However, bring on a few warm, windless days in July and fingers crossed they will start to appear - although the short-term forecast isn't too promising.

If you have been enjoying butterfly visits to your garden or seen them when you’ve been out and about please do share them in a comment. We’d all love to hear about them :-)

Here in the UK, Butterfly Conservation would love to hear about any sightings you see for their 2nd big butterfly count that’s running this month - 16th-31st July 2011. 15 mins is all it takes and you can get details on their website. I hope I manage a count this year.

Interestingly enough, last night as I mowed our lawn I disturbed a number of small moths and what looked like a small heath butterfly in grass I am allowing to grow uncut on a mound I built last year. What a surprise I got there!

I’ve never seen that butterfly in my garden before. I didn’t get any photos for a proper ID as it was about to rain and after being on holiday I wanted to get the grass cut again.This year we didn’t use too much on carbon footprints for our holiday choosing to stay in Scotland.

We headed to the West coast where we enjoyed a great location which overlooked a river. I found myself doing a river watch with a couple of ID mysteries. One in particular, had me stumped for over an hour in a bookshop! I finally used my phone to send my query to a bird forum where I got my ID based on a description only. Video and stories to follow soon :-)

Emails on my return included one on the Love Parks Week which is organised by GreenSpace and is a registered charity which works to improve parks and green spaces by raising awareness, involving communities and creating skilled professionals.

Being honest, I don’t suppose I consider parks much at all in the area I live. I guess this is partly due to the fact I have considerable green spaces to enjoy here. I also have my own personal green space that is my garden which I know I am lucky to have. I also visit larger gardens like Edinburgh Botanical Garden (shown in photo above) that I see as park-like.

Love Parks Week is “aiming to get one million people out into their local park. From Tai Chi classes to jazz nights, urban street games to teddy bear picnics”. You might even want to organise an event yourself.

Not being a park user I can still see that parks really have a strong community focus especially when “91% of people believe that public parks and open spaces improve their quality of life”. A park is not just for walking the dog at the weekend… it’s for everyone and hopefully for forever! That's provided it gets support it needs.

Award winning garden designer and TV presenter, Chris Beardshaw is passionate about green spaces and giving his support to Love Parks Week:

"I spent most of my youth outdoors and I think exploring a local park is a brilliant way to get children thinking about their surroundings and the community they live in. Britain’s parks are an invaluable legacy from the past - many are more than 100 years old – but they are an important part of our future.

There is so much evidence now on the positive impact good green spaces have on our lives, be that our health and well-being, our social fabric, even helping the economy and reducing crime rates and the evidence is continuing to grow.

By visiting a public green space and witnessing the passion and enthusiasm of those who create and maintain them, you can enliven the senses and help keep these spaces alive and vital.”

Of course, butterflies can be spotted in parks too and the big butterfly count welcomes sightings from parks and woods as well as from gardens. I should also add (quite important too) that if you see no sightings at all in your count that result is valuable too so please send it in.

Being a nationwide survey, the big butterfly count is aimed at helping assess the health of our environment. “Butterflies react very quickly to change in their environment which makes them excellent biodiversity indicators.

The count will also assist in identifying trends in species that will help us plan how to protect butterflies from extinction, as well as understand the effect of climate change on wildlife. Butterfly declines are an early warning for other wildlife losses. That’s why counting butterflies can be described as taking the pulse of nature.”

That’s a lovely way to think of a butterfly . Wishing you a good weekend with many sightings of butterflies and enjoyable visits to parks :-)

Oh… and do enjoy any Open Garden Visits you make. I visited some last weekend and that’s up next followed by a swallow tale and my river watch on holiday with an update on our House Martin nest fitted in somewhere. Hopefully it will be dry over the next few days to get my video camera out for a closer look at what stage the nest is at now. Gosh… I’ll need another holiday after all this :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in July 2011.

Garden update, June 2011

2011-06-22T00:15:00.008+01:00

Increasing numbers of hedgehog droppings and begging juvenile birds on the lawn, cats hiding in explosions of foliage in borders... garden watching has been busy! On the gardening front… there has been much weeding, dividing and replanting of plants too.

New juvenile birds are being spotted (and heard) daily in the garden. Writing this earlier, I spotted a Great tit outside my window. Although, having had Blue tits use nest boxes in my garden (see 2010 Blue tit Diary) they will always be a favourite :-)

As you can see in the photo above my arbour has become a favourite sunny morning bird watching spot for neighbours' cats. How relaxed they look. I didn’t have the heart to chase them - this time :-)

We’ve had lots of juvenile Blackbirds, Starlings, Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches. Counting the Goldfinches when they arrive with the parents (especially on a rainy day like today) can be tricky when they are so small and they land on plants around the feeders. However, I’d guess they take the top spot for now.

As for silly places for juveniles to explore, top spot goes to a couple of Blackbird juveniles (newly fledged I’d guess) that found themselves stuck and calling for food from my small greenhouse. Yes, the door was open a little but it doesn’t face a flight path the birds use and is tucked away in a corner with access that is limited even for me!

Needless to say, I spent some considerable time removing and re-adjusting items presently stored in my greenhouse to encourage them to leave. They did eventually and were seen later being fed by parents :-)

Feeding on Nepata Walker’s Low (Catmint) and Alliums a variety of bees have been spotted. I love to watch them busily make their way from flower to flower collecting pollen. I often stand with my camera but they don’t hang around for long. Butterfly sightings are a little more scarce at the moment but I expect the wet and windy weather is keeping them away.

Come wind, rain or shine – you can’t hold back the growth on plants at the moment! In one month the garden has changed quite dramatically. Catching the late evening sun last night was the new golden oat-like flowers of the ornamental grass Stipa gigantea emerging from stems that are reaching for the sky. Some staking is required here at the base to support the stems on windy days.

The wonderful pink dots of wildflower Red Campion attract a variety of insects. I guess not really seen as a front garden plant but I love it here. It is growing with another tall plant Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum' which is a magnet for bees. However this planting is a bit too high to get photos. Oh yes... and below the Stipa (skirting the ground) is the Catmint shown with bees above :-)

Hugging around the base of a golden stemmed Bamboo in my shadier back garden is a wonderful display of Heuchera fully in flower. These tiny flowers also attract bees which I am delighted about as I love this plant and keep dividing the ones I have to give greater carpets of ground cover which lasts throughout the year. This is the last spot to get the evening sun in my garden and it always makes me smile to see it.

Also flowering in my garden at the moment, are a few dark Clematis and the wonderful (white with green markings) Miss Bateman. She has put on her best show ever this year! However, two years of hard, cold winters have taken their toll on my Wisteria and I’ve had few flowers there which is such a shame.

There are flowers on woodland Strawberries, Chives, Thyme, Alpine Asters, Celmisia , Campanula, Dianthus, variegated Saxifraga x urbium (London Pride) but most of all there are many, foliage plants and shades of green in my garden at the moment which I love.

Hidden among ferns behind my garden gate, almost out of sight, there is one absolute treasure of a flower that I am particularly enjoying just now – the common spotted orchid. It has only been in my garden a year but I moved it from my grass mound when it emerged this year as I felt in drier weather it might not be so happy there.

Unfortunately (but quite luckily) the small plant split in two when I dug it up. As there was root in both parts I planted them apart and wonderfully now I have two flower spikes this year! I’ve divided many plants over the years but this one was a very successful accident :-)

Update: Just spotted a post on wild orchids at Orchids, Nature and My Outdoor Life. I always enjoy seeing David’s posts on his walks with the wonderful scenery and plants he sees en route. Add to that he has orchids that have arrived in his garden all by themselves! Just brilliant :-) Perhaps you might want to see David’s latest orchid post too.

So that almost sums up the garden watching in my garden at the moment. I am still (slowly) working towards the point that I am able to put a liner down for my new wildlife pond. I probably won’t do this until September now as during August/September (weather depending) our Leylandii hedge will be getting its annual trim and I don’t want bits to blow down into the water.

Last time I mentioned a new nest in my garden and a bird that is new to me. It wasn’t until I took video footage that I was able to ID this bird. Lol… the swallow was a red herring that I’ll come back to next time! High above my front door under a roof eave we saw the start of a House Martin nest.

We had no idea if it would be completed with a number of birds seen flying back and forth between at least four houses beside ours. What a spectacle they made. Some evenings Swifts could be seen and heard flying with them too.

So did they finish their nest? Yes they did! They were pretty quick about it too and I captured some great video footage which I’ll share sometime soon. The nest is cup shaped with the entrance high to one corner so it’s difficult to see much going on. Rain has prevented further video footage to get a closer look. Oh… I should say that our neighbours also have nests too. At least five houses and some have two nests!

Now then, with House Martin eggs (usually 2-5) being incubated for 15 days and the image above taken on June 3rd it’s possible that in this nest of pellets of mud, lined with feathers and grass (collected in the air) made by both the male and female may have eggs inside at the moment. I wonder. Needless to say, there are no cams in this nest ;-)

I’m also wondering if this is a particularly good year for pairs of House Martins nesting. This is certainly the first time our street has seen so many. Interesting, has anyone else been seeing this too? Perhaps you’ve another new nest in your garden this year. Please do share in a comment below.

Now… I wonder if you’ve seen swallows recently… they really are a delight to watch ;-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch

Hedgehog Street & visits

2011-06-04T16:05:00.003+01:00

What a great idea to ‘Gang up to make where you live hedgehog friendly.’ With numbers in decline, making small changes to our garden boundaries can create wildlife corridors that will benefit the birds and wildlife that visit our gardens.

Chatting to neighbours about this is a good place to start. It would be brilliant if we could quite literally turn things around for the hedgehog :-)

Screen grab from video below

Hedgehog Street was mentioned in the BBC Springwatch programme on Thursday and in a blog post. This morning I watched my recorded episode. Great timing then when the first video footage from my garden earlier this week is sitting (already uploaded to YouTube) waiting to be posted. This website looks an interesting read with lots of info.

Fortunately, for the hedgehog, I have long strips of hedge without any restricted access. However, a couple of years ago one of my boundary neighbours had a ‘garden make-over’ and replaced an old fence that I’m guessing had gaps. Since then, I can confirm I have had less/almost no sightings of hedgehogs in my garden. I guess this stopped a route to my garden where food was available.

If it got enough support, I could see that Hedgehog Street (which is a new collaboration between the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People's Trust for Endangered Species, funded by the BBC Wildlife Fund) has a realistic chance of making a difference for the hedgehog’s survival. I hope so :-)

As you can imagine, after waiting some time, I was thrilled to finally see our first Hedgehog visitor for the year on May 30th & 31st. As regular blog visitors will know droppings have been seen in the garden which gave me a clue that they were around. With the second dropping I spotted being outside my window I knew I had a chance of getting some colour video footage.

So… come dusk, sultanas, unsalted peanuts and water was put out. The night cam was set to watch the area and I was set ready for a quiet, quick run to switch on the outside light. At the window, my video camera was charged, lens cover open, on the tripod, focused on the food and waiting to record! I did this for a few nights.

LOL… like on all occasions like this when you think everything is covered… expect the unexpected! Well, I guess it wasn’t that unexpected really. When the hedgehog in the video footage below arrived and the outside light went on (which doesn’t disturb it) there were three other sets of eyes watching the direction of the hedgehog.

Our family of guinea pigs were running around now excitedly too. To them, the light on might mean I was coming out and maybe grass was on the menu! It was around 11:30pm so they were out of luck there.

Eventually I was out of luck with the first clip in my video too as the hedgehog (after eating) waited still for some time for the noise of the excited guinea pigs to go down. It then walked towards the hutch and round the side of it and out into the night again.

The second clip in my video was taken the next night and a marking on the hog tell me it was the same one which is great news. It also told me why some stones have been moving around my pond edge as this hedgehog walks on to the first reservoir of water for my pump running. I’ll have to make alterations there :-)

Note gentle background music with this video.

Yep… timed well for Springwatch, we too have some wonderful wildlife to watch again in the garden. Yay! We have been watching some unexpected nest building from a bird not mentioned in my garden before too. The video has been running – fascinating stuff!

Sorry, in true Springwatching fashion I’ll just tease you with that as I need to sort my footage out for this and collect some info. I just wanted to quickly post today after John at Midmarsh Jottings reminded me about the RSPB Make Your Nature Count which is running from now until 12 June. The RSPB say:

“find out how garden birds are doing. We’re also keen to know if you've seen other animals including badgers, bats, snakes or frogs.

The survey is quick and fun to do. Don't forget to submit your results! We’ll use them to build an important snapshot of summer wildlife in UK gardens. We’ll find out which species are thriving and which might need our help.”

Thanks for that John, I missed this with other stuff that has got my attention at the moment. I’ll tease you a little there too… it does involve the RSPB and Springwatch… but it doesn’t involve the BBC :-)

Wishing you a great weekend of wildlife watching. Mmm… I wonder if you’ll see any swallows :-)

This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch

Gardening Scotland 2011, June 3-5

2011-06-01T17:28:00.006+01:00

Photos below of the ‘Best in Show’ Garden at Gardening Scotland taken last year suggest Garden Shows are just for Gardeners. However, just as there is variety in blooms at a show there is also a variety of exhibitors. There are often play areas for children too so they can be a family day out.

Yes, there are usually floral halls or marques with plant groups and nurseries but there are usually food stalls and demonstrations there too and not all are local either.

However, from experience, if you are a gardener going armed with a notebook, camera and children it’s good to have another adult with you to reduce restlessness in the troops ;-)

Looking back to images from a visit to Gardening Scotland 2009 you can see there are some fun things to catch the attention of people of all ages. However, for the gardener that is going for inspiration there is much to be found at a Garden Show.

‘Reinforcing Nature’ was the Gardening Scotland 2011 Gold Medal & Best in Show. Carolyn Grohmann of Secret Gardens was the garden designer and it was built by Water Gems. I loved this garden. It was my favourite and getting close to take photos was a tad tricky. I could looked at this garden for ages. Let’s walk around it…

I loved the planting, use of materials, shapes, rhythm and that cave style seating area on water with wildflowers overhead. Oh yes… and I loved the structure going through the water too. Can you just imagine this with a sunset and the fire pit glowing… wonderful :-)

Looking for information on this garden, a year on, my searching took me to Carolyn’s website:

“Sam Lowndes of Water Gems formulated the intricate and sensitive design of the garden last autumn. It then took five months to prepare the four and a half tonne Rebar structure which had to be craned onto an articulated lorry and escorted to the showground by police outriders.”

Like me, I’m sure other Gardeners will be very interested in more details of the planting companions:

“The use of a biodiverse wildflower matting in the garden was complimented by drifts of Stipa tenuifolia, Astrantia major Ruby, Ranunculus aconitum ‘Pleniflorus’ and Geranium sylvaticum ‘Mayflower’. Rodgersia pinnata ‘Superba’ combined with Carex buchananii, testacea and comans ‘Bronze’ to mimic the colours of the Rebar while one of the most popular borders of the garden contained a dreamy mix of Paeonia Claire de Lune, Sanguisorba and Salvia nemerosa ‘Caradonna’. The excellent quality of the plants themselves was down to the skill and experience of fellow exhibitor, Billy Caruthers of Binny Plants, who supplied the plants.”

I’d like to add that Binny Plants really has a wonderful selection of plants if you are able to visit the nursery. It’s been a while since I’ve been there but I’ve nice memories of visits when my daughters were younger. Owner, Billy is very chatty and knowledgeable. Alternatively, you can also buy plants from Binny online.

“Carolyn explains, ‘I used the wildflower matting to problem-solve some of the trickier surfaces in the garden and then selected the cultivated plants to mimic the wildflower effect. Overall, though, it was the meticulous attention to detail and a true sense of team spirit which made this show garden so particularly special.’”

I’m looking forward to my visit to Gardening Scotland 2011 and wish you a good visit if you are going. You can find travel details here. I’m also looking forward to a particular Springwatch event at the weekend - this will be a first for me! Perhaps I should be giving this a mention now but all will be revealed – after the event :-)

FINALLY, SOME GREAT NEWS FOR NON UK VISITORS THAT ENJOY BIRDS & NATURE :-)

If you’d like to view like some live cams on nature here in the UK the cams on BBC Springwatch (that is running on BBC2 at present and for the next three weeks) you can. It appears that the tech guys have made it so! You’ll find a picture link at the top of my blog sidebar but if you are reading this from a reader then go here. The live cams run daily from 4am-Midnight UK time. Enjoy :-)

Next time… some Springwatch from my garden :-)

This post was written by Shirley for http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/

Help please - seeing red in bird bath

2011-05-30T19:55:00.001+01:00

Has anyone else seen water in bird baths/small ponds turn a red colour? I’m guessing this isn’t good and I plan to clean and refresh mine.

Perhaps someone can explain why this has happened and what it is? I’ve never seen this until recently. There appears to be a red sediment too. I’m sure there are others interested in this too. I know I won't be the only one with this problem.

One bird bath is on a pedestal and made of stone. The other is a large plastic plant saucer with a few stones in it and sited on the ground with planting around it. Chatting to a friend with a small pond today I’ve discovered she has this just now too and her pond has only been recently filled with fresh water.

I guess my next questions are how do you stop this happening again after cleaning and refreshing the water and can this harm the birds that bathe and drink from it. Could the birds even have brought this in?

Finally, for everyone looking forward to the return of BBC2’s Springwatch tonight I hope you enjoy it. I’m looking forward to it myself especially as my garden has been short on nests to watch this year. Oh yes... and I'm very interested to hear about the Beavers :-)

This post was written by Shirley for http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/

Meconopsis Day, Branklyn Garden, Sunday 29th May

2011-05-28T13:40:00.004+01:00

Windswept, lying on the ground, the elegant beauty of the Meconopsis caught my eye once again at Branklyn yesterday. It was down but it was definitely not out to me. Oops... I should add that there are plenty of Meconopsis still standing. This is a sheltered garden :-)

Having visited this garden before I was making a quick dash to a path that I knew was edged with this plant to get a couple of photos. I was short on time. This was the garden I first spotted the wonderful yellow Meconopsis that I have been enjoying in my garden.

A brief chat with head gardener, Steve McNamara was what I was hoping for on this visit. I recently discovered (through RHS Member booklet) that there was to be a Meconopsis Day and that Steve was doing a Garden Tour. For any Meconopsis fans that could travel to this garden I had to share this :-)

Branklyn Garden is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland and, in my opinion, really is quite a little hidden gem of a garden! Back in 1922, Dorothy & John Renton bought a small area of Orchard, built a house and began a garden (which increased to two acres) for shelter and privacy. I’d say they achieved that very well indeed.

As visitors/commuters/residents of the local area pass along the main A85 road going in and out of Perth most probably have no idea of the quite different world that is above the high perimeter wall of the garden that edges the road.

Hands up, for many years, I passed the Brown Tourist signs for the Car Park for Branklyn Garden as I drove along the main road below it and never ventured up. It was only when we had membership for the NTS with our family that I discovered what a plants person’s paradise this garden is! Now with my RHS Membership giving me free visits to this garden I really should pop in more often :-)

This week has seen wonderful new plants at the 2011 RHS Chelsea Flower Show and medals for designers. However, back in 1954, Dorothy Renton herself was awarded an RHS medal! For her work introducing/cultivating new plants they awarded her the Veitch Memorial Medal.

Yep… expect a wonderful collection of plants at Branklyn… from all over the world. Oh... and I really should add that plant hunters such as Forrest, Ludlow and Sherriff helped the Rentons with their seed collections! That maybe paints a bigger picture of this garden now :-)

For gardener’s in Scotland next week is the main show here with Gardening Scotland at The Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, Edinburgh from Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th June 2011. I’m looking forward to that! I’m delighted to have just discovered, Scotland too awarded Dorothy Renton a medal.

Back in 1960, the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society awarded Dorothy Renton the Scottish Horticultural Medal. Okay, I should add here that John Renton too had a hand in this plantsman’s garden ;-)

John Renton saw himself as the garden designer and his wife as the real gardener. Lol… whatever way it was seen and awarded, when it comes to the cultivation of rare and exciting plants both Dorothy and John Renton were regarded as foremost.

To this day, Branklyn still has the feel of a Private Garden with a wonderful collection of trees, plants and a trickle of winding paths through it with many features to discover. I’m not going to show any more photos this time. This is a garden to be visited and this time of year is my favourite time to visit :-)

Finally, before I add some details for the Meconopsis Day, the most exciting thing about this garden now is that the National Trust for Scotland are continuing with Dorothy and John Renton’s vision. Branklyn Garden will continue as a plantsman’s garden.

Gardeners of all levels and interest will be met with inspiring plants and planting/colour combinations. I’d like to add a Congrats to head gardener, Steve McNamara on recently receiving collection status for the Meconopsis. The garden has 5 species and 25 cultivars. Oh yes… and Branklyn also features national collections of Cassiope and Lilium :-)

This really is a garden to lose yourself in! Perhaps I better give some directions then :-)

Branklyn Garden is at 116 Dundee Road, Perth.

SAT NAV: Ordnance Survey Ref: OS Ref: NO125225
or postcode PH2 7BB.

Road: A85, over Queen’s Bridge, turn right and look for sign to car park on the left. From the N, via A90, follow signs to free car park in Fairmount Terrace. This is about 100yds walk from the garden entrance. The car park is well signposted from the Dundee Road (A85). I'd like to add that there is a small steep hill down from/back up to the free car park. There are limited disabled spaces at the garden entrance.

Bus: Stagecoach (No 16) stops 200 metres from garden

Train: Perth station, 25 minute walk

Cycling: can be accessed from nearby cycle trail, see route 77 Salmon Run Pitlochry – Dundee

On Meconopsis Day, Sunday May 28th, visitors can enjoy a guided tour of the grounds with head gardener and horticultural expert Steve McNamara. The tour begins at 14.00 and visitors will be invited to enjoy refreshments on the patio.

Just one final (important) thing to add… there are some plants for sale! I had my eye out for a trillium but didn’t spot any. Oh… but I did grab a quick chat with Steve before I left the garden yesterday. Lol… just after the very helpful lady at the small garden shop/plant sales tables at the entrance had gone planting hunting for me in the greenhouse! Yay… she came back with the last young trillium plant :-))

Enjoy your garden and visits over the weekend. If you do go to Branklyn tomorrow enjoy the feast of flowers out now. After my battery running out when I took the bright red poppy photo in the montage above I’d advise you take spare batteries for your camera and a notebook for plant names (or photograph plant labels as you go). You won’t be the only one capturing the beauty of this garden :-)

This post was written by Shirley for http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/

GBBD: And the colour of the Meconopsis is...

2011-05-15T23:26:00.016+01:00

‘Mixed’ read the label on the young Meconopsis plants I picked up three years ago. Already being very fortunate in having the stunning Blue Poppy already happy in my garden I was hoping for red or yellow flowers.

Ungrateful gardener then when the first flowers were the colour so many would love to have… Blue! However, a second plant was producing a different cluster format of many more flower heads. I’ve had my fingers crossed and just a few days ago the first one opened… to yellow. I am quite delighted :-)

Meconopsis flowers.

Don’t you think that yellow is stunning? The only problem for the moment is that this flower is facing away from my window and I can only see it from my lawn pathway. It’s worth walking out for though. Now… I can’t wait to see how many flowers will open at the same time :-)

The montage above also shows it in its surroundings within the border with the new Blue. Funnily enough, these plants are a lot earlier to flower than my existing plants. They have kept in leaf throughout the winter too unlike my existing ones which die down.

The border above also shows some small species tulips along the lawn edge and the buds of Cirsium growing up through an obelisk which gives this plant support in the wind. Knowing how much the bees love the deep red thistle flowers of Cirsium I like to help them last as long as they can.

For those that don’t know GBBD is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. On the 15th of the month, Carol over at May Dreams Gardens invites all bloggers to share what is flowering or about to flower in our gardens. If you want to join in just head over to Carol’s post and leave a comment there then enjoy browsing gardens around the world.

May montage of flowers and buds.

Above you can see that in my Perthshire garden we have tulips just hanging in there (Carnival de Nice) and others going over (Princess Irene). We have one main Rhododendron left in flower and the bees have found it. Some Alliums are now open and many others are ready to follow.

The delicate flowers of Red Campion (which are pink) are beginning to open and soon they will grow tall too as will the Cirsium. My Wisteria looks like it might have a few flowers buds in the making but once again (as last year) I feel the winter cold has spoiled some flower buds and I will see fewer flowers again this year.

Clematis Miss Bateman on the other hand, is soon to open its flower buds and is gearing up to have the best show it has ever had. I think this might be more to do with my pruning though. Miss Bateman belongs to Group 2 for pruning and I think I should take a good look at exactly how I should prune this plant. I also think I’ll take cuttings again as they have been successful in the past.

Rather than go through many more montages and close-ups, this time I’d like to share some longer shots. This first one below is one of my favs at the moment. This is the top section of my Gunnera border that I’ve been working on recently.

You can see my Broom is flowering well just now and the wind blowing through the fence spreads is scent into the garden. You can also see there are two levels. The top area is now level and this will making trimming the corner end of the hedge much easier.

Top section of Gunnera Border. Clicking on images below will enlarge them.

Standing at main entrance of Gunnera border.
This area will change dramatically through summer.
Looking forward to Foxglove Milk Chocolate first flowers.

Behind Gate cool Ferns add drama for now.
Primroses, Cuckoo flower and Hellebores past.
Tiny blue flowers of Brunnera Jack Frost.

Front garden, Stipa gigantea will add drama and Nepata flowers
about to bring wonderful purple/blue here.
Also Red Campion flowers opening and Cirsium to come.

Wisteria bed with Alliums, Euphorbia, Red Campion,
Bluebell, Woodland Strawberry, Tulips in pot
(Queen of the night & Black Parrot) all in flower.

Pergola border with orange Geum, purple perennial wallflower
and Saxifraga London Pride in flower.
White Campanula bells and purple Aster flower buds.

So that’s it for May GBBD 2011. Just as the Drumstick Primula opposite has past its flowering time, I’m just a tad late in time to post this for the 15th here in the UK. HOwever, I’d still like to wish everyone a very Happy Bloom Day.

Now… can I keep my eyes open long enough to do some Bloom Day garden browsing? Perhaps it will be tomorrow now… but I’m looking forward to it :-)

This post was written by Shirley for http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/

More food please… keep feeding the birds

2011-05-11T14:34:00.002+01:00

Although we are into May and the snow and cold are almost a distant memory our garden birds need us to put out food more regularly now than ever. In reality… if they could ask themselves I’d say they’d request more please :-)

Pre blog I really thought it was just during the cold months they needed the extra food at our garden bird feeders and tables. However, after a few years of watching the garden I now know to expect to go through a lot more seed at this time of year when nesting is in full swing.

Photo through window. Birds move so quickly.

Yes, and I guessed Blackbirds would be the first to collect seed in beakfuls! I have seen at least two different males take advantage of the most popular food to go in my garden… sunflower hearts.

Having a fast growing, noisy crew back at the nest it isn’t surprising that Blackbirds (especially the males) can get quite aggressive over their finds of food. I tend to put out smaller amounts of food in a few new/different spots so there’s enough for everyone. Hope that helps :-)

Video shows seed beakfuls in action. Note second clip with bird still.
Guessing a Sparrowhawk was about. Gentle background music.

Just as the new arrivals of Blackbird juveniles arrive in the garden (where they will still demand to be fed for a little longer yet) I expect to see the Starlings going away with beakfuls of sunflower hearts for their even noisier crews back at their nests.

House Sparrows can’t be far off bringing their chicks to the feeders too. They will give them sunflower hearts too but I have seen them favour the other energy rich food of fatballs too. I’ve just spotted one looking at my cage for them.

I should probably put fresh fatballs out and mix up the arrangement of my feeders to spread the birds arriving at them out as that helps in periods of high demand! It also gives new birds passing by a new chance to see them too. However, the regular birds can need time to adapt to the new arrangement but I’ve a feeling they will do so very quickly just now.

Screen grab from video.

Also looking out just now I can see that it’s time to refill the ground feeders for today. Being honest, I’m looking forward to the arrival of the new 2011 Blackbird arrivals. I do have a soft spot for them. I wonder how long they will be in coming here.

Being equally honest… I can’t say I’ll be looking forward to the Starling arrivals. However, they can be quite entertaining to watch. Of all the parent birds that visit my garden, I’d award the Starlings the medal for effort in parenting and without a doubt they really need the extra food to help them with their chicks.

I’m guessing there are chicks already arriving in gardens in other parts of the country/world. Which ones are arriving in your garden just now and who would you give the parent medal to?

Finally, regular blog visitors might be wondering about a Blue tit diary for 2011. There isn’t yet a story to tell for this year but it doesn’t look likely. However, I have found with my gardenwatching for the last few years. It’s not over… until it’s over :-))

This post was written by Shirley for http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/

Hedgehog Awareness Week

2011-05-05T01:18:00.006+01:00

The photo of the hedgehog dropping below may not be pretty but it’s my contribution for Hedgehog Awareness Week which The British Hedgehog Preservation Society is currently running until May 7th.

If you’d like to know if hedgehogs visit your garden and spot a dropping like the one above on a path, your lawn or in your borders then you have clear evidence that they pass through your garden.

I might suggest you put out food where you spot the droppings as I did with the sultanas but during dry spells I’d take a guess that hedgehogs will enjoy a dish with water even more. Our dry weather is due to break tomorrow so tonight I have food outside my feeding station to tempt passing hedghogs back to that area.

However, as yet, despite putting my night cam in a variety of positions in my garden I have yet to see any sightings of hedgehogs this year. I was thrilled to see the dropping above at the weekend! Now I know at least one has recently been here :-)

Sitting in the garden at dusk, especially on a warm dry evening, can be a good time to listen out for a hedgehog rustling through undergrowth and plants. You could easily hear a hedgehog eating too – they are noisy eaters.

I sat out on my arbour last night at the location of the dropping listening but alas nothing. Bats circling around the garden entertained me as I waited. I have noticed with hedgehog visits in previous years that they often follow a regular route so that’s something to look out for in your garden too.

Searching for info on the Hedgehog Awareness Week I stumbled across a BBC page with a few short videos. Of course I had to watch and share them :-) I loved the illustrated way they show how the hogs go around gardens.

Apologies, to visitors outside the UK if you are unable to view them. You can see a video with a hedgehog in an evening stroll around my garden in this past post.

The videos shown below are presented by Chris Packham and are part of a short BBC TWO Series The Animal’s Guide to Britain which examine Britain from an animal's point of view. Each week Chris encounters an elite group of five animals each of which senses the world in a very different way.

Tonight, BBC TWO 8pm, it is the turn of Woodland Animals and the Goshawk will feature with yours truely... the hedgehog. I’m guessing the footage below will feature in the programme. I didn’t realise when I posted this in the wee small hours last night that I hadn’t missed this programme. I’m delighted to update this post :-)

Next week (May 12th, 8pm) Chris looks at the grey seal and the Manx shearwater. I’m sure they will be interesting programmes too –just programmed them both record! I’m sorry I missed previous episodes now. I’d absolutely recommend this series to be a must watch :-D

My garden is in a tidy-up state at the moment so perhaps not favoured by hedgehogs in some areas. However, my ground covering plantings in other areas more than make up for it.

Tomorrow, the expected rain is going to be most welcome. Yes, the plants really could do with some refreshment. Mm… but the weeds that I’ve not pulled out will head skyward. Not so good.

My evening and weekend gardening, that has kept me away from the blogging world, has been more one of maintenance and repairs. With fine weather for so long, we were quick of the mark this year and have made good progress.

However, the race has been on the get the fence repairs done before Broom came into flower, Ferns unfurled and the plants put on too much growth… especially the Gunnera.

My Gunnera border has been well trampled but one side of our fence is looking fresh and new again at last. I’ve very thoroughly been removing one particular plant that became too invasive here.

Fresh gravel topped up the paths and the trellis is ¾ the way through its fresh staining too. I like the warm, dark brown with the shady woodland plants. There’s been much up and down ladders and I didn’t appreciate the attention from wasps to my paint pot at one point.

Ah… not getting out into the garden for a few days because it’s raining is not a bad prospect right now. We’ll get time to step back before we complete the last stages. Lol… then of course, it will be on to the next job… replacing some paving.

I’m delighted with the way the Gunnera border is taking shape and looking forward to seeing how it will be in full summer too. Although small, it’s my favourite area at the moment. I'll share it soon :-)

Although, I haven’t had the energy to blog late in the evening (as I usually do) last week I uploaded all but the last photo below. Now the alliums are opening, the tulips are out (loving Princes Irene, Carnival de Nice & pot of Queen of the Night/Black Parrot).

Meconopsis are still in different stages of growth and Clematis Miss Bateman has the most flower buds ever! The tiny vibrant orange Geum flowers are opening now too, Primroses are still in flower in the shade and the rhododendrons are looking great.

Last week the open delicate pink flushed flower above was the stunning cerise pink flower bud in the photos above it. Hard to believe :-)

This is my definitely my favourite time of the year for the garden… now all we need is hedgehog sightings. What are you enjoying in your garden just now?

This post was written by Shirley for http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/

Where to visit this weekend... The Botanics & Parks

2011-04-22T10:15:00.002+01:00

If you’re looking for somewhere to visit over the next few days I’d definitely recommend your nearest Botanical Garden. They are always great for a ‘nice day’ wander for people of all ages and with the weather expected to be warm here in the UK there are plenty of trees for shade too. Generally there will be cafes and a gift shop too if a break/rest is required. Look out for special events just now too.

Naturally, I’d be recommending my local one… The Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh (or Edinburgh Botanics as we know it). Earlier this week my (teenage) daughter requested we visit and armed with my camera, we can share some highlights with you. Perhaps we might put you in the mood to mosey on down to your local garden or park.

We entered the garden by the new entrance (The John Hope Gateway) at the West Gate. After a drive to the garden we usually begin our visit with a coffee stop. Although there is the nice new Gateway Restaurant my daughter favours the Terrace Café inside the Garden as this is where we have always gone. I'm fine with that :-)

Refreshed, we usually head down the hill to my fav area which is the Chinese Hillside where some wonderful yellow flowers greeted us at the entrance. I love the trees in this compact area and there was a wealth of new leaves in a variety of colours too.

Lol… my bee(dy) eye spotted some movement on the ground at the edge of the winding paths. I’ve bee(n) noticing, in my own garden, that the bees spend a lot of time on the ground in between feeding on plants. Butterflies do the same although they tend to favour dry dusty earth, gravel or paving.

With Spring being a great time for alpine flowers the plan on this visit was to head next to the Rock Garden. However between the Peat Garden and Woodland Garden I was to stop in my tracks!

I swooned over a single delicate pink Trillium on one side of the path. If this was Botanical Painting worthy then the mass planting of white Trillium grandiflorum on the other side was Photographer’s dream. Being very much an amateur there... I tried to get arty.

Every Spring I so admire Trilliums in garden blogs and here they were again! I really have to add this plant to my garden - perhaps to the area I am clearing at the moment :-)

Walking through the Woodland garden a beautiful pink Rhododendron with dark freckles caught my eye. The Rhododendron is listed as one of the Garden highlights in April. There are many in flower around the garden at the moment.

However… once again I was stopped in my tracks with a stunning Trillium... this time chloropetalum. This was one of my April highlights. Isn’t it a beauty?

My plan was to view the Rock Garden and Stream from the top down for a change. We walked along the top path and chose a short set of back steps to the summit.

Although much colour could be seen in the many pockets and slopes it was the small delicate flowering alpines that always catch my eye as they bob about in this area of the garden. For me, they give the rock garden sparkle and magic.

A few steps up and with the thin soles on my daughter's shoes and visitors stopped on the paths causing some congestion we opted for making a detour to the right. Looking down the Rock Garden it was looking well and it was great to see some many people enjoying it. Cameras and notebooks/pens were out in force :-)

Collecting links for this post I discovered that the red sandstones seen in this rock garden are from Dumfries. Now, that’s interesting timing as just a few days before that’s another trip we had. Another post to come there… not a garden visit this time :-)

On the edges of the Rock Garden the plantings were bigger and bolder and here the vibrant acid green of the Euphorbia flowers caught my eye with wonderful rich pink flowers in the background and tiny yellow flowers scrambling over rocks. We followed the gravel path round to quite a different area.

The Scottish Heath Garden in the corner was where we headed next. I do love this area and suspect many people miss it. I guess that’s the value of buying a guidebook or picking up/ printing off a map so you don’t miss anything. Here’s a link for a map for Edinburgh Botanics.

It was wildflowers, especially wood anemones, I was hoping to see in this part of the garden and I wasn’t disappointed. However, another plant with delicate lilac-veined flowers and wonderful clover type leaves caught my eye too.

Wildflower ID’s are still new to me and looking at my book now I see it was Wood Sorrel I had spotted. Although I should point out that my photo was taken with a flash so the colour isn’t as true.

Widespread, locally common and an indicator of ancient woodlands and hedgerows - it has my attention! It has a creeping perennial with trefoil leaves which fold down at night and it flowers from April-June. ..Mm… think it’s time to check out the internet seed sites :-)

Coming out of the Heathland we pass some flowering Gorse which is a very familiar sight on road and hillsides just now. Pre blog I saw this plant, with its strong prickly habit, as being a pretty inhospitable plant. Now… I see it as a safe place for the wonderful long-tailed tit to choose to nest in! As the RSPB says… aren’t birds brilliant :-)

Next, it was the pond area that I was interested in and after just removing the winter protection from my Gunnera, I wondered how the large planting was looking here. Especially at this time of year, this plant looks so prehistoric! Stunning white blossom on trees to the right caught my eye first though. What a dreamy sight.

Walking towards viewing area at the pond the sight of a pair of waders now caught my eye and made me smile. With gloves, rope and a few other things on the ground I found myself looking for a sign saying gone to lunch ;-)

I love to see gardeners tending a garden on my visits and there was quite a few about at the beginning of the week as you might imagine with many visitors expected over the next few days. The garden was looking good here with pink blooms from the Bergenia, the prehistoric mass planting and fresh new growth of perennials and ferns.

Fern fronds also look wonderfully prehistoric to me and I have a few unfurling in my garden just now too. I loved the mossy rocks… water passes over them in the summer and under the path/bridge where it flows into a pool then into the main pond. I’ve spotted Moorhens here in the past.

Continuing round the edge of the pond I followed a winding path through more plantings of perennials and grasses fresh with new growth. However, my daughter deserted me on this leg. Lol… actually she was quite literally thinking of the safety of her legs!

Two Swans were preening towards the end of this path. I decided, as I had my camera and could get photos, I’d continue. However, it was clear when I got close to them that one was keeping an eye on me and stopped and stared. Quietly, keeping the same step pace as I had approached them, I walked past not daring to stop and take snaps. I’m confident that was the right move on this occasion.

Walking round to the pond viewing area at the opposite end from where we started I could see how low the water level was. Lol… it doesn’t always rain in Edinburgh ;-) I’m guessing the gardeners were taking advantage of the lower water levels to do some pond clearing work.

My tour guide work is almost done now. Having an appointment to get back to our steps quickened.

Keeping to the paths we past the main Glasshouses on the right, the Azalea Lawn on the left and walking round end of the Glasshouses we past the Fossil Garden on the right.

Up a few steps we quickly walked through the Alpine House and Courtyard then quicken our steps some more… up the hill, through the tall evergreen hedging and up to the Herbaceous Border and Beech Hedge. Phew… I’ll let you catch your breath now ;-)

What a spot to catch your breath too… that border is a wonderful sight fully in flower but I do love it at this time of year. Wheelbarrows, tools, trucks and gardener’s jackets are just out of shot on the left :-)

For those interested in this wonderful Beech hedge it is 8 metres (23ft) high and over 100yrs old. Clipping is done in September via a mobile scaffolding tower. The hedge is south-facing and provides the perfect suntrap for a herbaceous border. As for the wonderful, natural plant support frames you can see… they are woven birch branches. Don’t they look great?

Searching through the website of the garden there are so many other things I could tell you about but I’m hoping a nice day beckons and you are about to step away from your PC/Laptop and get out to enjoy it.

I’ll leave you with one final thought from Edinburgh Botancial Gardens… Be prepared to be delighted and disgusted in equal measure! From aphrodisiacs to zest, explore a multitude of hidden chemicals used by plants to attract and repel, seduce or poison their neighbours.

Has this got your interest? If so, the Scents and Sensitivity Glasshouse Trail is running until Mon 25th April. Just pick up your self-guided trail at the Palm House. No extra cost to the Glasshouse admission charge (Adult £4.00, Concession £3.00, Child £1.00, Family £8.00, Members free). No booking required. Have fun with a chemical quiz through the magnificent glasshouses of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Enjoy your weekend, wherever you go, and if you’d like to pop back and tell us all about it we’d love to hear about it. However, if you’ve already made plans and would recommend a visit please do share it in the comments :-)

GBBD, Updates & RHS advice/warning on holiday cuttings

2011-04-20T13:00:00.005+01:00

Garden captures were made from my garden on the 15th of the month to join others celebrating blooms that day. Perhaps it was fortunate I was late with my posting as yesterday a Press Release came in from the RHS which I’d like to pass on.

The RHS are concerned about the risk of holiday makers travelling overseas bringing back cuttings (with potentially new diseases) and suggest seeds are a much safer option. You can read the full Press Release further down this post.

Back garden, Pieris & Rhododendron

Briefly going back to my garden on April 15th shows everything was just alive with new growth. I do love this time of year. Following on from my previous posting about the Cuckoo flower we’ve also been enjoying Wood anemones, Fritillaries and native Primroses flowering in my garden which are blending wonderfully with other plants. They have been with us for a few years now.

Back garden, Wood Anemone, Fritillary & Primrose

Red Campion has successfully seeded itself around two areas of my garden including the area below. No probs for germination with this plant then. A tidy up in this area at the weekend had some temporary lifted and potted up. I’ll come back to this area in a future posting but just to say a few cuckoo flowers and some primroses have a new home here. I’m loving the transformation :-)

Back garden, behind gate, area under tidy-up

Coming back to garden wildlife, sadly we’ve still had no signs of passing hedgehogs. Although, the camera in my feeding station (Hedgehog Manor) isn’t showing images just now as I cut through the cable during a pruning session nearby. Oops… making enquiries about getting a replacement cable.

Back garden, green/yellow buds on dwarf rhododendron

Re nestbox activity in the garden, not much to report there either. We still have a rooster Blue tit in the nestbox with a B&W camera which is pretty untidy with droppings after it being used throughout winter. Some moss has appeared in it though. In contrast we have a brand new clean and colour cam nestbox that I have agreed to trial for someone ready and waiting for tenants. :-)

Back garden, grass mound, cuckoo flowers open

Previously, Blackbirds were spotted collecting nesting material from around my plants but now an egg shell has been spotted at the bottom of my hedge so I guess there are chicks hatched somewhere nearby. Last week it was the turn of Starlings to collect nesting material. Two Starlings were spotted collecting material alongside each other. I wonder if it was a pair.

Looking up my book I see that nest material is largely collecting by the male Starling. I didn’t know that. He also builds the nest too which is a rough nest of grass and stems. I love this… it seems the male Starling likes to decorate his nest too with green leaves and flower petals!

Nice… although there is a good reason behind this nest decoration. He picks his decorative plants that have Insecticidal properties which probably protects the nest by killing parasites. I have heard that a number of birds will do this with different plants. I wonder how they know which plants to collect.

Back garden, tiny white flowers brighten space under tree

Nature is fascinating isn't it? We can make just a few changes in planting and can help things along too. I’m thinking now about the plight of the Bumble bee in particular.

Just as I did with bird feeders (scattering them around my garden so birds passing through on different flight paths find them) I am now doing the same with plants in the hope that more bees and butterflies will find my garden as a stopover instead of a fly through.

Back garden, Christmas rose hellebore gone to seed

I’m thrilled to say that it seems to be working in my partially shaded back garden. I’ve seen a few bumble bees feeding and appearing to be looking out for a new home. There seems to be one particular spot in a rock cave around my small pond that is getting regular visits.

Back garden, Geum showing flower buds

Also, the area getting the tidy up (mentioned above) is seeing a lot of interest too. I fear that perhaps one particular bee visiting there was interested in the hay protection over my Gunnera and I have just removed it so the plant can grow. I am finding it visiting all the time here especially in the evening when I am trying to continue clearing.

The ceramic Bumble bee nester was moved over to this area to help this bee out which seems very flighty in this area. I know nothing about bees behaviour but I might guess this is a queen in a panic trying to find a place to lay her eggs and it looks like I wrecked her plans. Oops.

Back garden, around pond, early Meconopsis flower

However on the flip side of my interference in this area bees can now get better access to the hellebore flowers that bob about furiously as this buff tail bumble feeds on them. I’m hoping these plants have enough clear ground now to self-seed and spread along with the primroses, cuckoo flowers and other wildflowers I could add here.

As the saying goes “You’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelette” and I’m pretty confident this area will be an oasis for passing bees in a short time. The other side of the fence is open and sunny with catmint and other plants that are very popular with bees over the summer months too. Time will tell. This will be an interesting area to watch.

Front garden, Narcissi Ice Follies, dried up in the sunshine.
Gravel covered area awash with alliums seeding around.
Can’t wait for flower buds to open :-)

So that’s the garden watching update over for the moment. Let’s come back again to RHS advice/warning for gardeners travelling overseas over the coming holidays. It does make a lot of sense to me being someone that has had the New Zealand Flatworm in my garden for many years. I find very few earthworms when I'm gardening :-(

Just one last thing, if you are going away for a few days, I'd like to wish you a safe journey and a good time :-D

PRESS RELEASE BY RHS, 19 April 2011:

Don’t Risk It

"The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Advisory Service is asking anyone travelling overseas for their spring break not to bring back plant cuttings, even if the plant looks healthy.

The UK’s foremost gardening charity is concerned that if UK holiday-makers take cuttings from plants that catch their eye they may run the risk of bringing in a new pest or disease. In most years the RHS detects two or three new plant diseases and pests from samples submitted to its science department for analysis. Some, like the Fuchsia Gall Mite and Horse Chestnut Leaf Mining Moth, have become established and have the potential to spoil millions of plants.

“We don’t want to be kill-joys,” says Guy Barter, Head of the RHS Advisory Service. “But we do know of some gardeners who, on seeing a plant that is new to them, take cuttings and bring them home. Unfortunately this increases the risk of new diseases or pests being imported. Seeds are, on the other hand, much safer.”

The advice from the RHS is that holiday-makers should buy seeds instead of taking cuttings. In general UK citizens are allowed to bring back up to five packets of seeds from recognised commercial growers.

“There are a number of different ways that new pests and diseases could potentially reach our shores,” says Guy. “They can, for example, arrive on aircraft, on timber with its bark still on and perhaps through commercial imports of plant stocks, although stringent precautions are in place to make sure this does not happen. It is feasible that holiday-makers, bringing fresh plant material home, could inadvertently import a new pest or disease or even weeds. So with everyone getting ready for their holidays we thought we should remind people of the risk they take when bringing that innocent looking cutting back.”"

This post was written by Shirley for http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/