It was a lovely spring day yesterday. Still some snow on the ground and quite a bit on the hills, but the sun came out, the birds were singing, the winds were light and I ended up starting on the tasks that are needed to get the garden in shape after the winter.
It is still a little too cold to do many things but I was able to cut back last years dead growth and see the shoots of new growth appearing below. I also cut back the ‘hedges’ to tidy them up and generally checked on everything in the garden. Despite the cold winter most things seem to have survived OK, although we may have lost the red Cordyline.
There are a few plants that I want to move around as they have outgrown their current spots in the garden and there are plenty of plans for new beds, borders, seating areas, sheds and wildlife areas. We also need to get the grass looking a little nicer, but considering the state the garden was in just a year ago it isn’t looking too bad out there.
Plenty to do but it feels good to have made a start so that I’m on top of things.
As well as attracting lots of wildlife to your garden, a wildlife garden also gives you an excuse to be a bit lazy with the gardening from time to time! It isn’t just about bird boxes and ponds; just as important are areas of unkempt garden and piles of logs and sticks.
We don’t have huge garden here, but it is always nice to see wildlife in it so we do various things to attract wildlife. We have several bird feeders offering peanuts, seeds and fat balls. We have a few areas of unkempt garden with wild flowers and grasses growing in them. We have a little nest box on one of the trees at the bottom of the garden.
As far as maintenance goes, then we try to leave dead seed heads and such like for a while before cutting them back. In fact we try to leave most cutting back until spring. We keep the use of pesticides and other chemicals to a minimum. We also have piles of dead wood, compost bins and heaps of sticks all of which help attract wildlife.
It does work too. We have had 24 species of bird to the garden, frogs, toads and newts, numerous butterflies and moths, grass snakes, and as far as mammals go, hedgehog, rabbit, squirrel, mice, bats and even a ferret!
If you want to know how wildlife friendly your garden is and get more hints and tips then Natural England have set up a website called the Big Wildlife Garden. You can add you garden to it and list the features that you have. Our garden is on there and the latest few things we have done mean we have 53 points and a gold certificate! I think I need to build a bird bath next.
How does your garden fare?
Blue Tits on a feeder
Although we live in a rural location surrounded by countryside, we don’t get a huge variety of birds to our feeders. It isn’t surprising really as the countryside around is is fairly sparse. There are few trees, and the ones that do grow are small and stunted and the number of different habitats that we do have are fairly specialised. There isn’t much in the way of cover for most birds so it is always nice when we see something a little unusual.
Yesterday we spotted a woodpecker in the garden. I only saw it in flight and then perched on a telegraph pole and it was silhouetted the whole time so I’m not sure which type it was, but it was definitely a woodpecker so that’s one we can add to our garden list.
It did prompt me to try writing a list of birds we have seen in the garden. So, in approximate order of ‘abundance’ here they are:
- Starling
- Sparrow
- Chaffinch
- Blue Tit
- Blackbird
- Robin
- Magpie
- Great Tit
- Jackdaw
- Collared Dove
- Dunnock
- Pied Wagtail
- Crow
- Song Thrush
- Swallow
- Gold Finch
- Wren
- Wood Pigeon
- Red Kite
- Linnet
- Redwing
- Chiffchaff
- Cuckoo
- Sparrowhawk
- Skylark
- Snipe
- Woodpecker
- Curlew
- Grey Heron
I am trying to feed the birds a little more this year and we have a nesting box and a few other wildlife friendly features in the garden. At the moment it has resulted in an increased number of birds to the garden, but the species count is still quite low.
My next project will be to get decent photos of them all.
What a day!!
After a dry, still evening for the Machynlleth lantern parade yesterday, the wind and rain arrived in earnest this morning. Perfect for me as I had intended to go windsurfing. With gusts to 52.6 knots recorded on the Borth and Ynyslas Weather Station it looked as though it was going to be wild out there. Thankfully the rain eased off and the sun even came out, but the wind kept blowing and Simon and I had an excellent windsurf session at Ynyslas.
Me, Windsurfing at Ynyslas
It isn’t all good though. I was only commenting the other day how good the pampas grass was looking, but one day of ‘proper weather’ and it’s now looking a little sorry for itself. Most of the seed heads have snapped off and are strewn around the garden.
There is more to come as well. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday all look pretty windy at the moment.
I’ve been doing quite a bit of moth-trapping lately. Usually it just involves placing a moth trap in the garden overnight and then investigating the contents in the morning. The identification, counting and photographing of the moths can take a while sometimes, but generally its a fairly laid back affair.
Last night was a lovely night. Not too cold, fairly clear and barely a puff of wind so rather than just leave the moth-trap on its own, I sat out there next to it for a while and relaxed.
It was actually really nice. As dusk settled I listened to the fading bird song and saw that a blue-tit was using the nest box in the tree. Once darkness descended the sounds changed. There was still some sounds of wading birds and geese coming from the salt marshes around the estuary, the garden birds went quiet and the sounds of the waves on the beach became more prominent. All of this was puntuated by the occasional light thud of a moth hitting the trap.
I felt a bit silly sitting in the garden after dark but it was very peaceful, relaxing and highly recommended.
I got up early this morning and whilst messing around with my camera before my little photo assignment at the Lake Vyrnwy Half Marathon tomorrow I snapped this photo. Flowers make such good subjects, amazing colours, lovely textures and (as long as it isn’t windy) they don’t move either.
Pretty in Pink
Looks as though it should be a lovely weekend here in Borth and with all the holiday-makers back at home and the students not yet arrived, it should be pretty quiet on the beach. I’d like to get out there an make the most of it, maybe some snorkelling or canoeing, but there’s lots of work to be done in the garden too, especially if I want some flowers like the one above.
Backlit Butterflies
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
Painted lady (Vanessa cardui)
Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)
Small White (Pieris rapae)
Let me know if I’ve got any identifications wrong.
I’ve just eaten some delicious tomatoes from the garden… Not that I ever planted any tomatoes but this year the garden seems to be covered in tomato plants that have just appeared on their own.
The only explanation for their appearance that I have is that we must have put some tomatoes that were past their best into the compost bin. The seeds then survived the composting process and spring to life once I used the compost on the garden.
I’m not complaining though as they were lovely! I just hope we get a bit more sun so that the remainder can ripen nicely.
Following up from my earlier post about planting palm trees in Ynyslas, I’ve noticed today that you can even buy them via Amazon! No need to even leave your house, just order them online and have them delivered to your door.
Definitely no excuses now!
Amazing what you can buy online these days.. I don’t know how good they are though, but at that price I might just give it a go, along with a few other items for the garden. Beats going all the way from the Isle of Man to get them!!!
Coryline Australis
I’m on a mission to turn the main road through Ynyslas into an avenue of palm trees!
OK, it’ll probably never happen but I think it would look nice. One of the things I like about the Isle of Man is the number of palm trees there. More accurately they are actually Cordyline Australis which have a number of common names including Manx Palm or Cabbage Palm and they are everywhere on the Isle of Man, giving it a somewhat tropical look!
As you arrive on the island by plane, the area around the airport is full of pretty impressive specimens and if you arrive by boat it isn’t long before you see some.
They grow well here in West Wales too and withstand the sandy soil, winds and sea spray that all too commonly destroy most plants. There are already quite a few in Ynyslas but I think it would look nice if there were more. We have one that is growing well in our back garden but I’m now on a mission to get more of them growing, especially along the road. I’ve planted one in the front garden right by the fence and a couple more will join that soon. Lets just hope they stand up to the winds as gardening in a windy area is always difficult.
I’m even giving a few away as presents to people (usually to say thanks for feeding the cat whilst we’ve been away), hopefully they’ll plant them in their gardens too and before you know it, Ynyslas will take on a tropical look!
So, if you live in Ynyslas, plant one in your front garden, they aren’t expensive to buy, they grow well, are easy to look after and will brighten up your life!
