Tuesday 6 April 2010

Garden Update

So today and yesterday was much warmer and it shows.

The first wild flowers are out - small blooms of Common Chickweed and Germander Speedwell are now showing.

The Cuckoo Pint or Lords and Ladies Arum maculatum  leaves have been up for a while, but now I see that central stems are appearing out of the ground.  These are wonderful plants that I hope make it this year.  They failed last year, their first year, but this time there are more, and there are some with spotted leaves and some without.

Bluebells are starting to show too.  I don't think there will be too many this year, but I have planted more which I expect will take another year of ground time.

While having a check round, I also saw my first ladybird of the year, a six spotted.

Finally from the garden, the frog spawn tadpoles are no longer just black dots - tails are appearing fast now.  Guess it won't be long before we see movement..

The hedgerow plants are all now in bud, with a number of early leaves appearing on the Hawthorn.

It is a really exciting time to see the progress.  I look forward to phot cataloguing this year and sharing progress with you.

At £1.20 gallon now, it is good to have the wildlife in the back garden

Martin

1 comment:

  1. I agree it's uplifting to see that spring is finally pushing through, although I still get the feeling here in the west that flowering plants are 2-3 weeks behind due to the icy weather a couple of months or so back.

    A short family break to FoD at the weekend confirmed to me how "mixed-up" flora and fauna is at the moment. Daffodils are still in prime fettle in April, wood anemone is still in good flower, but no sign of bluebell flowers yet - just the foliage. However, in contrast, we heard chiff-chaff belting out their distinctive call, and saw a lovely male blackcap singing just 20m away late Sat afternoon. It also would appear that the Goshawks haven't quite settled down to eggs as both males and females were noted at long range over the forest in gusty and bone-chilling overcast weather on Sunday. My eight year old son was in total awe despite the tiny shapes being a few miles away! Inspired and slightly uncontent with my nice 8x binos he wants to save for a scope like the real birders we met - somehow I think I'll end up footing the bill on this one as he'll be shaving before he amasses the necessary funds.
    The sun came out briefly in the afternoon and we were pleasantly surprised to come across three sluggish adders within a few metres of each other, in dry southish facing grass. The last couple of week's unstable weather must be confusing the life out of all this wildlife, visitor and resident! Let's just hope that spring soon shrugs off this minor "setback".

    Diesel is steadily approaching the all-time highs of two years ago, despite the oil barrel price moving in a different direction (???).

    It must be very fulfilling and rewarding to have such a variety of wildlife in your garden and must pay dividends in financial terms as well as convenience where enjoyment and photography is concerned. My garden receives much less green-fingered attention but our sustained bird feeding efforts is repaid with regular visits by a pair of bullfinches, pair of Reed Buntings and a pair of LTT, amongst other usuals. I guess it goes to prove that a little effort can go a long way when it comes to attracting wildlife, and when you approach it in a constructive, patient and planned manner like Martin and Dave it is truly amazing what you can attract to your "back-yard" without having to chase it half-way round the country!

    Kind regards
    Julian

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