I haven't done as much work as normal on the wildlife plot this month as I am recovering from surgery and can't really do gardening of any sort. One thing I can do though is sow seeds so I have delayed my seed sowing and started towards the end of March. I normally stagger this type of activity but not this year. So, I hope like me the space where you bring on your seedlings is full.
I have been on the lookout for some seed sowing containers that will last a lifetime to replace some of my cheap plastic ones that haven't lasted that long. First of all, let me say that I am not against all plastic just one-use plastic. After all, I would rather have plastic water pipes than lead ones, enviromesh rather than fleece that rips in the wind or cycle helmets, airbags in cars and child car seats all of which are made out of plastic.
I was given a range of seed trays to try out for Christmas so read on to see what I found out.
There hasn't been much sunshine this month but when it has been sunny and the wind has stopped blowing, the bumblebees have been out. This is a queen buff-tailed bumble bee although queens have ginger tails rather than buff coloured. Just to confuse me!
She was on the bergenia flowers and spent some time there with her head stuffed in the flowers. Apparently, bees can tell if another bee has visited the flowers because they can smell the feet of the other visiting bees. Who knew? Bees have smelly feet.
This month has really seen us finishing off all the bigger works on the plot because March is the start of serious veg growing and so I have less time to devote to the wildlife plot.
It's been quite a busy time on the wildlife plot because November to March is really when I can make some of the bigger changes that I want to do before seed sowing and planting take over on my veg plots. Noel has done sterling work and, just like Neptune holding back the sea, he has managed to hold back the advancing tide of Vinca major. It is now firmly under control, pooling in a circle around a tired buddleja, where it belongs!
I have been building log piles.
This month's post is all about log piles for wildlife, why you might want them and different ways they can be constructed.
Happy New Year and hello to some sunshine at long last. It feels as if it has been very grey and damp for weeks and weeks but that has finally changed. I went down to the wildlife plot on a sunny afternoon this week only to find the bees out on the heather. I have moved the heather to pots with ericaceous compost and they are doing much better. I don't think the soil on the plot is that acidic nowadays and so they were looking a bit straggly and like they were suffering. There is a white and pink heather both flowering now, but the white one wins hands down as the bees' favourite of the two.
One of the best things that I have done this year is to be part of the Vegetable Course. We have not only learnt how to grow vegetables but have also eaten a lot of cake, made scarecrows, eaten Jen's pickle, learnt how to make celariac remoulade with Hannah, spread muck, shared seeds and had a graduation ceremony with even more cake. To end our year, instead of a Christmas party, we got together for a Christmas wreath making session led by our esteemed leader, John.
What a month it has been with two celebrations for us.
The first relates to the Exmouth in Bloom It's Your Neighbourhood Award. The allotments received an 'Outstanding' for the Vegetable Course and the wildlife plot. This is an award judged by the RHS for volunteer led community projects which aim to improve the local environment. The judging happened in July with the results announced this month.
I do have to say a big thank you to the committee for allowing us to run the Veg Course. If it wasn't for John Singleton it wouldn't exist and it has proved to be a fantastic way to spend a Sunday morning. There have been a lot of laughs and cake throughout the year and with the plots all mulched, we are looking forward to next year's group.
September marks a year on the wildlife plot. I can't quite believe it. I have to say it has been an absolute pleasure working on it and now that I know the garden a bit better, I am more able to see what I need to do.
There have been so many benefits to looking after this plot, not least the number of people that stop to talk and I have to say a massive thank you to everyone who has donated a plant or two to the plot. I have had everything from trees to bulbs and rarely, if ever, say no.
The other great benefit for me is that I have had to start learning the names of butterflies, moths and caterpillars and whilst I am not great at it, I am getting better.
As September is the start of the year for the plot, I thought I would talk about some of the things that I would like to do over the coming year just in case anyone thought they would love to join in and help with any of the tasks. ;-)
The very last of my seeds that I have been waiting for are the leeks. They seem to have taken ages and there appears to be more than one way of producing new leeks.
I love it when there are free resources and you can make good use of them on your plots so here are my top 5 uses for wood chips.
If, however, this all seems a bit complicated, how about a much simpler method created in this video.
4. Use the chips as a mulch but there are ways of doing this to make it successful. This way of gardening is called ' Back to Eden' First you need 7-10cm of compost then wood chips which have been composted for at least a year topped off with very well composted cow or chicken manure. After this, the composted wood chips are topped up each year or when necessary.
5. Use a wood chip pile to heat water! You need a very large pile of wood chips for this. As you build the pile, you coil a hose pipe attached to a cold water tap. Once the pile of chips has heated up - several days - run the water until it comes out of the pipe and then turn it off. Leave for a day and then to use the hot water, run the tap again and warm/hot water will come out until it runs cold and then turn it off. There are camp sites which use this method of heating water for showers.
There is quite a lot to see on the plot this month as the weather warms up and the sun comes out. It may even mean we see fewer slugs and snails!
Picking raspberries in the evening of the 13th of July, this small moth landed on one of my containers. I think it is a Clouded Silver, possibly male because it is quite clouded. It is a very small moth and hung around for ages.
The caterpillar food is hawthorn, blackthorn and cherry all of which we have a lot of in the wildlife garden.
On July 12th there were three Common Blue Damselflies hovering and flitting around the pond. They are electric blue and every now and then they settled on the leaves of the water lilies just long enough for me to take a photograph.
The British Dragonfly Society's identification site is very good. Originally I thought this was a dragonfly but when resting its wings fold back together and its eyes are separated on its head making it a damselfly.
One of the nursery schools that visit the garden released some tadpoles into the pond earlier on in the year only for the children to see these 'shrimp-like things' start to eat the tadpoles straight away. I suspect that the shrimp-like things were the larval stage of the damselfly as they will eat anything living that is smaller than themselves.
On the 1st of July a Cinnabar moth floated by me. They are very distinctive and therefore easy to identify. The caterpillars are the orange and black stripey ones that feed and crawl all over groundsel and Ragwort. Some of their habitats are sand dunes and heathland so it isn't surprising that we have them on the allotments.
I have been watching this anthill being built for several weeks now and I don't think it will be long before the ants fly. This is a black ant nest and when I disturbed it a bit, I saw wings. It is quite amazing that the ants all fly on the same day. It is opposite the pond behind the Alchemilla mollis.
The winged ants are both male and female and fly to mate. Unfortunately, the males die after mating and the females lose their wings and set off to establish their own nest. However, this only happens if they are not eaten by the seagulls that circle round and round scooping them up.