Defeated by fruit, but at least it rained

Elephant hawk moth caterpillar, munching my grape leaves, seen from my kitchen window ("Wow, what is that??"), Aug 2026

My lettuce experiment at the allotment didn't fare quite as well as the pak choi earlier in the season.  The slugs/bugs have pretty much mown them all down, though at least the Chinese cabbages in the same bed are still hanging on, just:  they have some bad flea beetle damage.  In my previously sown beetroot/radish/turnip bed (luckily these look ok, though there were gaps), I've transplanted what remained of my pak choi and spring cabbages, also sad from flea beetles.  Both beds are under insect mesh, but obviously the mesh isn't keeping everything out.

I've had to admit defeat on my figs and grapes:  the birds can have what they want.  I can't preserve them (no jars, no freezer space) and they don't store.  The daughter is eating some every day, but not as many as the tree and vine are producing.  I'm all figged (and graped) out.  And of the apples:  the son picked two large baskets and I keep reminding everyone to eat their apple a day.  But.  It's just too many apples, despite only being two small, espalier-ish trees;  at least these will keep for a couple weeks.  Then there are the plums...

Still bringing in too many tomatoes and cucumbers.  I was wrong about the zucs before, but maybe this time these really are slowing down.  Maybe.  I've made the executive decision to stop picking purple snap peas and save the rest for seed.  These did better than I initially judged:  they started out slow but ended up completely surprising me--I'll definitely want to grow them next year.  

On a more positive note, it rained!  Actually it's still pretty dry, but grass is slightly greener, and some self sown mizuna have spontaneously germinated in my kitchen garden.  My water butts both refilled too, and all my plants look a lot happier having had several good long showers.

I managed to clear away most of the harvested Savoy cabbage plants at the allotment;  they had enormous root systems and were starting to resprout.  I snapped off the new growth for fresh eating/dehydrating and put the huge old outer leaves and stalks to compost;  these had to go in a new pile since all five of my plastic composters are still full to the brim.  I was trying to remember what I filled them with, and I think it was mostly grass (was it really)?  I'm not known for digging grass, but that's certainly the only stuff I can see.  I guess it must have some other weeds and of course the potato tops, but did I really dig up so much grass?  

An allotment helper, still too many vegetables, making kimchi and ice cream

 

A helper at the allotment, July 2026

That little amphibian pictured above also has a friend, slightly smaller.  A female and a male maybe?  We don't have a pond at the allotment but instead an old pond liner smothering weeds;  it has a dip in the middle that has a continual puddle from watering--our little frog puddle.  This one had been lurking in the zuc patch that day and quickly made its way back to the puddle and the safety of the tomato overgrowth nearby.

Speaking of tomatoes, we (well, the husband mostly) have been picking a reliable 2# every other day this past week.  So far I've been making tomato heavy meals, but supply is starting to outpace demand.  I really want to bottle some--but have very few jars left.  The freezer is seriously full now, and the dehydrator is constantly packed with shredded zuc (we're going to be eating this for the rest of the decade I think).  What to do?

I had another kimchi marathon, making about 9 L over the course of three or four days.  I've got an additional 1.8 L of pak choi kimchi and another 1 L of komatsuma too.  And have been slicing up zuc for fresh/unfermented kimchi as needed.  To me it tastes less spicy when fresh, maybe because it doesn't have the sourness.  The zuc softens down so fast I think it would turn to mush if fermented;  I like the fresh texture, and it has a slight sweetness too.  The Savoy cabbage I used for the majority of the kimchi is much more robust;  I probably won't get to it till autumn or even winter--when the zuc gives up!  I've read that kimchi can last a year or more, although I doubt mine will--I'll eat it long before a year's over.  Unlike with the tomatoes, I don't have to have hermetically sealed jars for kimchi or other fermented vegetables;  the salt and acidity prevents spoilage, so long as the jars are kept tight shut.

The daughter and I are waiting for the figs to ripen, although I also have some trepidation:  it's loaded!  It's been such a hot dry summer, our dessert of choice has been homemade fruit ice cream--no doubt fig will be a delicious flavor.  She and I have gone out on our bikes to the local country park to pick wild blackberries, to tide us over.  They're big and juicy this year;  some years they're small and seedy.  

To make ice cream, I cooked them slightly in a pan with a tiny bit of water, just to soften--they really released a lot of juice.  After cooling down a little, I put the entire contents through my food mill with the smallest plate size to catch all the seeds.  Then refrigerated until cold, sweetened to taste, and gently folded with whipped cream.  I froze this mixture in a variety of containers (some silicone muffin cups and a plastic takeaway tub) and we enjoyed it the next day after dinner.

Busy: planting, weeding, tidying, top dressing, harvesting

Two thirds of my allotment with purple sprouting broccoli at the centre foreground;  the other third contains the chicken yard, raspberries and artichokes (not shown), April 2026

Photos!  But don't expect this trend to continue.  

A lot going on right now, both in my personal life and in my garden and allotment.  So busy.  I make my food producing engine a top priority though.  Not only is it important to me to have as much homegrown food as possible, I also enjoy the whole process.  It's my beloved hobby.  This time of year I'm in the garden as much as possible, and at the allotment every day.  I'm still planting out my transplants, bed by bed.

Tiny quince tree in the garden, May 2026

I spent the last two weekends with a pair of leather gloves, pulling out all the nettles from the edges of my garden;  I also did as much of the encroaching brambles as I could (these are harder to pull out but cutting them only encourages growth).  The whole garden looks much tidier now.  Most of it is given to perennials and ornamentals, with good habitat for birds and other creatures;  a certain amount of disorder is therefore encouraged, but I want to be able to enjoy the full extent of it too, without getting stung or prickled.

Another job:  digging chicken manure out of the now vacant yard--chickens currently having their summer vacation at the allotment--and spreading it all around.  It's gone at the base of every fruit tree and rose bush, around some of the garden beds, and anywhere else that looks needy.  There's a whole year's worth of manure there:  plenty to share.  The son and I emptied the coop too, then dusted it thoroughly with diatomaceous earth, to protect against mites.  After mowing the lawn, he put the grass clippings in the coop and nest boxes to dry out into straw;  it will be dry and ready for chickens to move back in after their summer break.

It's never flowered before;  will we get our first quince? May 2026

The purple sprouting broccoli at the allotment is just about finished and I'm pulling up the plants one by one, stripping the leaves to eat like kale;  I've frozen a lot too.  I've also begun regularly picking the first new season lettuce (this is in the kitchen garden), as well as new chives, parsley and garlic.  Though the maincrop garlic isn't ready yet, I've found some volunteers that got missed last year and am cooking them whole: very pungent.  I'm still hopeful for some spring cabbages soon, growing bigger;  and one spring cauliflower--the rest already matured, back in autumn and winter.  Oh, and there is still one squash left from last autumn, alone on its mat in my living room:  time to cut it open.

Picking up the pace

Quite a lot of gardening has happened over the past week, mainly in the Perennials section at home, but a bit of action at the allotment too;  it's the end of our spring break off work/school.  The son and I finished working on the bamboo at last and also drastically cut back the overgrown laurels at the very back of the property.  The laurels were planted by a previous owner, presumably as a hedge;  now they are part of my regular coppice rotation and I cut them back every five years or so for firewood.  

On a sunny, dry day I managed to dig out some of the excellent compost from the bottom of the chicken yard and spread it on part of my veg beds, both around my strawberry plants and onto a weedy bed destined for onion seedlings.  I have a tray of onions, rather small, which I will transplant in a few days after the compost has settled/been rained on.

In addition, I finally sowed a packet of parsnip seed in another bed I'd cleared earlier (with the help of my free ranging poultry).  There's a space below this bed which is earmarked for carrot seed:  very soon!  I also transplanted some lettuce seedlings in between the parsnip rows, and put a short row of dwarf beans at the back (I'd soaked them first);  then I covered the whole bed with insect mesh, mainly as a pigeon deterrent.  

Speaking of pigeons, it looks like they haven't stripped all my plum flower buds off this year--maybe we'll get some fruit at last?  We were wondering if the old pair of wood pigeons moved on/died--we have still seen a pair of them in the garden, just not eating buds off trees:  this might be a new pair who don't know the delicious taste of flowers yet.  Perhaps the Kordia cherry will have fruit too!  I'm keeping an eye on things, but there's not much I can do to prevent them if they decide to attack.

I'm starting seeds and pricking out seedlings regularly;  most of my seeds are started outdoors, broadcast into small pots on my patio table and then pricked out into trays--only roots like parsnips/carrots/beets get sown directly into their beds.  My tomato seedlings are spending nights indoors but having day trips to the patio for sunbathing--only a couple days have been too cold/windy for them;  hopefully in a week or two they'll be acclimatized enough to move out and I can start my next batch of indoor seeds:  cucumber, zuc, squash.  I don't have enough room on my sunny kitchen windowsill for everything at once.

At the allotment my snap peas and beets are just emerging under their sheet of insect mesh.  I prepared another row nearby and put down my kohlrabi seedlings, also under some mesh.  I took the mesh off the broad bean bed at last (mesh goes on most of my newly planted/sown beds to keep birds, mice and cats off) and put it over the kohlrabi instead.  As a brassica, it's in most need of the mesh to keep the cabbage white butterflies off when they start to lay eggs next month.

I'm still harvesting Musselbrugh leeks, but getting very near the end now.  Maybe a dozen left?  I'm also picking purple sprouting broccoli once a week, hopefully till May at least.  And rhubarb once a week too, though it's prolific enough for a much more generous harvest;  maybe I should make a batch of wine this year, something I haven't done for a while.  I rarely drink alcohol but it makes a unique gift.

Cherries and also not cherries

(The Vegetable Challenge has restarted!  More details next week!) 

It turns out I've not been getting many Kordia cherries or Czar plums off my trees for the past several years because of a pair of pigeons.  They were witnessed in the spring, methodically stripping both buds and young leaves from my trees, meaning hardly any fruits formed at all.  These are wood pigeons (we don't currently have any feral pigeons around);  one of the neighbors has been known to shoot them with an air rifle in his own garden--but in this case I would have been quite happy to shoot them myself!  They're too big for netting:  I don't know if I can protect my trees in the future.

Hiding the few cherries that survived the pigeons, June 2025

Only a few Kordia cherries, but at least they're perfect underneath their cloth napkin, June 2025

On the other hand, my little Morello cherry tree produced a good amount of cherries this year, maybe because the branches are much smaller/thinner (wood pigeons are pretty big birds) and the tree itself is very close to the house.  I fully netted it a little while ago and have been picking red cherries and freezing them this past week.

Already picked a freezer bag of Morello cherries, June 2025

I can only assume the pigeons treated my small Stella cherry tree the same way they did the Kordia as it also has very little fruit.  Its top has died back and it's suffering from aphids in a bad way;  I don't know if it'll survive.  My plum tree, just around the corner (seen a little bit in the top right corner), had a couple years of bad aphids which I think the local sparrows eventually sorted it out;  this tree isn't visible from the house (unlike almost all of my other fruit trees) so I don't know if the birds are helping it this year or not.  While every ladybug and/or larva I find goes onto this tree, other than that, my policy is to not intervene.  I focus on setting up healthy conditions for my little garden ecosystem, a la permaculture;  it's up to the ecosystem to sort out its own details.  If I lose this tree, I can console myself with the thought that it only cost me £4 or £5, and I do have another healthy tree.

Sad Stella cherry tree, June 2025

As an aside:  there are a lot of wild cherry trees at our local country park just a few streets away;  some are pretty sour but others are quite nice.  Just much too small to preserve in any way:  good for eating and spitting out the pits.  At least we've been able to eat cherries this year, one way or another.

Trying to find room for it all!

The blackbird cheepies left the nest yesterday! This is them five days previously, April 2025

Our run of good weather has lasted even longer than I could imagine--my rain barrels are almost completely dry and I've even had to water at the allotment (just the newly seeded planters/beds and onion transplants--the established plants are fine).  Maybe I've even got a tan??

Over the weekend the son and I prepared a new bed for kohlrabi and beets;  the kohlrabi are for transplant and the beets for direct sowing.  This is a bed I sheet mulched earlier in the spring but we've been spreading some fine compost over the top and raking it;  I've been waiting for some rain to sow and transplant (the kohlrabi seedlings are really really ready!).  It's supposed to rain today, finally. 

I also shoveled out some good compost from the chicken yard at home and spread it around one bed in the kitchen garden;  this will be for cucumbers and courgettes hopefully next month.  I also raked a light top dressing onto the next bed for cabbages, lettuce and spring onions, also ready to transplant (has it rained yet?).

Now looking at my beds at the allotment, I have a slight problem:  where am I going to put everything?  Almost all my beds are already in use;  I have only one bed and the chicken yard unplanted now.  True, I should be able to clear away the purple sprouting broccoli by May, giving me another bed (kind of small though).  And in June or July both the garlic and broad beans should be finished.  But I'll need a big space for squash and sweetcorn by June at the latest, along with several other things (climbing beans, pickling cucumbers, tomatoes, etc). 

It perhaps didn't help that I made a tactical decision to cover over the very grassy bed at the very back of the plot with old carpet and tarp, to stay in place until next year.  I admit this bed didn't grow much last year--I got some beets out of it at least, though it wasn't used to its full potential.  To try and get some kind of harvest from it I've moved my big pots and planters back there--despite it being a pain to water--so at least something is growing there.  It doesn't free up much room from where the planters used to be but I'll try to plant up their old space too.

Nestlings, seedlings, potatoes, a little bit of veg left

 

Blackbird nest by the kitchen window (they hatched last week), March 2025

Our own Cheeky blackbird and her mate seem to have gone to the happy hunting ground--not seen her or him at all this year;  but we have a new pair with new nestlings right up against our house under our grape arbor;  it's a bit of an exposed place actually, so I hope the cheepies are ok in there;  our garden itself is great for birds--lots of safe perching places, lots of bugs and worms; and while we do have neighborhood cats, they don't visit our garden very often as it's hard to get in and out now (they used to slip through our gate until we put up a piece of wire).

In other news: some of my snap peas--sown last month in small pots--are finally sprouting up!  Actually it didn't take that long, especially compared to last year;  it's been a much warmer spring this time around.  I'm still out of pots and am down to one tray, but it doesn't matter as I can't use it anyway--I don't have anywhere to put it!  Every flat, elevated space is taken on my patio and I don't want to put them on the ground in case of rampaging chickens/ducks/five year olds.  When the snap peas get transplanted out, their pots will immediately go to French beans, squash and sweetcorn.  I need them to get growing!

But the weather has been cooperating so far, like I said.  It's been unseasonably sunny, dry and warmish, though still getting close to freezing at night so not quite ready to put anything tender out;  my tomato seedlings get day trips out, but come back in for night.  However, it does mean the soil is warm enough for direct sowing.  At the allotment the (pre-sprouted) direct sown broad beans are growing well and now released from their mesh cover;  and I've direct sown one bed each of parsnips and turnips, each with a mesh cover to protect from slugs/bugs/birds/etc.  If the parsnips come up (didn't get any last year) I'll take the cover off when they are a few inches tall but the turnips will probably have to stay covered until harvest.

Also trying no-dig potatoes this spring, after not growing any for a couple years now.  I bought a 2.5 kg bag of Charlotte seed potatoes, cleared a space on a thickly sheet mulched bed, and placed chitted potatoes onto the wet cardboard, well spaced.  Then I covered them with composted manure and piled the whole bed high with uncomposted stable bedding (mainly straw with a little bit of manure).  Haven't seen any sign of growth yet but it's still early;  when I see any green poking out I'll keep topping it up with more stable bedding.

I'm now picking purple sprouting broccoli at the allotment, as well as rhubarb once or twice a week.  At home there are a few self-sown salad greens to be had:  mizuna, lambs lettuce, chicory, chard.  Fresh veg is a bit slim right now, but we still have a little preserved veg from last year:  one last squash (I cooked the second to last one the previous week), a few pickled beets, pickled gherkins, a big jar of kimchi (partly homegrown), a bag of frozen tomatoes;  I also have a couple jars of dehydrated veg from 2023 too.  My little lettuces and spring onions are up and growing so I hope to be eating those next month, when the rest of the veg runs out.

Ran out of pots...

 

Clearing the weeds (again) Mar 2025

Well, I've run out of pots again, like last year.  Even with the addition of about 50 new ones (actually we've been washing out and saving the small tubs we buy cream in), I have seeds to sow and seedlings to prick out and no pots to put them in!  Most of them are holding my 300+ snap peas (two peas to a pot), all stacked up in trays on my patio tables, shown slightly at the top left corner.  I soaked them first and some started to sprout little roots before I could get them into their pots.  It looks like some are just starting to come up now--hopefully as soon as possible because I need those pots!

Why didn't I sow direct?  Peas and beans in particular are really susceptible to pest damage at my allotment and garden;  often I lose most if not all direct sown peas:  maybe to mice, maybe slugs, birds, who knows.  I actually sowed my broad beans direct this year (soaked first), but covered the bed fully in insect mesh after sowing.  I tried to bury the edges of the mesh so no mice or birds could get in, but it looks like a few did get dug up anyway;  regardless, it looks like most of them survived which I am thrilled about (last year I sowed them in pots and still lost a significant amount).

My patio table is also full of larger pots which are sprouting up lots of broadcast seeds, ready to prick out as soon as possible.  I've got cabbage, lettuce, purple sprouting broccoli (actually just started harvesting the ones I grew last year), Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi and more.  How did I mistime so badly?!  Well, I'll make it work somehow;  I can prick out some directly into the few trays I have left;  I think I can get some into the ground too.  The rest can wait until the peas can transplant.  I hope.

And now on to planting

Only one Kumoi pear on the whole tree, May 2024

As far as seeds go, I'm on the final stretch.  Everything that needs to be sown before summer has at least one tray sown so far, even bottom-of-the-queue corn.  Why was corn last to be prioritized?  Everything else either takes up less room and/or gives a bigger harvest:  corn takes up a lot of space for very little edible return--we love it as a luxury, not a necessity.

And so now I'm on to a transplanting frenzy.  Every day for more than a week I've been taking up trays and pots to the allotment to get things in there: mainly peas (nearly done now) but also beets and I've moved on to the tomatoes too.  There is still a lot of space to plant at the allotment but because of intense slug pressure, I really can't take up a lot of things.  For instance, I tried four extra lettuce seedlings when planting them out at home;  they went into a newly filled container, with a thick layer of eggshells surrounding them and a bit of chicken wire over the top--these lasted one day.  

Because of the ongoing pot shortage, most of my warm weather crops--squash, zuc, climbing beans, corn, pickling cucumbers--got sown later than I would have liked.  Some of these aren't even sprouting yet--to think I actually transplanted most of them out in May last year.  However, they should still succeed with a later June transplant, which I sometimes have to do anyway if mid/late May is still chilly or very rainy (though it's not this year(.

The view from the back door, May 2024

At home I'm about halfway through planting my kitchen garden beds.  I do have a fairly big garden and could convert quite a bit more of it to beds--and perhaps I will do so in the future--but we like having a mixed garden with trees, ornamentals and a bit of lawn.  I have mostly brassicas here at the moment but also this weekend I transplanted some parsley and marigold seedlings, pricked out from a large pot I'd broadcast them into.  I'm also preparing a newly sheet mulched bed (mainly covered with last winter's contents of the chicken house) for salad cucumbers.

The lettuces, cauliflowers and direct sown cabbages seemed to have been badly damaged by those pesky wood pigeons so I erected a piece of insect mesh over them; while it won't completely exclude cabbage butterflies, it should keep out pigeons, ducks and chickens.  It looks like those rotten pigeons completely nipped off all the little cabbage seedlings so I transplanted out some purple sprouting broccoli instead and will later transplant some more cabbage further along that bed.  Luckily I had already broadcast another pinch of cabbage seed into a large pot (now sprouting up) just in case the direct sown ones didn't succeed.

Not done yet (with seeds)

 So happy we've had a full week of 14C and above temps;  my seedlings have finally been able to grow a bit.  I've planted out the first tray of snap peas at the allotment, and the first tray of beet seedlings too.  I have many more peas coming up (though still a little small to transplant), and the next tray of beets just emerging (and to keep up the succession, another tray has been sown).  I will try to keep the beets going this way:  as soon as I plant out a tray, immediately resow with more seed.

Snap peas sprouting, May 2024

A few older packets of seed I just broadcast into larger pots, hoping a few would sprout;  it seems that the purple sprouting broccoli wasn't as old as I thought, as pretty much all of it looks to be growing.  Not so much for a packet of cabbage, however, though I a do have kale, parsley (I think) and French marigolds too.

An old packet of seed: "maybe a couple will sprout!" May 2024

Under my insect mesh at home, the kohlrabi is getting on, and I interplanted the cauliflower with lettuce.  The cauliflower seems to have stalled in the cold spring, but the lettuces look better, though I've seen the wood pigeons skulking around them (they are under wire, but not completely peck-proof).  

I've also got a few directly-sown Savoy cabbages coming up nearby, but I plan on growing a couple transplants of these too as the other (older) packet of cabbages didn't sprout.  One of my garden goals is to grow my own kimchi this year, which means I need some cabbage (yes, technically not Savoy, but I couldn't find any Napa cabbage seed).

And in my situation with the pots (i.e. 100+ pots is not enough), I've been getting creative.  I got another 18 out of a pot exchange bin at a garden center--we only stopped on the way past as the daughter was desperate for the toilet:  a lucky find.  And I've told the family not to throw out any small plastic pots from the refrigerator when they're empty (the husband goes through a lot of cream with his coffee);  at least five have been repurposed so far.  I went on a seed spree over the weekend, and any I had emptied got filled again.  And I'm not done yet.

Harvesting from the park

These past few weeks have seen me and the kids at our local country park, just a few streets away from our house, foraging for some wild food.  There are quite a lot of wild edibles there that we know of:  mint, bullaces (a small wild plum), oregano, raspberries, hazelnuts, pears, and even an invasive species of crayfish.  However, we have been picking:

Blackberries

It's been a good year for wild blackberries.  Often they turn out small, sour and seedy;  but this year I've picked a lot of big, sweet juicy ones.  Still seedy of course!  But more juice per seed.  In the past I've made jam, put them in smoothies and used the puree in ice cream.  I've also combined them with wild elderberries to make wine, which is my plan for this year too.

Apples

It seems it's not been a great year for apples however.  My own trees have been producing biennially, and this was the off year:  no apples.  There are quite a lot of wild trees at the country park, and most are nice enough to eat though nothing spectacular (we only know one phenomenally bitter tree).  Unfortunately, the trees there haven't produced much either, and most of it quite small.  The son and I went picking at the weekend and came back with a sack of which the largest were golf ball sized.  These will be for eating only--at least they are free and the kids don't mind the size.  I know of another couple of trees we didn't visit so we'll have to check them next.  

---

Our country park used to be a coal mine, and our village a mining village.  When I moved here almost 20 years ago, the park was mostly just a flat grassy field with a small memorial to the miners and a largeish fishing pond at the far end, with a young weedy forest around that.  The whole park has since been planted with many trees;  other plants have recolonised to make it a real haven for wildlife and local people alike.

I have in the past harvested quite a lot of different things at our park, including herbs for simple remedies such as plantain and alder to make a soothing skin cream.  I've even gathered reeds for basketry and old dead wood to use as kindling in our wood stove:  it's a bountiful resource practically at our doorstep. 

The cabbage bed

A splash of color in the veg bed, July 2023

I'm even busier than last week!  But at least I've got the cabbage bed cleared and replanted (finally) and all the cabbage either dehydrated or brined for later eating/cooking.  As I may have mentioned, they were meant to be spring cabbages (harvest in spring), and none of them produced much of a head.  But I needed the space so I pulled them all, and of course a little harvest is better than no harvest.  The oldest outer leaves went to the chickens and ducks, and I put the stalks in the compost.

After hoeing and raking off the bed, I put down the pak choi and fennel transplants, and two rows of daikon radish seeds;  as a precaution I draped insect mesh over the whole bed--against both cabbage butterflies and pigeons.  

Speaking of cabbage butterflies, the carnage wasn't so bad this year.  Only one spindly little cabbage got badly munched--the rest only lightly, with just one or two green caterpillars per plant it seemed (at least, that's how many I found at the bottom of the sink after soaking each head).  Usually the first wave consists of many many single green caterpillars;  then come the armies of black and yellow ones.  Except they didn't. I have seen a couple of husks here and there where the parasitic wasps have been busy, so maybe other predators have been working on it too?

I've done a couple of quick sweeps at the allotment; the brassicas there look a little more tattered, but I think it's more flea beetles and slugs than caterpillars.  Still, I'll try and keep on top of it, as those black and yellow caterpillars can completely defoliate plants if not stopped in time.

Protecting my food

 

Trying to save a few cherries, June 2023

Although I love my local wildlife (and they love my garden), I'm not quite willing to share everything with them.  I operate on a "don't ask don't tell" policy with bugs and slugs:  I don't actively try to kill them unless they are destroying in plain sight--such as cabbage caterpillars. 

Lovely lettuces, June 2023

The birds too are allowed a free rein with nearly everything in the garden--unless their idea of sharing means I don't get anything.  Obviously, the birds don't get the caterpillar treatment (ignomiously fed to my ducks), but I have to take a few precautions with particularly vulnerable plants.

Radish seedlings coming up--let's keep the pigeons off, June 2023

This year I'm protecting my lettuces and my direct-sown seed beds, mainly from pigeons.  Last year a pesky pigeon nipped off all my little swede seedlings as they came up, so this year I'm proactive.  The French beans were covered in mesh until they sprouted;  the radishes had the same mesh but graduated to plastic trays after sprouting (apparently pigeons particularly love brassicas), and the lettuces all have a bit of bird netting loosely draped over.

Apparently it's not too hard to protect against pigeons because they won't go anywhere they can't immediately fly to or from--and as they leap straight into the air to fly, this means they don't like to go anywhere with any sort of obstruction.  Thankfully my protective measures seem to be working.

And my little Stella tree is draped in some mesh and an old net curtain to save its 20 or 30 cherries (mainly from blackbirds although they are fair game for anything feathery out there).  As I mentioned previously, none of my three small cherry trees have produced much this year, and in a choice between a pittance of pie cherries or a pittance of sweet cherries:  I decided on the sweet.

Providing wildlife habitat

 

Returning to the scene, May 2023

I've seen the hedgehog a couple of times recently in this bed, and it has retreated to the far leafy corner both times, leading me to suspect it has a nest.  Perhaps it has a nest of hoglets?  Recall we lost a week old duckling to a marauding hedgehog--maybe even the same hedgehog.  I can't blame it however, and am still glad to see it.

Unlike most of our neighbours, our garden has a mixture of all kinds of plants;  and instead of an open lawn with just one or two levels of plantings in perimeter flower beds, it almost resembles a slice of forest with a mature horse chestnut tree to a variety of smaller trees (hawthorns, laurels, fruit trees), shrubs from very tall to very small, a small bit of meadow (aka lawn) and lots of layers in between.  

All this provides good habitat for birds especially, who love our garden.  Mostly I love them back, although I'm not 100% about the pair of wood pigeons who keep trying to eat my lettuces--luckily they are foiled fairly easily with some loosely draped netting.  All the different leafy layers means there are a lot of places for birds to quickly fly to in case of danger (which is usually us, or one of the neighbourhood cats), and the different plantings provide lots of food, particularly bugs.

It's an excellent space for creepy crawlies with lots of habitat everywhere, for worms and woodlice to bees and beyond.  The birds are constantly feeding; I see the same male sparrow every day picking aphids off my plum tree (I think he has a bunch of hungry kids in the eaves).  In fact, it's the prime time of year to see parents teaching their chicks to find food, and what better place than our garden?  Soon we will have ripe berberis berries, and after that a steady stream of berries and seeds all over.

The wildlife that live and visit here rarely make trouble, and are either harmless or positively beneficial (like Mr Sparrow);  any drawbacks are small compared to the advantages.  They help me grow better food by eating pests and I love their feathery antics and songs.  I encourage them, the bugs, and even that bloodthirsty hedgehog with my garden design.

Poor germination?

I can only suppose it's been a bit colder than usual this spring, as I had hoped to be able to transplant some seedlings by now; the earliest ones are still only just sprouting up in their trays.  Even the early indoor seeds haven't progressed as much as I'd like, though the batch of popcorn seeds have outperformed everything else, coming up in less than a week (I'm still waiting for several different trays to even sprout).

At the allotment, the 300 snap pea seeds have come up very sparsely indeed.  Maybe about 20 have appeared, and it's been long enough I suspect that's it.  The 200 broad bean seeds have a similar showing.  After I sowed both, I covered them with insect mesh, and buried the edges all the way around, to prevent both birds and mice from digging them up, so I'm not sure why the poor germination rate.

On a different note, recall I've been using sheets of wool insulation in my seed trays;  a blue tit has been spotted wrestling little bits from the edges of trays, no doubt to make the coziest nest ever.  Our garden is a great place for wild birds and we often see many, but the blue tit only rarely;  does it nest in our garden, or is it just the occasional visitor?  No idea, but I get a thrill if I see this elusive little bird.

Taking it easy in August

 

A nice place to relax (and hang laundry), July 2021

A good portion of the back property is not dedicated to our food producing engine:  the washing line gets a lot of use, for instance.  Some parts are simply ornamental, and for us humans to enjoy and share with the resident wildlife.  The blackbirds have been very friendly this year, and we like to see the many other birds such as wrens, goldfinches and dunnets.

As for our lawn;  it feeds chickens and ducks in cooler weather but in summer we prefer to use it ourselves without worrying about poo--those birds seem to produce a lot!  After mowing the son gives them the grass clippings to peck over as a consolation.

It's been nice these past few weeks to sit out in the garden and just relax*.  I do a little maintenance here and there, and I'm steadily working on the weeds at the allotment for half an hour most days (though it's hard to tell by looking!) but mostly it's no work and all play.

*Or chase the daughter around, who is 17 months and loves playing in the garden, rain or shine.  There's a lot of places to explore out there.

Life and death

 

The Peeps (with Cookie's tail in the foreground) June 2021

We are down to just one duckling (aka The Peep), after a predator attack.  The duckling shown above with the white spot on its wings was killed by a hedgehog last week, after it managed to climb into their little yard after dark.  I heard Cookie their mother hen making a terrible racket and dashed outside, as did the son, but we were too late to save it.  

Cookie was very brave and fought it off so that it turned against her instead, but it was heavier than her and too spiky;  she couldn't win that fight.  The son managed to get some garden gloves on and grab the hedgehog off of her;  it had a mouthful of her feathers as he took it away.  I have no doubt that Cookie would have fought to the death if we hadn't intervened.

Cookie and her remaining duckling were very subdued for several days afterward, and didn't come out of their house until yesterday.  I have no doubt that she has mourned her lost child and is wary of losing the other.  

I have adjusted the fencing around their yard;  I don't think a hedgehog can get in again.  I never thought they would be vulnerable to one--cats, rats and hawks yes, but it never crossed my mind a hedgehog would go for a duckling, or that one could even get into their little yard.  I guess we have been lucky all these years never to have lost any others this way and I will have to make sure it never happens again.

Cheeky

We have a nesting pair of blackbirds in the ivy that grows up our garage wall.  The female is the boldest little bird on the block, who has come to expect a daily offering of uneaten scraps from the daughter's high chair.  We call her Cheeky bird. 

When I work in the garden, Cheeky is constantly at my elbow, waiting for me to dig up worms.  She gets close enough for me to reach out and grab--lucky for her I don't want to!  She follows me around, or investigates the garage, or tries her luck in the newly sown seed beds.  

The daughter loves watching Cheeky, who last week came to the doorstep as we were coming home from childcare, as if asking to come in.  The daughter laughed:  "Cheeky!"  Later that day she even sat on the windowsill as I was in the living room, watching me and looking for a way in.  I hadn't thrown out the scraps yet, and she obviously needed to remind me of my duty.

Cheeky's mate is much shyer;  we call him Mr Cheeky or Cheeky Daddy.  He's just as industrious as his mate, but won't stick around if the humans are in sight.  We watch him out the window as we sit in the kitchen:  "Cheeky!" calls the daughter.

There are some other regulars to our garden including Puny the robin, a pair of collared doves and the little dunnet family, but none are so friendly and fearless as our little Cheeky.