My Wild-life Garden Chapter 10: July 25th

I began this blog when the swifts arrived back and nested in their usual place in our eaves. Now they sometimes whish low over the garden in groups of half a dozen, screaming as they go. Occasionally I see one peel off and shoot into the nest-crack. They are the most exciting bird in the garden just now, and very welcome because the small birds seem to have disappeared. This presumably means that they are either fledglings, vulnerable and shy, or adults recovering from the ardours of breeding, and also undergoing their annual moult. During this stage they tend to keep out of sight and shelter in hedgerows. There is an adventurous hunting cat, too, which I would douse in icy water if I could.

Orchid and bumble-bee

So the swifts are very welcome. The other common bird in the garden just now is wood pigeons. Yesterday I saw six at once, foraging on the freshly cut lawn. Overhead, and very noisy, are sea gulls. We seem to get common gulls, herring gulls and black-headed gulls in the area. They nest on the roofs (I have said this is a city centre) to the irritation of many and the pleasure of some. In fact in our street the odd numbers have taken steps against them, whereas we even numbers have learned to co-exist. The hostile steps of last year don’t seem to have made any difference this summer. A few years ago I was irritated when a gull on a chimney stack shouted at me, so I shouted back. The bird swooped at me, fast, and all but touched my hair. That was my closest shave, though they do sometimes do a warning swoop when I am in the garden and there are chicks on the roof.

The pond-edge this morning

This morning we really did have sun and heat for a few hours (there was a torrential shower later) and I did some mowing of the second half of my long grass meadow. I was careful to avoid the orchids – we have three this year. As a result of the weather we had a sudden burst of insects. There were bees enjoying the meadowsweet and the fox-gloves. There were hover-flies over the pond. One of them was really big, an amazing sight hanging still in the air. Possibly it was Volucellia zonaria , which is described as “easily recognised by its size and colour”; but it is also described as “local distribution: southern”, which causes doubts. There was a froghopper; I think Aphrophora alni for its size, though it may have been Philaenus spumarius, Common froghopper.  There was also, at last, another butterfly, presumably Artogeia rapae, Small white.

I have already apologised for being rotten at identification. I take comfort from a story told by the great Richard Feynman. A boy, leading a dog, met a motherly lady. “What’s that nice dog’s name?” asked the lady. The boy thought for a while. “I don’t know,” he said, “but we call him Fido.”

Birdsfoot Trefoil

In my last chapter I praised “A Buzz in the Meadow” by Dave Goulson. On page 138 we read: “Flowers that are aiming to attract bees are often yellow and purple.” That certainly fits with two flowers that have come out since I last wrote. One is Lotus pendunculatus, Greater birdsfoot trefoil. The other is Eupatorium cannabinum, Hemp agrimony. They both began in that packet of seeds called “Pond-edge Mixture” which I sowed over twenty years ago. The Hemp agrimony is remarkable. Every year I cut it back to ground level in winter and every summer it flowers at nearly two metres.

Hemp agrimony

One feature of the design of the garden that has worked is the path. It is deliberately not straight (though it is really no more than the quickest way to the compost heap). And it is kept mown so that it looks good, and walking up it is always a pleasure. At this time of year one is walking between tall, buzzing vegetation. 

Apart from snails (it is a big exception) pests and predators seem to keep in balance. A week ago the stems of the teasel were thick with greenfly. Today there were none

Ladybird pupa on teasel support-cane

Just one fat lady-bird pupa.

My Wild-life Garden Chapter 9: July 17th

Last night we had a big storm of rain. The Royal and Ancient, just up the coast, was so flooded that the start of Day 2 of the Open Golf Championship was delayed by three hours. Here there was no flood, but the half of the long grass that is still uncut was laid flat. Also, good, there is a bit more water in the pond. When cutting back I sometimes find a weevil has crawled onto me. The snails love this weather (less good) but I did come across another baby frog. I have also been inspired by Springwatch UK to make a hole under the back gate suitable for hedgehogs. You never know your luck.

Bee on Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum)

There are all sorts of mini-beasts around. I’ve certainly seen honey bees and at least two sorts of bumblebee. Something I never saw gave me two savage bites on the arm. There are hover-flies, as well. I have always liked them.

Hover-fly on the hedge

I mentioned harebells (Campanula rotundifolia) in my last post, but did not have a decent photo. I hope I have now put that right. They were grown from seed and there are maybe half a dozen plants now scattered about.

Harebells

I also mentioned the wild-flower seeds we gave out a church, and have a photo of how mine are doing. They pale into insignificance beside the superb large, brilliant bed in the Royal Botanic Gardens. If you are in Edinburgh it is worth visiting just for that (and for lots and lots of other reasons).

Wild-flower annuals

The hedge, the long grass and the pond are perhaps the three things that make the wild-life garden a bit different from a conventional garden. When I was starting the hedge, nearly 30 years ago, I gathered a few seeds at random from one of my favourite lanes in the Lake District. From this came a very slow-growing but tough climber, which had me mystified, till my sister happened to visit in summer at at once named it: Viburnum opulus, Guelder rose. Perhaps one day it will flower.

Guelder rose

The main pond does need a bit of space – I wish it were bigger. But there is also the baby-bath pond. It is used by frogs and newts, not to mention various insects. It has a couple of bought “exotics” in it, for it is not in the wild garden proper. It also is served by the cheapest possible solar-powered fountain (about £7.00), which I think is just enough to stop total stagnation. There are oxygenating plants below the surface.

The little pond

 As always I shall be delighted if people whose botany is better than mine (not difficult) correct my identifications.

  

My Wild-life Garden Chapter 8: July 13th

Last night I went to have a look round in the dark. In fact it was still not dark at 10.20pm, even though the long nights are drawing in. But in the dusk I was startled by a rustling in the tall vegetation, and then a handsome fox ran out and away. It is nice to see one occasionally, though I hope we do not get deep excavations or an earth with cubs. The garden is too small.

In the hedge

Mid-summer is past, certainly, so different flowers are appearing as the spring ones go to seed. We have started a pleasant event on Mothering Sunday at our church. As well as the traditional bunch of primroses we give out little packets of wild-flower annual seed. I hope mine will become a bit more lavish before they are done, but we are starting to enjoy extra colour. A second orchid has appeared in the long grass.

Meadowsweet and Tare

When the pond was new, nearly thirty years ago, I bought a packet called “Pond-Edge Mixture”. It is still providing masses of plants. The Filipendula ulmaria, Meadowsweet, has become a rampant weed, and threatens to take over the whole area. It has not yet reached its peak. I am not certain of the precise identification of the vetch, but I think it is Vicia hirsuta, Hairy tare. I like very much the variety of shape and colour that it gives. The Pilosella aurantiaca, Fox-and-cubs, still clings on in the managed wild-flower bed, though threatened by being swamped by Campion. I know it is an escape, not a native, but it is a wonderful orange. I bought it partly because it was a favourite of my dad’s.

Fox-and-cubs

In the pond the duck-weed is spreading, and needs lifting out. There are a score or more of water-lily leaves, blocking sun off the water. But, hooray, this week two flowers of Nymphea alba, White water-lily, made the leaves worthwhile. But I must cut them back a bit.

Water-lily

Some things succeed. Some things fail; we no longer have any ragged robin. One of the successes has been the Campanula rotundifolia, Harebell. I bought a packet of seed at Inverewe Gardens, sowed them in pots so that they could over-winter before germinating, and now we have several plants here and there. There is even some self-seeding in cracks. On holiday in Torridon a few years ago I brought some Hawkweed (?) seed back from the verge. I guess that is why two have appeared in the long grass.

Hawkweed, I think

I would like to say that we had hundreds of pollinators. In fact I would say we have fewer than some years, though this is not a scientific count. But we do always have some bees bumbling around, a lot of them at ground level among the clover. I must recommend another book “A Sting in the Tale” by Dave Goulson. And then read “A Buzz in the Meadow” by the same author. His wild meadow is in France, and he is a serious professional, so his account has a lot more in it than mine.

Recommended

But mine at least, a town garden in Edinburgh, you can all imitate. It is not no work, but it is a lot less than a herbaceous border. 

Bramble

My Wild-life Garden Chapter 7: July 9th

My original intention was to post something about the wild garden once a week. But life is not regular like that. July, in the country, is hay-making time, and if my patches of long grass are ever to behave like traditional meadows they need to be cut. Since my meadow is in two halves, divided by a mown path, I tend to cut the east-facing patch early in July and the west-facing patch late. One reason for this is because the orchid grows in the west-facing long grass, and I would not want to cut it till it has flowered and set seed. The grass is certainly ready to cut.

One reason for the annual mow is to encourage those plants that like that sort of treatment. It prevents them being overwhelmed by nettles and docks and alkanet, plants of the uncut verges. Also, by cutting the grass and removing it to the compost heap the fertility of the area is reduced. The idea is that the grass does not grow so vigorously as to swamp everything else. In a farmer’s hay-meadow the cut sward is left for a few days in the sun to dry out. In the wild garden it is left so that seeds of buttercups and so on can fall off and down to earth, and mini-beasts can crawl away to some other shelter.

I also do start other cutting back now that the nesting should be over. Possibly some wild life would like it if I left the hedges and verges uncut; think what a rich habitat old neglected gardens can be. But this is a medium-sized town garden, meant to be nice to look at and to sit in. Also I try to have a variety of habitats, some cut down in one season, some in another; some left for winter clearance, some left till growth restarts in spring, and some mown or clipped in high summer. I take heart from the fact that edge-of-woodland, with a mixture of light and shade, of short and of long vegetation, is a particularly rich habitat.  

If you are a serious student of the wild life in your garden the unmissable book is “Wildlife of a Garden: A Thirty-year Study” by Jennifer Owen. The author is an academic ecologist who has been able to bring great expertise to the study of her Leicestershire garden. When I say that she has identified in her garden 94 species of hoverflies, 62 species of wasps and 533 species of ichneumons, you will see that she has shown the rest of us, who think we are doing well if we identify two or three species, how rich a garden can be. One of Owen’s conclusions is that “insect numbers declined during the 30-year period 1972-2001; and the likely explanation is the change in agricultural habitats. So the more we town gardeners try to foster invertebrates the better.

At my “two or three” amateur level I find that cutting-time is often when I start noticing things. When weeding my tiny veg patch I came across some snails mating, quite oblivious of me and my fork. Since the garden is full of vegetation I do wish the snails would not pick out my runner beans and my one special dahlia as favourite food. But they seem to have few predators. Slugs are relatively harmless, kept in check I am sure by birds and frogs and newts. I was pleased to see a newt in the pond yesterday. The neighbouring grey squirrel has just learned to dismantle and empty the fat-ball feeder, but I am devising a scheme to get the better of it.

I was even more pleased when a ringlet butterfly spent a long time drifting around the long grass. I was less pleased to get itchy bites from minute creatures, but who am I to pick and choose. The swifts are busy feeding their young, and I guess they each need hundreds of flying insects a day.

Two species of fern have turned up in the garden, neither of them rare, but both of them welcome. One is Polystichum aculeatum, Hard shield fern. The other is Phyllitis scolopendrium, Hartstongue fern. The shield fern makes a formidable growth once established, and I don’t think I shall let any more plants get set.

My father-in-law gave me an Arum maculatum, Lords-and-Ladies from the old ditch behind his house. It has done really well in the dark shade behind the hedge, with more spikes every year.

The flowers of late summer are starting to come on fast, so I doubt if you will have to wait a week for the next chapter.

My Wild-life Garden Chapter 6: July 5th

We returned home after a few days away. Naturally one of my first actions was to look around the garden, and I was rewarded. In the little baby-bath pond three nearly-frogs were crowded at the point where there is a little ramp out onto the lawn. They had long tails, but four good legs. They are yellow and brown, not black. Presumably they are waiting till that moment when their lungs take in air, not water, and they will crawl out. There is no shortage of places for them to find concealment. In the main pond there is no sign of tadpoles, and there is no point hunting for frogs in all the long vegetation around. Occasionally in previous years I have stumbled across a group huddled together under some log, or seen a bold youngster heading across the moss. We shall see. 

While we were away I read a book I was given for my last birthday. It is the perfect book to refer to in this blog: “The Private Life of an English Field: Meadowland” by John Lewis-Stempel. He owns a small farm in Herefordshire and not only manages his meadows in a traditional way, he also is a dedicated and knowledgeable observer of the wild life.

Recommended book

In the year that is chronicled in the book his cutter breaks on a stone, so he is forced to cut the hay with a scythe. This was in July, and reminds me that I must get on with cutting my long grass soon. However, there is no rush, especially as the orchid has reappeared. I think it is a poorish (but much loved) specimen of Dactylorhiza, either maculata (Heath Spotted) or fuchsii (Common Spotted) – or maybe a hybrid. It is another welcome plant that just turned up. I wonder how many are lurking in mown lawns out there.

The orchid in our long grass

The Rosa rubiginosa, Sweetbriar, has blossomed more in the last week. So has the Lonicera periclymenum, Honeysuckle. The blossoms on the Crataegus monogyna, Hawthorn and the Sorbus aucuparia, Rowan are well over, but there is a promise of berries to come. There is also all sorts of promise of interesting flowers still to come.

The Sweetbriar today

I am seeing more and more bees and hoverflies. I must try and do a more detailed study. One flower has come out in time to give them a feast. That is Heracleum sphondylium, Hogweed. It has an aggressive alien relative, Giant Hogweed, which can irritate the skin quite severely. But this is a harmless umbellifer, much loved by insects. It is generally regarded as a weed by gardeners, and I do remove many plants. But a few of these fine plants where I want them add stature to any patch of wild vegetation.

Hogweed

Another so-called weed of which I only leave a few to flourish is Rumex obtusifolius. Broad-leaved Dock.

Dock

With so many nettles around it is useful to have a few dock-leaves to rub on any stings. The leaves really do work. More to the point the flowers and seeds, and overall structure, are very fine. If they were less common they would, I am sure, be treasured.

My Wild-life Garden Chapter 5: June 25th

In theory there is to be a new chapter of this blog once a week. However, I am about to go off again for a week, and there is a lot happening just now, so (in imitation of wild nature if you like) this post is slightly out of time.

But who cares? Summer is the time of great blooming, and there is a lot happening.

Soon after we bought the house we built a cheap garage, an ugly concrete box. To cover it I bought a climbing rose, and seem to have hit the jackpot. The Rosa rubiginosa, Sweetbriar, grows and grows. In late June it is covered in beautiful pink flowers.

Sweetbriar

In theory it is enough of a thorny thicket to provide safe shelter for small birds. This does seem to be necessary, for our garden is a favourite hunting ground for neighbourhood cats. Certainly the thorns are ferocious.

One sweetbriar flower

The managed wild-flower bed is bright with campion. I mentioned the Silene dioica, Red Campion, when it first appeared. Now there is just as much Silene latifolia, White Campion.

White Campion

One of the highlights of the wild-flower meadow in these weeks before it is cut is the great variety of grasses. I thought that writing this blog would spur me on to identify them; but alas this turns out to be more than I can manage. There are too many species and sub-species for me. I am fairly sure that ours include Cat’s tail, Yorkshire fog, Couch, Rye grass and Vernal, but these identifications may be wrong, and there are many varieties of most of these.

Some of our grasses

What has now appeared at the base of the long grass is Trilolium repens, White clover. This is very popular with bees, so beware of walking barefoot. It usually appears on the mown lawn as well. The ordinary daisies are spectacular this year and make the lawn look special, not just green.

White clover

The result of not mowing a patch of lawn for three weeks

Despite the cats the bird-feeders are still much used, though just now they only attract the ordinary, local birds. In five minutes this morning I saw Passer domesticus, House sparrow; Columba livia, Feral pigeon; Columba palumbus, Wood pigeon; Turdus merula, Blackbird; Parus caeruleus, Blue tit; Parus ater, Coal tit; Carduelis carduelis, Goldfinch. There’s nothing there to write home about, or even a blog about. I hope that the birds missing from the list – robin and dunnock for example – have nested successfully and moved away. Let us hope more exciting things can be reported at migration time. But I get as much pleasure from our ordinary locals, and nothing beats the goldfinches for colour.

Most of the books on wild-life gardening promise butterfly-caterpillars if you grow Urtica dioica, nettles. I cannot say that that has been true for me. But they certainly support a wonderful range of invertebrates. They also, I think, look very beautiful when in flower.Those clusters of pale green bobbles would cost you a lot in a garden centre.

Nettles in flower

In the pond we seem to have tadpoles the size of small grapes. They prefer eating and growing to turning into frogs.Let us hope for more news of their develo

My Wild-life Garden Chapter 4: June 19th

Since I wrote the last chapter I have been lucky enough to spend a week in the Lake District. No need for a wild flower garden there; the verges were all a-sparkle with life and colour. I walked a lot of lanes and bridleways, between banks of blue speedwell, dazzling white stitchwort, golden buttercups, feathery pig-nuts, pale pink bistort and bright pink campion. On one day we went to Holker Hall, where the gardens include a magnificent wild flower meadow, where sorrel, plantains, more buttercups, clover and yellow rattle break up the green. I knew my garden could not match any of this, but it was exciting to see what had happened while I was away.

A recent study has shown how vital verges are for wild flowers and their attendant wild life. I have some strips in the garden that I call “verges” for want of a better description. They edge paths and are under walls and hedges. As far as possible they have any old mix of plants and are cut back if they get to be a nuisance. I am sure they provide hiding places for young frogs, and life-support systems for a range of invertebrates.

One of my so-called verges

Now the big Leucanthemum vulgare Ox-eye daisy, has started to flower. These plants spread rapidly and can be very invasive, but they are easily cut back where not wanted. They pop up all over then place, including the lawn. My wild-flower meadow was created by the simple technique of not cutting the grass. This year there is a magnificent show of Veronica chamaedrys, Germander Speedwell. Conventional gardeners go to great lengths to eliminate it from lawns, but its colour is welcomed by me, and by various bees. For the last few years we have had an unobtrusive orchid, but there is no sign of it yet. The Primula veris, Cowslip, is there this year but has not flowered. I see in my flower book that it thrives on lime, so maybe there is not enough of that. If we have some sun I’ll try and take a decent photo of the long grass.

Three flowers I was expecting to come out while I was away have done so. Barring accidents they should brighten up the garden for several weeks. One is Digitalis purpurea, Foxglove. These are biennials, so you get a seedling growing one year and a flowering spike the next.

Foxglove

For some reason they always seed where I don’t want them, but they do not seem to mind being moved. The second is Iris pseudacorus, Yellow Iris. I bought two plants of this when the pond was new and bare. Now they threaten to take the place over, and are very tough to cut out. But when they are in magnificent flower I don’t mind at all.

Yellow Iris

 In the shrubs on both sides are Lonicera periclymenum, Honeysuckle. I suppose they were planted by some previous owner long ago. Now they grow as wild, and their scent on a summer evening can be overwhelming.

Honeysuckle

I saw some in the hedgerows of the Lake District, so it is no surprise to find it blossoming here.

I am told that in some parts of the country it has been hot. Not here in Edinburgh; and the chilly wind has not made for good insect watching. Our grandson spotted a big bumblebee outside the window this afternoon, and said it was his favourite insect. I am trying to grow a few not-wild runner beans, and it was mildly irritating to find one eaten away within is plastic-bottle protector, and a large snail was easily removed to the verge. I reckon that when you can say “Look at my beautiful slugs” you can call yourself a wild gardener. (Couch grass will do as well.) Well, slugs seem to be kept in balance by the various predators. But the snails love it here, and have few enemies. Besides, they do look a lot prettier than my lettuces, or runner beans.

There will be no cuckoos or ring ouzels in my garden, I am sure. But I was woken by a dawn chorus at 3.55 am, so there is active bird life. In fact at times it can be a bit too active. I came home to find a mass of plucked pigeon feathers on the lawn. I doubt if this was the work of a cat - though the neighbourhood cats are my most unwelcome visitors. The plucked feathers made me suspect a sparrow hawk. I know there is occasionally one around, and this plucking is typical. Since no  one saw it, I cannot be certain.

I mentioned last time how frogs like to sit in the cool pond-water during hot weather. We did get one June-like day – June 10^th I think it was – and I saw four frogs in the muddy pond edge without really trying. There were probably several more concealed. Camouflage would be a good study if one was of an observant and scientific turn of mind. I am too lazy to do more than smell the honeysuckle and listen for the splash as frogs jump in.

My Wild-life Garden Chapter 3: June 8th

I began to make the wild garden was soon as we moved into the house, about twenty-five years ago. My inspiration was “How to Make a Wildlife Garden” by Chris Baines. Since then I’ve lent the book to I know not whom, and it has not returned. Paying some heed to his advice I wanted one of the areas to be a naturalised pond. In those days I was young enough to dig, and paid for a top-of-the-range butyl liner. In order to give the liner something smooth to lie on I put down old carpet from a skip, and sheets of thick cardboard, from old boxes (staples removed).

There came the great day when I filled it with a hose. It sat there like a water-supply pond on a building site, and the next day it had a frog sitting in it. Well since then it has had a long time to get naturalised. To become more overgrown, a bit smaller, and leaky round the edges. But it is still the most exciting feature of the wild garden, and here it is:

The only pond-flower in bloom at the moment is Ranunculus flammula, the Lesser Spearwort, but there should be plenty more to report as the summer advances. I bought half a dozen varieties when I was setting up the pond and most of them still flourish. Round the edge quite a marsh has developed, and at the moment some very beautiful Rumex acetosa, Common Sorrel. One often sees it in photos looking pretty coarse but this collection is most elegant, and certainly earns its place.

 I may have said already that I do particularly like plants that have just turned up and stay because they like it. This is a photo I took yesterday, and I think everything you see in it is an uninvited wanderer – including the hawthorn.

With so much growth now going on there is a fair amount of cutting back and selection to do this week. Some dominant weeds of human companionship would possibly take the place over if they were not rationed. This afternoon I pulled out maybe a square metre of Urtica dioica, Common Nettle. There are one or two other plants that apt to take over if allowed. This is not a great estate with real pastures and cart tracks and ruined byres and hay-fields and lakes; it is an attempt to create a feel for them in a medium-sized town garden, and have places where I can sit in the sun and pretend to be in the country.

The hope is that a big variety of plants will support a big variety of invertebrates which will, in their turn, help support larger animals. I saw an Antocharis cardomines, Orange tip butterfly yesterday, but the most conspicuous large insect just now is the bumble-bee. I have not yet spotted a nest, though I often have in previous years. There is certainly more than one variety around, and the commonest seem to be Bombus terrestris, the buff-tailed bumblebees. If you want to follow this up with some genuine expertise there are two outstanding new books available by Dave Goulson: “A Buzz in the Meadow” and “A Sting in the Tail”. When it comes to identifying insects I’m pretty hopeless. I decided to use Latin names in this blog not because I am readily familiar with them but because looking them up as I go along might move my knowledge of natural history forward a little.

One sort of bee we definitely have in residence is Osmia, Mason bees. I’m not sure precisely which species. But I was given a lovely little insect house to hang on the wall and last year several of the holes were plugged with carefully made mud. Now, over a year later, most of the old plugs are broken and more plugs have appeared. I hope they show up on the photo I took today.

One hopes that the pond will be a real bonus for wild-life. I hope we shall find it so over the year, as it has been in the past. Just at the moment it houses some very large tadpoles; I don’t know what trigger will cause them to grow legs and emerge as little frogs. Is it temperature or some chemical in the water? On the surface are a score of pond-skaters. There is often a frog or two around, though we have not yet had the sort of very hot day that sees them bathe thankfully in the cool water. My plan is to do some intensive pond-dipping and research, and report my findings to you. But this week I’ve had a debilitating summer cold, so that will have to wait. I guess the leeches and flatworms won’t go away.

One thing I have done is make a pond-dipping net. It is not as good as the lovely one my mother made for me nearly 60 years ago, but it should be functional. Below the muslin net, on coat-hanger wire and a bit of bamboo, is fixed a small jam-jar. Sweep the net through the water and even quite tiny life ends up swimming in the glass jar for observation. That’s the idea, anyhow. Watch this space.