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