I really don't know where the time goes at the moment! It [personally] has been another rather stressful month, with uni deadlines, sorting out community group AGMs and activities and trying to find the odd spare hour when its not blowing a hoolie or tipping it down to get out in the garden.
On the plus side, the fact that is has been a ridiculously wet and windy spring has meant there's not really much to do in the garden as per say - given as the most recent guidance is to not disturb anything in your garden until the temperature reaches an average 10 degrees... But there is a sort of desire to start clearing away last year's dead stuff, if only so you can actually see the bulbs you planted coming up. I made the mistake of planting crocuses the first couple of years, which looked amazing in the short lawn we had at the time. Now however, they are just a wee bit too small to properly see them over the pile of last year's seed heads.
As a compromise, I've been doing some deadheading and clearing, but storing the cut stems down the side of hydrangea [tucked in by the wall to stop them blowing away]. I started with the hydrangea heads [which I try and leave attached until the last frost], literally on the second head I discovered several tiny ladybirds. I ended up just leaving the heads with ladybirds attached, taking the others off [after checking them all...], it's not easy to stack the dried heads, they have a tendency to roll off in the wind like tiny tumbleweed.
What was really impressive when I was removing all the old stalks from the main bed, was the sheer number of little bugs and beasties in the top soil area. It was also interesting that the general temperature of the ground beneath the areas where all the old stalks and stems were, were considerably warmer than on bare, uncovered soil.
I did take the opportunity to dig out a further section of the front lawn and infilled with some gorgeous pink yarrow from the back garden and filled spare spaces with more misc wildflower seed and little seed balls. The shape of the 'bed' is now a rather pleasing triangular shape, and most importantly prevents posties from walking straight across our front to next door. Unfortunately it does not yet deter the window cleaner.
Here's a wee photo slider of the evolution of our front lawn - from first spring [2021] to today.
Check out this fascinating discovery! It's a dandelion with a growth deformity called 'fasciation'. This happens as a result of either an infection, hormone imbalance, injury to the plant or as a random mutation and causes multiple flowers to form where one would normally appear or a thickening of the stem.
Came downstairs late one afternoon [after working upstairs all day] to find that something had kindly started removing the moss from the back lawn. Turns out this was the ever ingenious magpies. The squirrels like to bury their peanuts in the moss as [I assume] its easier to push into than the soil. The magpies clocked on to this pretty quickly, but I can't work out whether they just get enjoyment from pulling the moss out [it is quite satisfying] or whether their looking for wee beasties under the moss. Now I'm hoping some other bird comes along and collects the moss for use as a nice cosy nest liner.
Was out on Easter sunday chatting to my lovely neighbour, and saw this cat chase a squirrel [?] first up the wall of the garage [across the street], then onto the garage roof and finally onto the house roof! It strutted around for a bit, dancing in and out of the solar panels before settling down for a bit of a sunbathing session! There were magpies and jackdaws harrassing it for a bit. Think it got off somehow...
In other news, the camelia bush has finally flowered [first time in two years], coming out later than all the other bushes in the area and choosing to do so on possibly one of the coldest and wettest days in March. The cherry at the front meanwhile, burst into both flowers and leaves overnight on Saturday when the temperature shot up to 16 degrees.
And finally, just in case you've been wondering...this is what squirrel scat looks like, with walnut for scale. Turns out the gang have been using my outdoor ladder shelves not only as a climbing frame but as lavatory.
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