Sparrows

I used to be concerned when I saw birds on our blackcurrant bushes.  My first suspicion is that they are looking for a free meal.  But now I am less worried.  One of our blackcurrants has an aphid infestation and the sparrows are feeding, not on immature green fruit but on immature greenfly.

In the warm south aphids are consumed by ladybirds.  I used to gather up these little spotted helpers carefully, deposit them on our runner beans and let them feed and reproduce.  Up north, I cannot recollect seeing a single ladybird this season.  Here the sparrows are doing the job for us, picking off the greenfly with deft beak movements, hopping lightly from branch to branch.  They cause no damage, they only stay for a moment, close to our french windows, and then fly away.


   

Coming up roses ...

When we lived in the south east, we promised ourselves we would grow roses for cut flowers.  We achieved this after a fashion with the wild rose that formed the wildlife arch, and the red rambling rose we disentangled when the council cut down the vegetation to replace our wire mesh allotment boundary fence.  But despite our good intentions we never grafted anything on to the stock we had.  Each year the wild rose flowered briefly and then its petals fell and gave place to rosehips for the birds.  The rambler needed sustained attention that we were not able to give.

We moved north and found that the rosy picture of our front garden was indeed true.  To the right of the porch there was a rose on a strong trellis.  No need to constuct one of those then from canes and odd bits of wire, no call for a budding knife and sticky tape.  My husband pronounced the rose healthy and pruned hard at the appropriate time.

Now our yellow rose is thriving.  New shoots are coming up from its base.  It appears to have no black spot or canker and is minimally afflected with greenfly, possibly because of the cool conditions here.  Sheltered by the house it is now blooming. 

We picked just a few roses for the house, ones that might have been damaged by the persistent wind and discovered their scent.  They are in a crystal vase that once belonged to my parents.  The fragrance fills our back room, our den. 

So many poets have responded to roses.  If you want to read one of the masters, find Shakespeare's Sonnet 23.  Meanwhile I shall watch our roses bud, bloom and fade all the summer long.

A plea for pollinators

I return, without apologies, to our need for bees.  Up here it has been cool and breezy for several weeks and the cherry blossoms at the entry to our avenue have shed pink snowy petals into the gutters.  Our apples, which in the south east would have been three weeks earlier than this are at last apple blossom white.  Our rhododendron by the front gate looks spectacular.  The bees, and other pollinators are favouring it. 

Haven't you noticed, I ask these little six legged friends, that it's time to move to the back garden and start on our trees?  I look back to our allotment and remember how on warm spring days our damson tree was covered in pollinators of all kinds.  The weather was so still that you could hear the low murmur of bees about their business.  Though tossed about by arbitrary gusts, I would at least have hoped that bumblebees, with their superior aerodynamic skills would have found their way to our lawn. 

So far I have seen a handful of bees on our trees.  Admittedly one busy bee can do the work of two or three.  Come on invertebrates, there is sufficient blossom here for bees, bumble bees, hoverflies or even wasps.  And then could you start on the broad beans, please?

Garden Happiness - Tips from Titchmarsh

I'm glad to have confirmation that we are doing the right things, especially when Gardeners' World pundit Alan Titchmarsh draws up the list.

Number one in his article on garden happiness (March 2014) is plant a tree for interest and wildlife. There are no opened buds yet on our apples but plenty of perching birds.  The insectivore bluetits are fine: however I shall be chasing away the finches with their predeliction for fruit buds.

Second on the list is sow some seeds.  Been there, done that.  And the petunias in the potting shed are germinating as are the Morning Glory seeds.  Very happy.

Third is get moving.  I leave the heavy stuff to my husband nowadays.  The photo shows Alan raking the mossy thatch from his extensive lawn.  My husband has been over our pocket-handkerchief sized lawn at least three times. 

Fourth is pass on your knowledge.   This evokes memories of happy times with M.  Will we repeat these educational experiences with others?  I wait and see.

Fifth is grow something great to eat.  Germination is slow up here.  In the warmth of the greenhouse our 'charity shop' french beans are coming up, but it is still far too cold to plant them out.

Last on the list is visit a garden.  It is a long drive to the formal gardens of Cheshire, so in the meantime civic parks and country parks must suffice.

Thank you, Alan, and good gardening to you too.