Viable Seed 2024

 I noted from the January pages of the RHS Allotment Diary that it was time to select seed for the coming season.  So we had a stock-check and made some decisions on what we would like to grow.  It reads like the fashion advice given in popular broadsheets, namely:

Out go plants that did not thrive last year.  Cucumbers even when transplanted to the greenhouse failed to do well.  Likewise our neighbour's blue green pumpkin which was disappointing when compared to our own saved winter squash.  (It probably does much better on her allotment).

'Must haves': Winter Squash, Runner Beans, last year's discovery Pea Greenshaft, reliable Kale and Swiss Chard. We will try our own saved seed French Beans again, but we are a little too far north for these most summers.  Salads are in particularly oriental salads, lettuce, rocket and my husband's greenhouse tomatoes Moneymaker and Gardener's Delight.

Sunflowers cheer up our front garden, so once again I will grow from saved seed; wallflowers too.  Over to my husband for Sweet Peas.

Best Newcomer Second Early Potato.  This year we will try Jazzy.

Why are we hanging on to these?  This is a question I sometimes pose to my husband.  Why did a friend pass on Catmint when we do not wish to attract cats?  Hollyhocks - the triumph of hope over experience as far as my husband is concerned.  Verbena Bonariensis - now seeding itself unaided into the cracks in our patio paving.  

Feeding the birds

Last Sunday afternoon we watched Disney's Mary Poppins (1964) on terrestrial tv and perhaps subliminally I got the message to 'feed the birds'.  Fat-balls, even at the bargain price of two packs for one, cost considerably more than tuppence a bag and I was initially disappointed to see that apart from the bluetits there was no return on my outlay.  So it was time for a rethink.

Over to my husband to rejig what had been handed on to us to make it more accessible for small birds.  The double cage structure (possibly squirrel-proofing?) disappeared, the inside was retained and what he labelled a 'budgie perch' made of some old garden stick was attached.

Down to me then to re-read the packet instructions and ask him, nicely, to reposition the holder we inherited from one of our gardening customers closer to the hedge to give our avian visitors a better feeling of security.  A few additional pieces of useful string (thanks to my niece) and our redesigned feeder was ready.

This time we have been rewarded.  We have seen a pair of nuthatches, bluetits, coal tits and long-tailed tits plus hedge sparrows.  It is a delight to watch them alight on the landing stick and then balance on the wire. The blackbirds, who are too heavy for the budgie perch, peck around at the bottom eating up the crumbs that fall and then fly to the raised beds and happily turn them over in search of insects.  

The robins are bobbing along our fence.  The woodpigeons roost high up in the trees in the park, coming down to flap about in the ivy.  Long may they remain there.  Unlike Disney's lyricists I do not love pigeons.

PS It has taken the blackbirds less than a day to work out how to land on the perch.