Natural Plant Selection (Video)

Living in the countryside we are blessed to be surrounded by a wide variety of wildlife. We love to see them running through the woods, drinking from the midden or flying around the field. We maintain a live and let live policy and have tried to employ a number of different concepts in order to protect our young plantings. Unfortunately we have had a few calamities this year, mainly due to our ignorance regarding what plants were a potential target for different animals. This is a short post to give you an pictorial view of the devastation which can occur when plants aren't protected. However, as it would be mad to try to fence off each individual flower/plant we accept that some will survive and others may not.

We only had about 5 very late Winter Aconite plants appear and not one of them managed to produce any flowers this year.

Sadly the Winter Aconites eventually succumbed to the slugs and snails.

    

Quite a few of the tulips never got the chance to show off their beautiful flowers, although we have no idea of the culprit we suspected either rabbits of perhaps the doves.

    

We bought a poorly Geum in the sales last year, divided it into about 5 plants and provided some TLC over the winter. One of the really healthy plants lasted just one night before being completely trashed. Again we suspected rabbits!

This was the first Erythronium (Dog's Tooth) to start producing a flower stalk and I was diligently observing it, hoping to see the first flowers appear.

I was pretty devastated to come across this on one of my afternoon walks, oh it was so close to flowering too.

This was what all the new bluebell plantings should have looked like a couple of weeks ago.

However, after a visit from our local rabbits this is what we've been left with. Thankfully they are still growing and in some areas we can even see a few flower stalks emerging so all is not lost.

Another of our bargain buys were some Anemone which we were able to divide into quite a few healthy plants.

The rabbits or birds or deer seemed to like them too as they were either munched to shreds or dug up.

We bought loads of these little white Grape Hyacinths in a sale and planted them all over the white garden. Having no idea of what animal was involved these were dug up on an almost daily basis. Thankfully now that the flowers are taller they seem to have survived the early attacks.

We couldn't believe that this beautiful Rhododendron was upended just shortly after all the flowers had gone. As it's still alive it's back in the ground and we hope it will quickly become established.

We are always looking for signs of wildlife and often see hoof prints in the mud around the woods.

In an attempt to catch the guilty parties in the act we put up the camera in the wild garden. This shows the damage the deer can do to our poor little sapling.

    

Rather than end on a depressing note of 'look what could've been', I thought I'd show you the beautiful view when we remember to look up to the sky. The trees are starting to flower and the leaves are unfurling, a wonderful sign of spring well under way.

Signs of Spring

We seem to have experienced all kinds of weather over the past few weeks. After Christmas we had our first snowfall of the year and although it wasn't really deep it was ever so cold and the ice seemed to linger for days.

My greenhouse is still full of lots of plants which I hope will overwinter ok before being planted into the garden in the spring. The dahlias are storing nicely and the fuchsias don't look too bad, however, I have lost a few perennials which obviously didn't like the cold damp environment.

Although I'm not a massive fan of winter weather (I hate to drive anywhere when it is icy or snowy) I do love the beauty it seems to bring to everything it touches. The woods with their bare trees looked as if they belonged in a film set; I find this is the best time of year to wander through the woods and Jess and Finn absolutely love it. M wanted me to take the picture on the right which clearly showed the next big dump of snow we were expecting.

After the snow melted away we were blessed with a few days of mild although cloudy and dreary weather; these I don't mind as we can get out and about and get some jobs done. I was thrilled (and possibly a little too over excited) to see these little gems poking their heads above ground and with flowers too!! These are some of the hundreds of snowdrops I lifted, divided and transplanted over 3 days last year. Now I am really hopeful that we will have snowdrops in more areas throughout the woods and I can't wait.

M and I were on a mission last year to plant daffodils and tulips around the woods so we had some more colour before the weeds grew too tall. Unfortunately we are rubbish at remembering where we planted them (there were a few hundred) and so for the last couple of weeks we have been walking around slowly, examining the ground for signs of life...anywhere. Well again we were astounded and excited to find these daffodils reaching for the skies. These are in a sheltered area at the edge of the trees which probably explains why they have appeared first, but there should be plenty more in the next few weeks and months.

I managed to move our old PatioGro into the greenhouse this week (after the snow had gone) and covered it with fleece to try to protect the more delicate plants. I know I should have done this weeks (or months) ago but I completely forgot until I noticed some casualties. So now the delicate plants are under the fleece and I have been through all the plants and removed any dodgy looking foliage so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

M thinks it looks like a ghost in the greenhouse, I just think the greenhouse looks very empty and I can't wait to start filling it in the spring. Before that of course I need to empty everything out and give it a good clean. Not my favourite job but it is pretty dirty after a year and hopefully a clean should keep any diseases at bay.

Sorry to keep talking about the weather - very British I suppose! But, our weather has changed again and gone are the mild days to be replaced with frosty mornings and bright sunny afternoons. One thing I must do is learn to take better photos; however, I couldn't resist trying to capture this wonderful sunrise today.

Our morning walks are a wonderful, relaxing occasion when we take the time to look at nature, examining trees, plants, flowers and of course wildlife. The frost on the ground makes it a refreshing and stimulating vista and one we are definitely not tiring of.

At the end of last year we managed to get our garlic planted in one of the yard baths. Last year's crop were sown in the spring and like onions, we planted them with the tips poking out of the soil. This year we read the instructions fully and planted them much deeper so we're hoping for a much better harvest. The frosts and cold of winter have done their job and the green shoots have now started to appear, 26 in all. This has reminded me that I really must start planning our fruit and veg planting, maybe I'll do that on the next wet day.

M and I have signed up to the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch which takes place next weekend.  It only takes one hour of your time, between Sat and Mon, to count some birds so if you are in the UK use the link above to join in.

I just had to share this very short video of a deer near the fence line of our land. We often see them in the morning and had hoped to get a picture of them leaping the fence. It's a shame the morning fog had descended and perhaps we need to adjust the camera angle but it is ever so cute.  It made us smile and I hope you enjoy it too.