Not looking good!

After having left the soil upturned for the robins and other birds to have a peck at for a few days, I covered the dug beds with plastic bin bags in the hopes of insualting the soil and stopping as many weeds as possible.

Whilst I was down there, I also caught up with how the new broad beans were getting on after I'd chopped all their mushy bits off. The answer is, not very well. I'll give them another week or so before buying more! Maybe this time I'll also sew a fleecy tent for the cane frame they're growing up!

Garden Rescue

For the first time since the snow, I ventured up to the cabbage patch to see what the state of play really was; let’s just say it wasn’t good. The cabbages had been thoroughly enjoyed by the slugs and snails, the celery was no longer strong and tall and the broad beans for an early spring crop were black and mushy: yuck.

So, first up, although I dillied and dallied not wanting to start, was to clear all the dead rubbish from the beds. I began by chopping back the raspberry canes, something I should have done earlier, but hadn’t had the chance. I then went on to clearing and digging over the carrot and parsnip bed, removing weeds and old spinach plants from the other, and cutting back the black, sludgy beans, leaving the newer shoots at the bottom in hope. Fingers crossed.

I also removed all the old tomatoes, peppers and chillies from outside and the greenhouse, and dug over any beds. Robins will have the chance to enjoy the freshly turned earth before I cover them with black bags to help keep the weeds a bay and warm the soil as spring approaches.

Then cleared the greenhouse – phew!

   

Redwings in for snow!

Lying in bed the other morning, I was convinced I could see a bird never before viewed in the garden. Getting up and wandering to the window, there were several of them, all in the trees and scrabbling around under the bushes where the snow had melted and in the leaf mush! Looking more closely, they were vey different from anything I’d seen before with  clear strip across their eyes and a reddish tinge under each wing. After spending the day going back and forth, me not the birds, watching to see how they were all getting on, chatting to each other, I decided to actually find out what they were and typed all my info, carefully gathered, into the RSPB’s birds identifier. And, hey presto, it came up with a selection, one of which was definitely mine: The Redwing. Apparently, they are often found in gardens if snow appears as they can’t get to the worms  in the fields, so enjoy searching under all our out-of-control shrubs. And they certainly did that in my garden, having a proper dinner party with each and every one of their friends! Bless!

BBC Snow Watch – Tracks in the Snow

I made it! One of my photos of my tracks in the snow was chosen for the BBC’s ‘quiz’ on tracks! How exciting! And it was purely by accident that I found it; having watched Snow Watch and heard you could download a ‘guide sheet’ to help you identify any you may have come across in your garden, or on your ‘wrapped up warm’ walks in the snow, I went on to have a look to see what else might be in the garden…and there it was! The first picture!

Have a look at the BBC’s Tracks in the Snow page on the Autumn Watch (Snow Watch) website, to see them all!

Why not also look at my post with the original picture on it too?!

Still very excited, even after twenty minutes…enjoy the snow!

Tracks in the Snow

Over the last few weeks, as I’m sure most of you have noticed, we’ve had rather a lot of snow. Unfortunately, this means that the broad beans I planted earlier, and that were just flowering, are now bent and blackened with snow-burn. The cabbages have fared a little better, still looking strong, and the snow has helped lessen the slug and snail activity too.

The most exciting thing about the snow, apart from the cat hibernating under the duvet for the last month or so, and climbing up humans in the garden rather than deigning to get his feet cold and wet, has been the animal tracks!

Very few are from the cat, there are several birds prints and definitely one fox. We often see the fox at night, but haven’t recently and its good to see he’s still around. The birds ones are interesting too as there are some where the bird has obviously walked, maybe a wood pigeon or collared dove, and others that are perching birds where he has jumped across the garden!

Have a look and see what you think!

fox