Garden Update

 

I don't seem to have done a blog post on the garden at home for ages!

Climbing Hydrangea has put on a wonderful display this year. The flowers are covered in bumble bees, solitary bees, hoverflies and flies.  Strangely we hadn't seen any butterflies on them until a Painted Lady appeared! You can see how much pollen the flowers produce from the top of the greenhouse!

I used to grow sweet peas every year but for some reason the last few years I haven't got round to it so this year I made a determined effort!

Years ago (over 45 years now!) when we first got married and bought the house B created a large vegetable plot and we also had a fruit cage at the top of the garden.  We grew vegetables for years but once we had the children we found it was hard to find the time - not so much the growing but the freezing and making jams and chutneys. So B in the end turned the area into a wild flower meadow and mini woodland. I seem to remember I gave up making wine at the same time - it was just far too time consuming when you have a baby and a toddler to look after! In addition, I never managed to make wines as good as my father's were! 

When we were last on the Isle of Wight (2018 I think) D was given a free tomato plant and this awakened an interest in growing vegetables especially when we had the first covid lockdown. So these days he grows a lot on the patio in pots and in the lean to greenhouse.

The pots in the centre contain cut and come again lettuce which is a brilliant thing to grow and in front we have radishes.

The first strawberries are forming.

Shallots, pumpkin/courgette and beetroot. 

Garlic which was planted last autumn and which is nearly read to harvest, another pumpkin and courgette and two pollinator plants one of which is Borage.

In the green house ready to be potted on are a chilli pepper, sweet pepper, sweetcorn, aubergine and tomatoes plus sunflowers.

Looking forward to what flowers come up in this!

Lemon Balm - never grown it before!

An overgrown pond! Somewhere in there are Cuckoo Flowers, plus yellow irises and loads of Water Mint which the bees love.

Speckled Wood on Choisea.

Common Carder on Lavender

Sunflowers

Mint in its own pot!

Herb Pot - parsley actually survived the winter. The new addition is Golden Sage.

We were planning on going to Herefordshire this week. I really wanted to see the flowers in St Leonard's as they had a Flower Festival last weekend.  But yet again I have gone down with cellulitis - I have been given some antibiotics but have been told to try not to take them unless it gets worse! I should try ibuprofen first to see if that helps bring down the inflammation.  My last blood test revealed I am slightly anaemic which I think can cause recurring bouts of cellulitis. I have another blood test next Monday. I am glad now we made the effort to go out more in the last few weeks while I could walk! 

Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera except for the Painted Lady butterfly photo taken by D with the Canon SX50HS bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).

Spring Flowers at Brueton Park LNR

 

Recently D and I visited Brueton Park LNR in Solihull. It is a walk we often do at this time of the year when Wild Garlic is flowering.  The public footpath follows the River Blythe which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

I first discovered this walk some years ago when I used to do a wild flower survey for Plantlife.  The kilometre square I was allocated included Brueton Park and when I looked at the os map there was a public footpath which went straight across the square.

Cow Parsley was flowering everywhere you looked.

There were Buttercups everywhere too.

Brueton Park can get very busy at times but very few people seem to follow this public footpath. We only saw three other people in the two hours we were there.

Sadly most of the Wild Garlic had gone past its best.  It must have flowered particularly early this year perhaps because of the very warm dry weather we have been having.

Horse Chestnut candles were flowering and I noticed the stamens on some flowers were a different colour to others so I did some research and it is like Hawthorn and Forget me nots in that once pollinated the stamens change colour or it can be a sign of ageing in the case of Horse Chestnut.

I found Purple Toothwort in its usual place on a tree trunk which lies across the path.  It is a parasitic plant that has naturalised in Britain.

Germander Speedwell

Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum) has a number of country/local names e.g. Ramsons, Buckrams, Broad-leaved Garlic, Bear Leek, Bear's Garlic, Gipsy's Onion and Stinking Jenny.

Speckled Wood

After going through woodland the path crosses a field very close to the M42 and then into another wood.

This is the wood where we normally find Bluebells but again they had almost finished flowering.

Red Campion and Yellow Archangel (the latter an indicator of ancient woodland).

We didn't walk as far as normal because it was quite hot and we both needed a drink so we retraced our steps.

Photos that D took.

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D made the point that we only ever visit in May and it might be a good idea to return in the autumn to look for fungi and see the autumn colours.

Edith Holden of "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" fame often used to follow the River Blythe at Widney which is just a bit further on than the second wood we entered.  I like to think of her wandering these woods along the river and wonder what she would make of the huge electricity pylons and the M42!  

Last week we had a surprise visit from a Painted Lady butterfly nectaring on Climbing Hydrangea flowers in the garden. I think there has been an influx of this species in recent weeks.  So far this year pollinator species seen far exceed this time last year.

*D

Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 and those marked *D were taken by my son with the Canon SX50HS bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).