Tuesday 6 November 2012

A Wildlife Garden

I always try to garden with wildlife in mind. Next year, I'm hoping to attract even more bees, butterflies and birds to my garden with the seeds which I picked up in the Wyevale sale. Suttons do a Wildlife Attracting Collection, in fact, they do two, so I picked up one of each. In one pack there's Lavender - Provence Blue, Honesty - Mix, Sweet Rocket - Mix, Aster - Single Mix and Sunflower - Tall Yellow. In the other pack there's Marigold - Corn, Daisy - Ox-eye, Pansy - Wild, Scabious - Field and Poppy - Field. At only 50p per pack, I think I got a good deal and I hope to have lots of colour in the garden as well as lots of wildlife.

The garden has just about been put to bed for winter now. The greenhouse has been cleared out and all the tender plants have been moved in there. Containers have been emptied of their summer blooms, and the compost from them has been taken to the allotment to improve the soil in the beds down there. The rabbit hutches usually get moved down from the grass on to the patio for winter, but I'd decided to leave them where they are for this year. I think that may have been a bad idea as the grass is already getting muddy, so I may have a change of heart on this.

The weather has changed wintery over the last couple of days. We had our first proper frost yesterday morning, the car even had to be de-iced, but it was a lovely clear day. Another frost has followed this morning so I think it's time to get the gloves and scarf out.

22 comments:

  1. I love to grow wild flowers Jo...it is so nice to see al the different insect they attract. Will you be sowing these in the garden, allotment or both?? I like to try to attract the insects to the allotment to help with pollination!

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    1. I did intend growing them in the garden, but I may sow some at the allotment too. I don't think you can have too much help in getting insects to pollinate the plants.

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  2. I had hardly any insects in my garden during 2012 - certainly not enough. Let's hope enough of them survived the dreadful weather, such that there will be a viable population for 2013.
    On the opposite tack - do you know any wildlife deterrent plants (specifically for use with foxes!)?

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    1. It was the same here this year, hardly any insects about, but plenty of slugs unfortunately. I'm afraid I don't know anything which will deter foxes, they can be real pests in gardens.

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  3. I like the sound of those wildlife seeds. I'm sure your garden will be buzzing next year. We had the first frost this morning. Spent the morning planting tulips and now have bad back :(

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    1. Hope your back is better soon. I haven't even bought any bulbs yet, never mind plant them. Every year I set off with good intentions, and some years I even buy some bulbs, but it's rare that I get round to planting them.

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  4. I want to come help you garden! I've never had a proper garden, not ever, not once in my life... I've had plants but that was it, being in a military family and being a military wife meant moving all the time, so I do envy you and I can't wait to see your garden!

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    1. It was the garden which sold us this house. It's not big by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a little bigger than a lot of the gardens around here.

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  5. You will not only have colour and some scent but also more wildlife in your garden too next year. You certainly snaffled up some bargains with your seed purchases. We had our first real frost of the year yesterday morning here too Jo followed by a most beautiful day. Back to wet though today.

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    1. Five different seeds for 50p isn't bad, is it? These seed collections are great value when they're on sale. Their recommended retail price is £4.55 each. Same here today, wet, windy and wild.

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  6. Look forward to seeing the flower patch. Did you see the bit on Look North where the bees were foraging from the sugary waste products from sweet factories? They were producing mint flavoured honey from one site and they were feeding from waster from M&M production and producing strangely coloured honey!

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    1. I didn't see Look North, though I wish I had now. I wonder if they're foraging from such places because there aren't many flowers about. It seems that the bee's plight gets worse and worse.

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    2. Lack of flowers due to the wet weather was the reason given. There's quite a bit on the Internet about M&M coloured honey being produced by bees in France

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    3. This summer has a lot to answer for.

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  7. It's certainly started to become a 'bit nippy'. Soon be winter. Batten down the hatches!
    Love from Mum
    xx

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    1. I'm battening down the hatches today, it's windy and wild here.

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  8. Lovely to see your seed packets when the weather has turned nippy! Good luck with your wildflowers :)

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    1. It gives me a little fix looking at all those lovely seeds. Not much I can be doing at the moment, but no harm in dreaming.

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  9. I see you are planning ahead. The wild flower seeds are a great price and will look great too.

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    1. They should certainly give me some colour in the garden, as well as attracting the wildlife.

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  10. Good for you, and as you know I do to. That's a good mix of flowers which should do well.
    Frosty here one morning earlier in the week with plenty of ice of the allotments.
    Flighty xx

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    1. I thought it was a nice selection of flowers when I looked what was included, I'm hoping they'll attract lots of wildlife, and I may even grow some at the allotment too. It's warmed up a bit here to what it was like at the start of the week, thank goodness.

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