A few wildlife jobs on the allotment

Last week was a chilly week with snow again, but earlier in the week before the snow came we tackled a few wildlife jobs on the allotment.

The woodland area at the top of the allotment is an area where we can't grow anything because of the big sycamore tree which dominates. The good thing about this is that it provides a home for a lot of wildlife. I've written before about how we cleared the area to make somewhere for the grandchildren to play. They are teenagers now  and are no longer interested, but I still love this area. 

Our seating area is just below the big tree and when we sit there having our tea breaks there is so much activity from the birds flying in and out. There is a privet hedge behind the tree between our plot and the next one up. Also there is elder which provides us with lovely blossom in the spring and berries in the autumn. I pick the blossom  to use when I am making jam. It goes well in gooseberry or strawberry jam. 

When I first created this wildlife area I planted bulbs and shade loving plants. There are crocuses, snowdrops, Tete a Tete daffodils and bluebells. The bluebells do well and I am happy for them to spread. I've tried to get some foxgloves going too. 

The downside of the sycamore tree is all the leaves which fall all over the plot in the autumn and need clearing up especially from the paths. I don't clear them from under the hedge and around the base of the tree and any other nooks and crannies. Then in the spring the plot is covered with the little sycamore spinning Jenny seeds which fall everywhere then germinate and I am constantly trying to hoe them out.

The tete a tete and crocuses are flowering now and I can see the new growth of the  woodland plants I put in there.  Soon it will look more colourful like the picture below which was taken last year when all the euphorbias were out. I like them but they tend to take over, popping up all over the place as they send out runners underground. 

Last week I did one of the  jobs I do on the allotment every year at this time. That is to have a bit of a tidy up in the woodland area. It might seem the wrong thing to do, to tidy up a wildlife area, but it needs to be kept under control so that the weeds don't start to encroach on the vegetable beds and the rest of the allotment. And I pull up those euphorbias from places where they are not wanted. When it has all been tidied up I put bark chippings down on the pathway which goes around the tree. At the moment there are no chippings available to use so I am waiting for some to be dumped on the allotment site. Then it will be a race with our wheelbarrows as we and  all the other plot holders get their share of them.

Our other wildlife area is the pond. We built this a few years ago out of an old tin bath which was left on the allotment by the previous tenant. It was in good condition with no holes. We have had frog spawn each year which is always exciting. I give it a clean out every year in the spring to get rid of leaves and excess mud. 

This year I did the same, it was in a bit of a bad state with overgrown pond plants which I removed. Then I set to scooping out some of the excess mud and added more water as the water level was quite low. I soon realized that the pond was leaking because of a hole in the side where the metal had rusted. So we decided instead of getting rid of the tin bath we would leave it in place and put a pond liner in it. This was Richard's job last weekend. It wasn't as big a job as as I had thought and he completed it in one afternoon.

He needed to empty the bath completely of the stones and mud and to our delight he found frogs in the mud at the bottom and another one under one of the big stones around the edge. 

There must have been about four frogs and we think a toad. We kept them safe in a bucket while he finished off lining the pond and when the stones were back in place I gently popped them back into the pond. It must have been a bit of a shock to them, to be wakened up from their hibernation. We're hoping we haven't upset them too much and when the weather warms up will soon have  spawn back in the pond.

Through the Garden Gate--July 2021

July seems to have whizzed by so quickly and when I checked my garden jobs list for July there seems to have been very little done.  I think though that this month is when you should sit back and enjoy the garden and we gardeners don't always do enough of that, we're always spotting jobs which need doing. Well we have had the weather to be able to sit and enjoy the garden. It has been very warm and sunny for most of the month and at times just too hot to work in. Finding a spot of shade to sit in isn't easy in our garden and I keep wondering about planting another tree in an appropriate place.

I always find that there's a bit of a lull in the flower borders towards the end of July as the earlier flowers have gone over and we wait for the late summer colour to appear. When it wasn't too hot I just pottered around deadheading and cutting back to tidy the borders.

The buddleia is now in flower--a lovely rich, deep purple called 'Royal Red'. In the front garden the hydrangea flowers are opening up, starting blue and gradually turning pink. 

Also in the front a clump of Rudbekias have come into flower.  These were sown last year as annuals and got left in the ground over winter.  They are a lovely bronze colour. 

The hot weather has caused a bit of stress to some of the patio pots. As I have such a lot of pots, the watering has sometimes got neglected. Looking at them I can see that the geraniums cope better with dry weather, so next year I might grow more of them.

One project we managed to get done was the wildlife pond, which is made out of an old galvanised bath. After much discussion and a few disagreements about where to put it, we finally found a good place in the woodland/stumpery bed. We sunk it into the ground and  arranged some stones around the outside. I put some gravel and a few pebbles in the base of the pond and some bigger stones which will provide shelter and easy access in and out of the pond for any wildlife. Then a trip to the garden centre for some pond plants was needed.  As its only a small pond I didn't want to overcrowd it so I have put four plants in, choosing carefully that they were slow growing plants which wouldn't get too big. One plant which I would like but haven't been able to find locally is a dwarf water lily. Two weeks later we were really pleased to see a frog in the water. 

Last September we had our 50th wedding anniversary, we didn't want a big fuss and because of all the COVID restrictions we couldn't do much anyway. Our daughter bought us a pot of pink lilies. I didn't know if they would grow back again this year, but they have. The smell is wonderful as you come through the gate into garden. 

Now at the end of July the weather is cooler and we had some storms a few days ago. The rain and wind has really battered the garden and those patio pots are in a really bad state.  I will have to do some more cutting back and deadheading We really needed all that rain though, especially at the allotment. Perhaps my patio tubs will perk up now.

I am linking this post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.