Tag Archives: tadpoles

Life on the wild side

Posted on by
1

It’s going to be hot this forthcoming week, we’re looking at nearly 30°C in SE23 and we think the garden is going to enjoy it. So get the watering, weekly feed and any fiddling with a hoe out of the way early and then park yourself in the shade and enjoy the weather.

The courgette/zucchinni plant we stuck in a pot as we couldn’t find any space (above) is doing well, giving us some nice flowers. The area around it with the raised beds of potatoes (below) are also on their way but impatient as we are, we keep looking around the plants and still only getting golf ball sized spuds.

The one raised bed of tomatoes are now setting fruit and we’re checking that there’s no side shoots forming and tying the main stalk to the support canes when we remember.

And on the wildlife tip, we’ve put another “pothole pond” down the wild bit (below) after being influenced by Bill Shimmers’ great pond here. We stuck some wood leading into the water after Bill mentioned in his reply of our effort on Twitter. “Any water body adds extra wildlife habitat to a garden. One thing I always include, any steep sided ponds need a sloping shelf or ramp to allow critters to get out as well as in. Stones or branches will do.” Our one is not exactly steep but we’re including the sticks to add further disguise to the former B&Q product container.

And in our main pic this week are the inhabitants of our pond, well part of the mob that are in there at the moment. And the big question is where do they disappear to? Enjoy this great weather when pondering on that thought.

Freedom blues

Posted on by
Reply

Since the relining earlier this year things have gone a bit haywire (in the best sense of the word) down the pond. The water is a hell of a lot clearer, the fish seem happier and we’ve seen far more wildlife in and around there.

We usually get frogspawn, then tadpoles and then usually nothing after. This has had us scratching our heads thinking “Where have they gone then?” expecting to see lots of “something” but no, nothing, just an pond full of fish and plants, nothing frog-related at all.

It’s been different of late as there’s a load of mini frogs sunbathing, swimming and some even making the trip out of the pond out to the surrounding jungle (it’s going to look like a jungle to something so small!) We’ve been watering around the pond recently as we usually just leave it to go dry so we wonder if that’s helping matters too. Nice to see a frog sitting down comtemplating what to do next (above) on this the so called “Freedom Day”.

Sow solid crew

Posted on by
1

The risk of frost is well and truly over so you can quite happily sow outdoors. Sowing seed outside is simple and perhaps a little bit riskier than doing it indoors what with the chance of wildlife getting to the seed before it germinates and the seed may rot if there’s a lot of rain (that happened to my runner beans sown earlier this year) but I wouldn’t worry too much about that, give it a go!

Firstly make sure the ground has been well prepared beforehand (organic material dug in earlier in the season but not in the case of carrots or they will “fork”), any large stones taken out and the soil broken up to a fine tilth (rake it and then rake again). Depending on how dry the ground is I also wet the soil lightly an hour or so before I sow. I then get a stick and make a slight indent where the seeds are going to go and then pop the stick in at the end to mark the row. Sow as thinly as possible to avoid any waste of seed (remember any left over can be used next season.) Cover over as directed on the seed packet (the rule is about twice the size of the seed) then give it a light water.

Then it’s fingers crossed and wait for the seedlings to appear watching out for any obvious weeds coming up that might choke them. I have also been putting a couple of long twigs over the area to deter any cat that wants to ruin my OCD straight lines. Always use a plant label to mark the row to avoid confusion like I’m having at the moment with my courgettes and cucumbers.

Over the last week I sowed more sweet peas and garden peas which I got all off ebay. They arrived in some unconventional packaging to say the least, in the case of the sweet peas in a folded over square of kitchen towel and the peas in a plastic sarnie bag. The peas looked like the ones me mum used to boil for 30 mins after soaking them the night before in a saucepan in a net with a white tablet.

Also you might have heard of the term successional sowing, all that means is to stagger your sowing as to avoid the plants harvesting all at once which would cause a glut. Peas, beans, lettuce and cut again salad, carrots and beetroot all do well sown like this and you’ll benefit from a longer period of cropping. Sow little and often (once a fortnight in season).

On a different note the garden is going bonkers at the moment what with this mad weather (sun then rain, then rain and sun.) The early spuds are flowering away like there’s no tomorrow, the pond is buzzing with tadpoles, waterboatmen and dragonflies and there’s fruits forming on the tomato plant in the hanging basket. I’ve now started to feed the tomatoes by using some of the worm juice (not a technical term) seeping out from under the “I didn’t buy it” wormery diluted in a bucket of water. It’s all going off!