Showing posts with label wildlife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wildlife. Show all posts

Saturday, 30 April 2011

Red Haven Peach produces in third year!!!

The title is a little bit over the top. I have two small peaches appearing so far. (I counted 5 flowers a month or so back). this is the first time any fruit has appeared on the tree since purchase (acquired from either aldi or lidl)

The peach is a red haven and is still in a 15litre ex paint bucket. It is kept very well watered and this is a picture of a baby red haven peach



This next shot is of the family frog. Last year we had two in the half barrel pond in the back garden, so far this year we only have one (and no frog spawn seen earlier in the year either) but there is always next year.



The strawberry plants are all in flower. In the rear garden I have some June bearers and a perpetual (or ever bearer) called Albion. This is a shot of Albion. In the front garden there is also the June bearers growing, the ones at the front only get sun till 11am in the morning but these are also in flower and produce nice strawberries. My short guide here on staking strawberry runners


the weather in Wakefield in the words of Bernard Matthews... "beautiful" or is it "booooootyful"

Friday, 17 December 2010

The garden is being raided !!!! even in Winter...

It is always nice to have visitors in the garden and that includes the squirrels that have recently been paying my bird feeders far to much attention.




I have tried to make it more difficult for the little beggars to get the bird feed but this one is sharper than the average bird feeder provider (me that is)


Success. What can I say. You can just see at the top of this shot that there is wire wrapped around the feeder and the hook, that's because these squirrels can unhook bird feeders so they smash on the ground!!! this feeder is a new one


I also left some apples on the tree to. only 5. They have got frozen.


 but some thing is eating them and I dont think it is the squirrels either


Thanks to Michelle my girl for the shots on EOS 450D (I think)

Weather in Wakefield today, very cold, frost on ground this morning (inside of car windscreen frozen) and fairly bright


Sunday, 8 August 2010

A big update.....

Havent posted for a few weeks, so here is an update on most plants in the garden and one or two developments


the poached egg plants are growing very well planted underneath the victoria plum tree. it is full flower.


The Achocha plant "fat baby" is growing quickly too up the fence but I thought it would have made more coverage by now so I am a little disappointed.  It does have flower starting to show



The self sown Calendula has lots of growth but only a few flowers. there have been about 6 or 7 so far but there are more buds showing too. It is hard to tell on the photograph. This pot is entirely self sown from I think one plant last year



As I started blogging today, the cat was keeping a close eye. His favourite position is on the desk. nice and in an unmanly fashion quite cute I suppose



This is a shot of the lettuce "Chrystal", it is a nice tasting variety but it is sown as a pick and come again variety, I kind of is but it has started forming very lose heads but I can still pick individual leaves. We are looking after a tortoise at the moment and he or might be a she absolutely loves this stuff!!!! I am feeding the tortoise, lettuce, chard, chives, strawberries (see later entry) and rocket (all from the garden). The lettuce and strawberries win hands down.


 I have 2 plums on the Dennistons superb plum tree and these are 2 of those fruit. They look the part and I cant wait to try them. There are lots more on the Victoria


A little bit of wildlife has appeared in the garden in the last couple of weeks. 2 adult frogs have populated my half barrel pond. I am very happy about this as they eat slugs. On the whole the wildlife with in the garden has been greet this year with lots of different type of hover flies making making an appearance and plenty of birds on the feeders  



These are 4 cuttings I have taken from the red desert gooseberry bush. I took 4 8inch cuttings. stripped the leaves of the bottom 6inch and stuck in the ground. Apparently this is the right time of year for taking this type of cutting and only time will tell if they are successful. watch this space as they say


 The grape vine in the greenhouse is growing nicely. It is still in a flower bucket and I am training it along a wire or two, you can also see the grapes in this shot, which are still very firm. I do not know the variety if the vine as it was a seed grown by my uncle who passed away in 1973 I think before I was even born. This is a cutting from his original vine. I have had the grapes before and they are very nice when ripe


 The kiwano plants are doing nicely. The shot on the left is one plant in the garden. The shot on the right is two plants in the greenhouse. The green house plants have small kiwano on them as can be seen from the bottom shot. I am still very unsure if they will make any sort of fruit or not.




 This is the kiwi plant "Boskoop " i have moved it to a larger pot and it looks great. I think though for it to do really well and produce fruit it needs to go in the ground. I am still pondering that one.


 These are my raspberry canes "glen ample" I have had lots of fruit from them this year and they tasted delicious. I think I enjoyed them more than the strawberries which is saying some thing. They will be getting trimmed back shortly


 This is spare beekeeping equipment I have been aquiring. There is 6 brood boxes here, a lid and 2 floors, 1 solid and 1 varoa, hopfully it will all get used next year. fingers crossed.



 Planted a couple of buckets a couple of weeks back. They were 2 spuds that had sprouted in the bag, so hopefully I will be having new potatoes for Christmas dinner. when it starts to get cold, I will put them in the greenhouse for extra protection



These are an alpine strawberry "Mignonetto" is the variety. I am very impressed with them as they are still producing lots of small tasty strawberries. I love picking them before I go in the house after coming in from work. I have also found that the tortoise loves strawberries.



The june bearing strawberries that I have are producing runners. Any with any roots on are being removed and potted on in the bottom half of 2litre milk carton pots.


This is one of the 5 I think tomato plants I have outside. This variety is called "green Zebra" and get this, they stay green, well they go a little yellow when ripe but still more green than yellow.




Weather in Wakefield, England today. nice, not to warm but not cold and sunny. a great day really.

Thursday, 3 June 2010

Sorrel I had to post my Garden View

I have been meaning to post a full shot of the back garden for some time. So here it is. this is the view from the back window. It shows a 6ftx8ft greenhouse at the rear. I have a drive down the side and a small garden at the front of the house

I have 2 compost bins at the back and there is a wildlife area just to the right of the greenhouse, I will have to do a better shot in another entry


This is the sorrel that I am growing, It is nearly 6ft tall now and has plenty of flowers on it. Sorrel self seeds very easily. I intend to chop it down to12inch shortly, it will quickly grow again





Sunday, 30 May 2010

The North Wind blows

It has turned in to a very windy afternoon here in Yorkshire. Popped out with the camera this afternoon and found a couple of planters toppled over.Wisteria and Redcurrant



Found a little wild life in the garden to. Some baby spiders hanging around between a couple of dead plants


Also spotted lots of small apples on Malus Jonagold, they do look fantastic