Summer mix & match

Over the last few weeks, I have been collecting some garden photos for this posting. I thought I would do a bit of a mix and match posting, rounding off the summer so far. I haven't posted in a while, so this posting has quite a few photos in store...

First up then, a photo which I should have posted ages ago. It really is a bit out of date now. A month or two ago, we saw Alliums bursting out in the front garden. It is the first year we have planted them, and certainly won't be the last either.


In the back garden, the birds have been busy feeding most of the time, despite the hot weather. This female Chaffinch was seen amongst the fruit bushes a couple of weeks ago. I was quite surprised with how well the photo came out. Its sometimes not until you view the photo on the computer these things.


The Goldfinches have really got through the Nyjer Seed fast recently. The feeder is now quite near the end of the garden so it seems to be getting more visitors. I'm not sure why, but photos of Goldfinches taken by me often appear quite grainy.


And lastly, a Blackbird, which looks to be a juvenile, although it may just be a female. We have seen a few more Blackbirds around this year.


Hopefully I can get back to frequent posting now. I have a couple more postings planned for this week. Even though this is my first post i a while, I have still been reading all of your blogs too. As it is the summer holidays here, I have lots of time to do more on the blog.

The seeds are in

My wildlife patch is really coming on well now. Every weekend, I am making adjustments and adding things to it. This weekend, the seeds for my wild flowers went in. The weather was perfect so it was a good day for it. I find that a lot of seeds need to be planted in September and October to flower in the spring and summer. If I can find any more seeds that need to be planted at this time of year, I should make the most of the weather and plant them soon.

There were a variety of different kinds of seeds. Some of them are being started off in pots and others have gone straight into the ground. They all take different lengths of time to germinate too, so its all a little bit disorganised. However, I do know that they have a good chance of doing well as my dad helped me to plant them. I have tried to grow vegetables in the past on my own, but the seeds didn't germinate. Lets just say that I put them a bit deep in the soil!

So what have I planted? Get ready because its a long list: Poppys, Bluebells, Corncockles, Ox-eye daisies, Cowslips, Corn Marigolds, Primroses and Snake's head fritilary. I am also going to plant some Allium bulbs soon. They all needed planting now, so that they flower at the right time. I knew that I was going to need help planting all this but I really wasn't expecting sowing instructions that were completely different from plant to plant. The most stubborn of all was the Snake's head fritilary (pictured below). The pots show just how complicated the mixture is.

I was a little shocked when I saw on the seed packet that Snake's head fritilary seeds can take up to a year to germinate. I won't be seeing anything any time soon! Not only this, but they needed course grit and seed compost to grow in. At this point, I was beginning to think what fussy plants these are. I have to say that the picture on the packet partly makes up for it. They should, if they grow healthily really look the part in my patch.

I am guessing that wild flowers are generally higher maintenance than some of the easy-grow bulbs and seeds that you can get. I am planning to buy some more seeds too. I have to say that this is mostly because I want the patch to be my own plants and not the usual weeds that accommodate themselves there. Once there are actually growing flowers there, the weeds should find it more difficult to seed themselves there.

One of the seed packets was a variety selection. These ones were generally easy to grow and don't take too long to germinate. When we moved in, I think we already had the Ox-eye daisies growing naturally at the end of our garden. They aren't there any more, so it will be nice to grow them in my patch. Hopefully the seeds will spread themselves over other parts of the garden too. I am familiar with all the other flowers in the packet, but haven't grown them before. It would be a real treat if they could attract some more bees and butterflies to the garden too.

Now, all I have to do is water them and watch them grow. Unfortunately the weather has taken a turn for the worst here, and we have had steady rain all day. I hope this won't rot the seeds before they have even had a chance to grow! I also hope that I will be able to weed some more of the patch this weekend and start looking at a water feature to go here, and a pond to go elsewhere in my garden. It really is busy busy busy!

All photos taken in my garden on 28/09/08