An evening visit

Yesterday evening Mum spotted a hedgehog at the end of our drive, just ambling along. I went outside to say hello as it headed down the pavement and into the road. To keep it safe I accompanied the hedgehog on its way. We were in the middle of the road when a car appeared around [...]

I didn’t plant these either

First of all we get potatoes coming to the party and now we get a variety of pests coming to join the fun uninvited. The blisters on the beetroot leaves are made by mangold fly maggots, which could eventually kill the whole plant if left to their own devices. So I removed the blistered leaves [...]

In an English textbook garden

I think that a number of my vegetables have got hold of my gardening book at some point. They’ve read it and paid particular attention to the “Troubles” section. Mmm, they thought to themselves, in what clichéd way could we be slightly annoying now? We’re not growing all that fast and that’s already ticking off [...]

The cute hides, but I find it

Yesterday evening I caught sight of a couple of balls of fluff hiding in the viburnum bush in the garden. Two baby sparrows had been stored there while their parents went off to a rave. A rave nearby, as I could hear the occasional protective cheep. The two babies were quite content to sit there [...]

The good, the bad and the ugly

The Good: a cluster of ladybird larvae, getting ready to chew on the following …

The Bad: greenfly

The Ugly: blackfly
Fortunately that last photo doesn’t show any ants doing all the pervy stroking they are wont to do in order to milk these buggers. Gruesome. All this helpful and unhelpful wildlife is currently to be found on [...]

Twisty beans

Positive thigmatropism, said my partner in grime. I looked it up and she’s right. Twisty runner beans are starting to grab onto the strings I put up for them and are showing signs of new growth. The sun is shining after a rainy day yesterday and so the plants should feel free to grow a [...]

Breaking the internet meme by meme

So Thursday did this meme and tagged me for it. And I read the rules and was like, well, they’re dumb, ’cause everyone has to change a question AND add a question and if this meme makes it another week around the net, it’s going to be 300 questions long. So I checked the blog [...]