August in the Garden
The weather has been so weird lately. Yesterday it was so windy that the trees and bushes in the garden were whirling around just as they do during a late autumn storm. Yet, kneeling down whilst weeding, it seemed as if I was below the gusts of wind and I could hardly feel them and it was so warm too.
We saw quite a few butterflies whilst out in the garden but they were too skittish to take any decent photos. The birds are still around but not feeding at the feeders as much as usual. There are many sparrows, a couple of robins, blackbirds and of course the ubiquitous wood pigeons. Mr Fox visits us every night and we've spotted him early morning too. One evening he brought three friends with him. Mr Badger has been digging up our potatoes. We didn't know what had been digging in the raised beds but our next door neighbours saw a badger on their lawn late one evening so we think that he or she the culprit. The squirrels are still doing all they can to pinch the sunflower hearts in the bird feeders, shinning up and down the pole and hanging upside down shovelling the hearts into their pouches.
I was particularly
pleased to see the little bug house we fastened to the fence has been in
use. We seem to have several leaf cutter bees in residence.
The bees also love this plant which grows near the pond. It has been there since we moved here and I've no idea what it is.
The grass has been cut which makes the garden look a little bit tidier as some of the bed and borders look a little overgrown at this time of year.
Most of the flowers are shades of pink and lilac now with the occasional shot of colour from the dahlia flowers, crocosmia and what is left of the nasturtiums in a hanging basket.
I bought some local Staffordshire grown plums from the supermarket and made a crumble which I forgot to photograph but it was delicious.
The plums on our tree will take a lot longer to achieve crumble status.
The hazel tree next to the plum tree has some growth too.
We always hope to get to those nuts before the squirrels but it is a battle we seem to lose every year.
What a lovely lots of visitors to your garden. We don't have either foxes or badgers in this corner of the world. Just mice that like to nibble my veggies! Your garden is still looking lovely :) B X
ReplyDeleteThere isn't much colour in the garden and the beds are unruly but the grass looks better for its cut. We do get lots of wild visitors to our garden (plus neighbourhood cats) and that next door as we back onto a wild area that belongs to the nearby school and which has been fenced off I guess for health and safety reasons as kids were climbing the trees and they would have been liable for any accidents:)
DeleteThat looks a lovely garden.Backing onto countryside?
ReplyDeleteBacking onto an area of grass and trees belonging to the school. They have fenced it off over the last couple of years so the trees are growing a bit wild but I expect that is where all the wildlife that visits us comes from. The next nearest green area is a country park about a mile away I know foxes may move that distance but I'm not sure how far badgers will roam:)
DeleteHi Rosie! I did a google search on images and your plant looks like a succulent orpin plant! Your grass looks in good condition. Mine is looking rather sun scorched but will soon green up again. x
ReplyDeleteThank you Simone, that's the one. A type of Sedum, that doesn't surprise me as sedums grow well in our heavy clay soil:)
DeleteThose pesky squirrels. We've given ours a surprise by replacing the batteries in the twirler. I still had to chase one up the path this morning though..
ReplyDeleteHeHe, love your twirler. I'm sure the squirrels taunt us - we did grease the pole once with olive oil and the first squirrel slid down it with such an astounded look on its face, but they soon learnt to jump higher and avoid the pole:)
DeleteWe have a Fox who goes through our garden but no gadgets -not sure whether I'm sorry or glad about that:) crocodiles and Kathryn are the main spots of colour in my garden at the moment plus phlox and hypericum henryii in the front. As I say every year at this time 'I must get some more colour in the gsrden' :)
ReplyDeleteGardens can go a bit colourless at this time of year can't they? Most of the flowers have gone from our hypericum and even the hardy geraniums are struggling to keep flowering:)
DeletePredictive text has obviously been at work here!! Gadgets I suspect are badgers, crocodiles (they certainly would be colourful!)are crocosmia and I rather think that Kathryn will be lythrums:)
DeleteFoxes and badgers! Your garden is a popular place. It's always fun to see what's happening in someone else's garden. How lovely your flower mosaic is.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could actually see the badger like my neighbours did. I've seen the foxes many times. The only badgers I've seen have been squished on the road or stuffed in a museum - never seen a live one:)
DeleteYour garden looks gorgeous Rosie, so much activity with all the wildlife too. :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you, we are lucky with all the visitors and in such an urban area too, although with many green areas not far away:)
DeleteI like the insect house what a great idea. Your garden looks so good. The weeds are a mile high in ours. Mac has been beating them back since the weather has cooled a bit, but it's still too hot for me.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure whether the insect house would be used but it had only been there about a week when I saw bees entering it carying bits of leaf:)
DeleteYour garden looks a picture - much neater than ours!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mike. Not so neat if you look closely at the borders and hedges but it is amazing how a grass cut makes it look tidier:)
DeleteYour garden is looking so lovely and great news that the leaf cutter bees have been active in your bug hotel :) Wonderful to read of your garden visitors - we used to get foxes regularly years ago but rarely see one these days (or hedgehogs) and I don't think there are badgers locally. Plums look delicious - I must look out for some English ones. I did buy some English cherries (at huge expense) last week and we made a Cherry Pie.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I was so pleased to see the bees using the bug hotel. We are lucky to have so many visitors but I expect it is because us and next door on one side still have gardens with hedges, grass and plenty of hidden areas. A lot of the gardens around here have now been slabbed over and fenced although we did see the fox on next door's shed roof the other day and we've seen them climb over the fences. I did notice how expensive the British cherries were but I bet they tasted wonderful:)
DeleteSimilar situation here re: Gardens being slabbed/decked or just being one monotonous lawn plus huge house extensions and house buildings :( So sad as when we moved in we were surrounded by large mature gardens. OH was not happy that I had spent £3 on the cherries and there were barely enough for just one very small pie! Hoping to go to a farm shop later today so they may have some cheaper local fruits. Am also hoping soon to find some damsons for sale as we bought a jar of damson jam from Morville and it is superb - damson has always been my favourite jam and I remember my mother making some every year from Herefordshire damsons.
DeleteI love Damson Jam too it is one of my favourites along with Greengage and Gooseberry. I have made them all in the past, a few years ago we bought both Greengages and Damsons from a covered market in Pershore on the way home from a holiday so as soon as I got back it was washing and jam making! I remember my damson jam tasted wonderful but it set so well you could almost slice it. I hope you find some cheaper cherries at the farm shop, we got some the other day for £1.50 a punnet from Sainsbury:)
DeleteDoing your bit for biodiversity - wonderful. My garden is definitely not manicured (I like to describe it as "romantic" but really, it's a bit scruffy and overgrown) but I would rather have the wildlife. Well done. x
ReplyDeleteWe have lots of unruly corners especially under the trees and hedges at the top of the garden but if I didn't have a go at weeding now and again the rose bay willowherb, cranes bill and wood avens would take over and cripple the other plants, especially the wood avens which spreads so quickly. I love the wildlife in the garden:)
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