Foggy Day

I have put my potatoes out on the window ledge for chitting. There are a few shoots appearing already. They are in the porch where it is light but not too hot.

A foggy day at the allotment meant that no-one else was daft enough to be there. The rain over night made the ground really easy to dig so I got lots of work done, we have even got a few paths now.

We have got some wood from an old palette we are going to use to make some beds with. There could be a few more digging in dreary days before things are ready for Spring. I have ordered some Asparagus crowns so I want things sorted before they arrive in March. When we took it over we were told there was no couch grass in there, just a few weeds. This has turned out to be false. Couch grass everwhere but the wet soil just doesn't give it anything to cling onto. So bye bye couch grass I shall return to kill the rest of your friends another day.

RSBP Birdwatch

It was the RSPB birdwatch this weekend. I watched our garden for an hour and took a few pictures. I managed to get a photo of this woodpecker in the trees behind the house, although it wasn't as close as it looks in this picture.

The trees were full of goldfinches but they just don't want to come into my garden. Don't be shy come in it's nice.

We got plenty of blue and great tits.

The squirrel keeps stealing all our bird food. It gnawed through the string holding up the coconut and ran off with the whole thing. Not bad going, it must have been quite heavy for a squirrel.

The coal tit enjoyed the homemade bird feeders.

The scaredy cat robin knew I was there and kept flitting in and out of the garden.

First Seeds Of The Year

The first shoots of the year. My sweet peas have started emerging. It is great when something you've planted pushes through and uncurls out of the soil.

All my seeds have arrived now waiting in their shiny new packets to be planted. I have started off some Tigerella Tomatoes and some hollyhocks and lobelia for the garden.

Moving Slowly

I have moved over a couple of our purple sprouting broccoli plants. The lady in charge of the allotment told me not to because they were too big. I couldn't resist moving just a couple to see what happens. Shhhh don't tell her she will never know. It seems a shame to leave all of them for the next people who take over our old plot.

I needed to move our netting to the new plot so I imagine those that were left will be attacked by pigeons anyway. If they don't survive it makes the new plot seem more like our own now that we have got some of our own plants in there.

The last couple of times I have been to the allotment it has been really quiet. There is a reason for that. It is pretty dull, cold and rainy at the moment. I was the only person there today and it was really peaceful.

I moved over our stawberry plants to the new plot today. They did well for us last year even though they only cost a couple of pounds from the supermarket. Hopefully the move won't kill them off. The children enjoyed picking and eating them when they were ripe. Not many of them made it home.

Feed The Birds

It feels like winter now. There will be no digging on the new allotment for a while. Everywhere is looking quite spectacular.

Ducks ice skating.

We have been doing our bit to look after our feathered friends while the weather is bad. They need water as well as food so we have fashioned our own makeshift birdbath. It is getting frozen every day in this weather. The blackbird has been a regular visitor so we need to break to ice in the morning and top up the water.

We have bought a new bird feeder which is said to attract goldfinches as they are partial to nyger seed. So far we have had a blue tit and a great tit but not a goldfinch in sight. The robin comes quite a lot too. We will wait and see if the goldfinches arrive. We have put out a few old apples too and the birds just love it.

The coconut bird feeder has been popular with the great tits. The peanuts seem to get the most attention from lots of blue tits and some occasional long tail tits too. At the weekend I spied a woodpecker but he didn't come into our garden. Our star visitor so far has been the bullfinch whose bright orange feathers just look fabulous against the white snow.

Mmmmm lovely worms. It looks bad but the birds like it! It is important to feed the birds in your garden, especially in winter. But you need to keep doing it because they come to rely on the food that you put out for them. Ours have got plenty to keep them going at the moment.

New Year New Plot

Brrrrrr!

Happy new year! We have had a phone call to say that the plot is now ours. We went today to have a walk around. It's all very exciting. New year and new possibilities. A happy and healthy new year to all!