January here in Devon was quite something and with warm sun and gentle breezes the garden marched on at
speed pushing up fresh green Allium shoots, Aquilegia, Tulips and Hyacinths. The Alkanet which has remained quite leafy
all winter was in flower, Omphalodes had quite a few flowers too and the Hellebores have been pushing yet more of their bent stems
of flower buds up through the heavy clay soil.
Alkanet January 2012 |
Allium late Jan 2012 |
Aquilegia February 2012 |
Omphalodes January 2012 |
However, things changed dramatically as the month turned and
we suddenly found ourselves in freezing
conditions, the soft clay soil became as hard as rock literally overnight and
the pond and water butts sealed over with two or three inches of ice. The poor frogs who had been cheerfully congregating
disappeared as quickly as they had appeared as winter finally took hold of
the garden. It seems to have brought an
end to the un-seasonal flowering and things are mostly going along as I would
expect now. I am surprised, however, at how slow
the crocuses are in coming up and the Catkins by the stream are much slower to
soften and shake their tails than those in the surrounding countryside.
At the end of January I took part in the Royal Society for
the Protection of Birds (RSPB) yearly garden bird count. http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/ Each participant must count the number of
every bird present in their garden over a period of an hour on a specified
weekend, logging the greatest number of each bird seen together at one
time. I had read that gardens in the UK are lacking
the usual high numbers of common birds this winter due to the mild weather,
which is strange because I’ve noticed the opposite with a very lively garden
full of all the usual culprits. The only
difference is that so far this year the Fieldfares, Wagtails, Redwings and
other birds that only visit gardens in extremely cold weather are nowhere to be
seen. If the current cold snap continues
then perhaps they will show up after all and they will be most welcome!
As the ground thaws I am hoping to get on with planting a
section of wildlife hedging to fill a gap left by a neighbour’s tree which was
sadly cut down last summer. I plan on
using Holly, Spindle (Euonymus), perhaps another Hawthorn or maybe a
Blackthorn. I like the idea of growing more Wild Rose and Honeysuckle through the hedge too. I just learned recently that nearly 150
different insects have been recorded on Hawthorn so it really is a very
valuable wildlife plant.
I noticed today that the ice on the pond has melted and the first batch frog spawn has appeared this morning. It's going to be fun watching the pond so full of life again.
I noticed today that the ice on the pond has melted and the first batch frog spawn has appeared this morning. It's going to be fun watching the pond so full of life again.
First Frogspawn of the year 13th Feb 2012 |