Author: Clare Topping

Brandon Marsh

On the way back from Ryton I called in to Brandon Marsh nature reserve to see if there were any insects or flowers about that would present a photo opportunity (for that read: I had a camera and no binoculars or scope with me).

I wasn’t expecting much in the way of birdlife, Brandon is often an all or nothing place but I was hopeful of some damselflies.   What was there?  Well, not much, one elusive dragonfly and some comma and white butterflies amongst the brambles with nothing overly exciting from a botanical point of view.  From an ornithological point of view there seemed to be more birds about than normal at this time of year when many of the areas are completely empty.  The highlight were green sandpipers and oystercatchers (the latter easy to recognise even without optical gear).  

I became more hopeful when I reached the Carlton hide which is usually deserted, but on Saturday was filled with birdwatchers and photographers.  However, I think they were there in the hope of seeing and photographing a kingfisher or hobby rather than because of something that was actually there.  The massed ranks were satisfying themselves with shooting (in a photographic sense) a heron that seemed to be posing for them.  Not having the patience to wait for a bird that may or may not turn up and not having a gigantic lens requiring a sherpa to help move it I wandered off to look for other things.

 I had to satisfy myself with this photo of a different heron.

Not all slugs are bad really.

For the most part, slugs are my nemeses. They attack my attempts at growing my own food, they decimate my flowers and they leave a slimy mess everywhere. Once they hit a certain size they seem to have very few enemies (apart from gardeners and their friends the hedgehogs). However, not all slugs are bad, one of the less destructive slugs is the rather pretty tiger slug.

The tiger slug, is also known as a leopard slug (Limax Maximus) for obvious reasons.  These large slugs (they can grow up to 16cm in length) are relatively common throughout Britain and Ireland and are usually found in gardens and woodlands.  They tend to feed on decaying matter and fungi (and, allegedly other slugs) so, next time you see one of these not so little chaps, maybe think twice before ‘dealing’ with them!

A warm day at Ryton

I am lucky enough to live close to Ryton Organic Gardens and this weekend I decided to brave the heat to spend some time at what is one of my favourite gardens. (I had been lamenting the continuous wind and rain in the past few months so could not really pass up a day of full sun with not even a whisper of a breeze.) My main aim was to indulge my favourite pastime, botanical photography, but, in the past it has provided inspiration from a produce point of view.

Although it is a big place they have divided it up into a number of smaller areas including a cook’s garden, a garden planted to encourage bees and one for birds as well as allotment areas and experimental areas. Their soft fruit garden was the reason behind my purchase of an evergreen oregon thornless blackberry which we are currently training to hide the bins.

Whilst I did take a few pictures that I was reasonably pleased with (see my Flickr page) I also got a few ideas for the front garden which I am in the process of planting up. The main constituents of the front are herbs (which we planted some time ago) and some grasses which we did not want in the back garden anymore. These will be augmented by lots of bulbs, annuals and perennials, the main criteria being low cost and photogenic appearance.

I was very much taken by a white flower bed that they had planted. The centre was a huge mass of white cosmos (a favourite of mine) with two different plants at each corner of the rectangular patch. In one corner I was particularly taken by some stunning white Nigella which was in front of a fluffy headed grass. 

In the diagonally opposite corner there was another plant that I was thinking of buying, Echinacea ‘White Swan’. In truth I was a little underwhelmed, expecting something much whiter where this seemed cream coloured at best, possibly heading towards a lemony yellow.

So it is a thumbs up to the Nigella, a maybe to the Echinacea.

What do you think?

More Rubbish News

There were more headline making facts coming from WRAP’s look at the rubbish we (that is a collective we as a nation, I am not accusing anyone, or admitting to any guilt myself) are throwing away.  A summary presented on the BBC news website includes the claim that we are throwing away 1.3 million unopened pots of yoghurt and yoghurt drink a day, which adds up to 484 million pots a year. Whilst I do admit that I have, on occasion, thrown away the occasional pot that has past its sell by date, this statistic means that each household throws away 22 pots a year, 2 a month. Not that many really, but who is throwing mine away? (I have now started buying the bigger pots and use the pot and its plastic lid as containers for soup and stock for the freezer and as miniature propagators for seeds.) This equates to nearly 10% of all yoghurt bought in the UK being thrown away without being opened.
WRAP commissioned a company to search through the rubbish of over 2000 households over a 5 week period and sort it into food and non-food and then record details of what was thrown away. This is part of the same work that discovered that we throw away 4 million apples a year (see my earlier post Interesting Articles). For those who think this is a problem with today’s throwaway generation, there was apparently no age differential between those who threw a lot of food away and those who were less wasteful. So, yes, you’ve guessed it, when you are in the supermarket, think about when you are going to eat those items that are making their way into your basket.

Garden Produce Update

Ok, still no courgettes, but we did eat our first lot of produce this weekend.

Basket of Shetland Black Potatoes

We decided that the Shetland Black potatoes had died back enough to harvest them. I was a little nervous that there would be nothing there. That wasn’t the case, but it was not the greatest harvest ever seen (see photo for the entire harvest – no wide angled lens needed to get them all in). We have roasted the larger ones, whilst the small ones will find their way into a curry sometime in the next week. The taste was good, but not substantially better than those we have bought in the supermarket in the past, I don’t think that we will be growing them again. The Charlotttes will be harvested in a week or two for a comparison.  We have planted some more French beans in the tub and soil we had used for the potatoes.
Elsewhere in the garden, the first fruit are appearing on the tomatoes, we are getting some beans and the cavolo nero is growing in pots (although I am looking for eggs and caterpillars on a regular basis).

On the subject of courgettes, there are a lot of flowers, but no courgettes yet, is this due to a lack of bees this year? I have heard of others having problems with various vegetables on this front – I better find some bee friendly plants to entice them in – not long to go until the buddleja will be flowering, then maybe I will have some better luck.

Waterboatmen

This year, for the first time, we have lots of waterboatmen living in/on our pond.Yesterday the weather was sunny enough for me to be able to get an OK picture of them without having to get the tripod out.
I thought it would be a nice idea to learn more about these little creatures, but then I entered a world of confusion. There are apparently lesser waterboatmen which do not bite, but which do not swim upside down. This is obviously not true of my friends (not sure about the biting though), these therefore looked as though they may be ‘backswimmers’ – never heard of them, but they are apparently all over the US (unlike myself – that would be a stupid idea). I then trawled around the web a bit more and found a bit more info on the BBC website. This looks as though it is a Greater Waterboatman (or backswimmer); notonecta glauca , they live in ponds and canals, are quite predatory and eat tadpoles (they are out of luck in my pond) and the larvae of diving beetles (these seem to be in shorter supply this year, I may now know the reason why). They are also known to bite, their saliva is toxic and they are not related to the lesser waterboatman. I am not sure how I feel about these now, I am a little concerned about my diving beetles and tadpoles to be.

First Dragonfly of the Year

A wander around the garden today (making the most of the sunshine) produced a few surprises and some quick photo opportunities.

Common Darter The first of these was the emergence of a common darter (I think) from the pond. I disturbed one of them, but I think that this one needed a little more time to dry its wings so I grabbed a quick shot. This was the first I had seen this year.
The nymph stays in the pond for up to a couple of years, and then crawls out to emerge as the predatory adult. The common darter changes colour to more of a brick red as it suns itself.

Slug Terror

After all of the recent rain which has created a field day for the little sluggy terrors there is worse news on the horizon.  According to a recent report on the BBC website a new type of slug has been discovered in Wales. Unlike other slugs this one is carnivorous and lives underground and eats worms sucking them through its teeth. So, not only do we have to contend with slugs and snails decimating all of the vegetation now they are eating our wormey helpers – it’s a conspiracy!

No culling?

As you may be aware, the government has finally made a decision with regard to the culling of badgers to prevent the spread of TB in cattle.  As far as I am concerned this is a good move mainly as there seems to be no scientific evidence to back up the belief that culling badgers will reduce the spread of TB in cattle.  Although it must be difficult for farmers faced with a heard infected with TB the numbers destroyed each year at about 12000 are tiny in comparison with the number of cows in the country which stands at several million.  However, the government should compensate farmers to a fair level and, just as importantly, in a timely manner.

What is more worrying is that some farmers are threatening to ignore this and start killing badgers on their land.  What would happen if we all found a law or ruling that we don’t like and decided to ignore it?  There have been a lot of reports in the media recently about poor payment to farmers from the major supermarkets which has helped to raise sympathy for farmers, but I am sure that the culling of badgers by farmers in spite of this ruling will negate all the recent improvements in the public image of our farmers. 

Rosa Rugosa

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my favourite flowers of the moment is rosa rugosa.  

rosa rugosa and bee

I am not a huge fan of roses, most seem to be grown for their visual impact these days, whereas I thought that the whole point of a rose was the scent.  I therefore don’t have any roses in my garden at the moment.  That said, however, rosa rugosa is a huge exception and the scent around the industrial estate at the moment is divine.  (If you see a short person snorting the hedgerows of a Daventry industrial estate then that is probably me.)

According to Wikipedia, Rosa Rugosa is apparently a native of eastern asia but has been introduced to Europe where it is used in landscaping and is particularly useful in coastal areas, as well as being pretty hardy it is also highly tolerant of salt.  (This latter property also makes it useful to plant near roads that are regularly in need of deicing with salt.)  The colour of the bloom varies from white to dark pink, and double and single cultivars are known.

The rose is also popular with bees, gives colour lasting well into autumn with bright yellow autumn leaves and bright red hips that are packed with vitamin C.