Category Archives: wildlife

March 2022 on a cold but sunny Edinburgh day.

30/03/2022flowers, garden, wildlifeJackie Elwin

We have had some wet, windy, gloriously sunny and warm days in March, but are now back to very chilly weather and it is trying to snow/hail/sleat in between sunny spells. No wonder the frogs left it a little later this year to spawn. In 2019 and 2020 the first spawn in our pond was spotted in February (in 2020 it was as early as the 5th) but this year the first spawn was on the 18th March. We can now count about 7 clumps of spawn which means there are at least 7 female frogs around the pond. We haven’t seen any newt spawn yet.

Frog spawn 18/03/22

Some areas of the garden are looking better than others right now. The stumpery is looking fine as some the spring bulbs are coming through such as the narcissi and chinadoxa, some of the primroses, anemones, pulmonaria, hellebores, vinca and erythroniums are in flower now. Although some of the narcissi have gone over, there are others still to come out. Some of the tulips are just ready to open. A couple of shrubs that have scented flowers: the mahonia out the front, and the lonicera fragrantisima and osmanthus burkwoodii out the back are flowering well. There have been quite a few bees and butterflies out in the warmer days taking advantage of these flowers.

I found this dark edged bee fly ( Bombylius major) sitting on a tulip leaf as it was watching a wasp very closely. I have just read about it, and have found out that the bee fly will follow wasps and single bees to their nest, they will then gather some sandy soil with their feet, and flick this, along with their eggs, near the entrance to the wasp/bee nest. The larva will attach itself to a wasp/bee and it will be taken into the nest where it will then find a wasp/bee larva to feed on. After which it will turn into a pupa, hatch and fly away undetected.

Bombylius major (dark edged bee fly)

I will need to put the pot of Iris Katharine’s gold in a better place for next year. It is one of the earliest flowering plants in the garden and I had the pot under the garden bench just to protect it from some of the heavy rain. By the time I remembered it was there it was almost finished flowering.

Iris Katharine’s gold

There are lots of jobs still to do: over the wall is now rather overgown and needs a good sorting out. The vinca major is now acting like a climber and is growing up the fence and smothering the hydrangea petiolaris. It actually looks ok but it needs cutting back. There are ferns and lots of few-flowered-leek popping up everywhere so they will need to come out. The ivy needs to be kept in check. I am going to be quite ruthless now and any plant not earning it’s keep must go. I have started getting rid of some of the plain brunnera in the stumpery. It does look ok when it is in flower but it is rather plain and I wish I had planted the Jack frost version instead. I had let a few hellebore seedlings grow a few years ago but I don’t actually like the colour of the flower so it has gone now to another home. I don’t bin these but they go to other peoples gardens, or the local park takes any plants that would do well in the park. I also put them in the plant sale at the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club plant sale (which this year will be held on Saturday 30 April 10:30 – 12:00).

CVinca major growing up and over hydrange petiolaris

Overgrown vinca major all over hydrangea petiolaris

Here is the view from the patio. You can just see in the background one of the large ash trees has had a huge bough snap off during the strong winds. The entire tree is pretty dead and I think most of the ash trees in that golf course are going to have to come out. That is good news for us as we may get more sunshine into the garden. What with all the shade from the trees and all the recent rain, the ‘sunny’ border hasn’t been able to dry off very well. I have lost the nepeta again this year which were in the ‘sunny’ border. I will just hae to keep taking cuttings each year.

View from the patio

This is how the stumpery is looking right now. I love the dappled shade in this woodland area, and spring and early summer is the best time of year here before the tree canopy develops allowing less sunshine to get through. The whole garden will soon have plenty of colour.

Stumpery in March 2022

January garden to do list.

19/01/2022wildlifeJackie Elwin

January has been a pretty quiet month in the garden. It has been cold and wet so far with a touch
of frost. There a few things to be
sorted out before spring though, such as, moving the Rodgersia and the Royal
fern, as they are far too close to the walls now. This isn’t good for the walls and it also means
that the plants are forced forward and tend to collapse on the plants in front
of them.

the corner by the ramp with rodgersia and royal fern

Ramp corner Rodgersia and Royal fern

I would really like
the large Polygonatum multiflorum to be completely dug out. It used to be on one side of the chimney by
the ramp, but it has spread to behind and around the other side of the chimney
and is now coming up in front of it too.
Also I have found the very beautiful, but very destructive Liliocerus
lilii (scarlet lily beetle) on it. It
has had it’s leaves stripped by slugs, snails, saw flies and now this so I have
had enough.

Lilioceris lilii (scarlet lily beetle)

The front hedge has been rather poorly cut last year (sorry
Harry) and it is really needing a proper cut.
This will have to be done before the birds start nesting, although if I
was a bird I wouldn’t nest in it looking like that!

Front privet hedge with bad cut.

Behind the garage we used to have 2 apple trees which have
now been re-homed to our good pals shared tenement garden. The apples were tasty but were not keepers
and I am the only one who eats apples here.
Now I can choose what to do with that area. That small border only has a few cyclamen in
it, but it only gets sunshine from the one side. Maybe a clematis or honeysuckle would cope
with that area?

Behind the garage.

There are a few bulbs just popping up here and there, mostly
snowdrops, and some of the hellebores are flowering a bit. There is still plenty of greenery in the
garden due to the many evergreen plants and shrubs so it doesn’t look
completely barren just now. Roll on
spring for a bit more colour.

July: the good, the bad and the strange.

14/07/2021fungi, wildlifeJackie Elwin

As always we must start by mentioning the weather. We started with the sunshine and warmth, then the torrential rain and thunder, and now back to sunshine and warmth. These photographs were taken before the rain except the philadlephus, it was looking fabulous, as were the roses, until the rain pelted down taking most of the petals with it. Some of the roses were just a soggy mess and had to chopped as they would have just rotted instead of opening. Some of the old trellis was still up, but Harry has taken it all down now and it make s a big difference. The neighbours’ and golf course’ trees all blend into our ivy clad walls now.

By the pond I spotted a couple of damselflies and the blue tailed one came into the conservatory. I am afraid the photos are not great (taken at speed with my phone camera).

blue tailed damselfly on the conservatory wall

Ischnura elegans (blue tailed damselfly)

The large red damselfly was just flitting about on the leaves of the marsh marigold.

large red damselfly sitting on a marsh marigold leaf

Pyrrhosoma nymphula (large red damselfly)

The surface of the pond is mostly covered with floating duckweed and pond pants but I try to keep an area clear so the sun can get through to the oxygenating plants below. The area covered by floating plants has also been covered by hundreds of semaphore flies. The males flash their wings, which have a white tips, to entice a female and this resembles semaphore signals. They have gorgeous bronze and mellatic green colourations.

Poecilobothrus nobiltatus (semaphore fly)

Also in the pond are some very fast water crickets. I think these are the nymphs as the adults have red line down the abdomen. They have white markings that to me look like a face. They flit about on the water surface of the pond.

water cricket nymph skitting about the surface of the pond

Velia caprai (water cricket)

A new fungus has appeared this year. At first I though it was another puff ball or earth ball but as it grew – it changed shape. I think this is a stinkhorn. The cap is covered in something called a gleba which contains the spores. It emits a smell that attracts flies which then get covered in the spores.It disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

Phallus impudicus (stinkhorn mushroom)

Now just a few snapshots of the garden before the rain just taken at different angles.

The yellow irises did well out in the front garden. I don’t actually know the name of them, mum was splitting hers so she gave me some.

Yellow iris front garden

And after the rain I am afraid the nepeta was flattened, the roses all drooped and lost a lot of petals, lots of the foxgloves keeled over with the weight of the rain, and the poor philadelphus that was just looking and smelling gorgeous lost lots of petals too.

philadelphus loosing it's petals after the rain

Philadelphus losing it’s petals after the rain

Once the rest of the foxgloves go over I will have some bare areas to put some new plants in. They are waiting in their pots on the patio until then.

Our dog had his first dip in the pond this week (by accident) and he didn’t think much of it, so he then had a zoomie around the garden then dug 3 holes! Also, a neighbours cat fell into the pond this morning. I was watering the plants on the patio when I hear a big plop and splash. I looked up and saw a very wet, bedraggled, black and white cat slinking off down the garden.

The forecast for the next few days is lots of sunshine a high temperatures so that will mean I have lots more watering to do.

Foxes In February

11/02/2021fox, snow, wildlifeJackie Elwin

Yet again I have been very lazy about winter gardening. I keep the birds fed and watered, and check on the patio plants, but tend to leave everything else just to get on with things.

It is nice to keep seeing our foxy visitors through the window. Harry took a short video this morning and I have a couple of snapshots from it. These foxes were living in the vacant house next door, and passers by even saw them looking out the front window. The authorities were informed and the foxes can just have to make do with the gardens now. These 3 Foxes In February look very relaxed in the garden. I haven’t seen any pheasants this year and it is probably down to this lot prowling about looking for some dinner.

It has been snowing on and off over the last few days and has been very cold. It got down to about -22 C in Braemar last night. Only a balmy -7C in Edinburgh! As Harry is working from home during this covid lockdown, he can easily help keep the pond from fully freezing, and I don’t have to muck about clearing snow from the patio in order to feed and water the birds. There isn’t as much snow this year as there was in the winter of 2010/11 and it should thaw fairly quickly. I get cold very easily and am so looking forward to some warmer, dryer weather to have a potter round the garden and seeing how all the bulbs are doing. The ground hasn’t been dry for months – if it hasn’t been raining – it has been drizzling and I can bet that some weeds have been thriving despite freezing temperatures and wet.

Feb 2021 snow in the garden from the upstairs window

Foxes in autumn.

23/10/2020fox, wildlifeJackie Elwin

There are lovely autumn colours out now but I haven’t really been in the garden much over October. Harry and I have both had a bit of ill health (no not covid) so I really couldn’t be bothered doing much. I did pot up a few pots with narcissi, tulips, and bluebells but not much else. The bay that was on the patio was brought into the conservatory for the winter, I did my best at keeping the rain off the irises but the leaves look awful just now. That huge aster will have to be dug up as it is now huge and I just can’t get past it (although it has loads of flowers on it at the moment). Once Harry is feeling a bit better I will ask him to plant the new cornus in that clay area just in front of the patio. The plants are rather small so will look tiny there so I may put other pots around them to cover the bare soil or maybe bark chips. That is the area that the pigeons have made a path to get to the seeds that fall out of the bird feeder so I will need to protect the new plants while they are still young.

Harry did manage to take a few photos through the back window of our little visitors. They have found a mouse and are hunting in between the pots for it until they get a scent of something else I think. I frequently find pots knocked over on the patio. The squirrels have been digging in any bare soil in the pots burying nuts and looking for other nuts so I used to always blame them for knocking them over.

As usual, the louts setting off fireworks have been out and about already!! We had to call the fire brigade and police out the other evening when these youths rather stupidly decided to build a bonfire just beyond our back garden in the golf course, and then threw fireworks into it! The fireworks near us have been so loud that our dog is terrified to go outside now. They are being set off at all times of day and night so you can never tell when it will be a good time to take him out. Oh how I wish there was a total ban on fireworks. Trouble is that somehow folk would end up making their own home-made fireworks which would be far more dangerous in the long run. Ok rant over.

Parakeet visitor.

28/12/2019birds, parakeet, wildlifeJackie Elwin

So Christmas is over, I do hope you all had a happy festive time. A few good days with unusually mild weather has certainly brought the squirrels out to play. They are digging in ever plant pot, and pulling out the cyclamen and other small bulbs, and generally being a bit of a pest. Harry put chicken wire over some pots to protect them from little paws, but it can’t really be done over some other pots. It doesn’t look very attractive but it does work.
We did get a rather noisy, colourful visitor over the last few days – a green parakeet! I don’t know if he/she is an escapee from somewhere near, or if it is one of those that have now found a home in Edinburgh. Apparently they originated from the foothills of the Himalayas so they have acclimatised well to living in the UK. So far, I have seen him eating the last few berries of the Rowan tree, and either the buds or flowers (or both) of the Viburnum. He has been getting mobbed by the crows, jackdaws and magpies but he doesn’t seem overly bothered by them. I did read somewhere that in areas where there are flocks of these noisy parakeets, the chattering and vocabulary amongst the other bird species increases. We shall see (or hear). As much as it is nice to see him, I don’t fancy have a flock of them around, making a racket and eating everything in sight.

Green parakeet eating Rowan berries

Green parakeet eating Viburnum buds or flowers (or both)

It’s raining again…

05/11/2019slugs, wildlifeJackie Elwin

so I have been indoors pottering about in the conservatory and tending to my house plants rather than braving the cold and very soggy garden. I managed to over-water one of my peace lilies so I separated the plants, dried them off, and have replanted so hopefully I have saved at least one of them. I have cut back the straggly looking mint, and have taken the yellowing leaves from the parsley plants. The greenfly are still around so I check my plants almost daily to make sure I keep on top of any potential infestation. Now I don’t normally move my cactus plants (for fear of dropping them on my lap!) but I wanted to make sure I hadn’t over-watered them too. I am glad I did as nestled at the base of one, was a clump of slug eggs. I have been trying to take better, or at least more interesting photographs lately, and am using an app (AYWMC) to help me with this. The exercise this week is to use an editing program and play about with the different editing tools so I used the slug eggs for my exercise. It was fun but I may have overdone the editing. They were in a string but by the time I had faffed around with placing them at different angles and with different lighting and backing, some of the strings broke. I found a separate egg that had an embryo showing through the transparent casing.

a string of slug eggs

slug egg with embryo

A few days without rain… yeah!

20/09/2019butterfly, wildlifeJackie Elwin

We had a lovely day day of sunshine yesterday and today is warm and sunny too. Sadly that won’t last but at least it has been nice weather to do some gardening in. I have been ripping out a few old rather scraggy looking ferns that were just filling some space until I got some new plants. So some lovely new ferns have now been planted out, some of them have coppery tones, some are small spreading ones, one is silvery coloured and one is for a hole in the wall. Can’t wait to see how they come on next year. I really wanted to tackle the viburnum bodnantense dawn as some of the older stem/trunks are very gnarled and really aught to come out but I will have to be patient and do that late winter/early summer after it has had it’s main flowering season.
I finally managed to get a quick snap on my phone camera of the Speckled wood butterfly. Wow are they flighty! I have spotted quite a few speckled woods this year and as far as I know they have green caterpillars. I also spotted a Grey dagger moth caterpillar (just molting it’s skin I think). It brings back childhood memories of when I used to sit beneath our very small tree in our back garden, with my collection of these these bright caterpillar on my face! I know it was a strange thing to do, but at least I put them all back where I found them.

Pararge aegeria (speckled wood butterfly)

Acronicta psi (Grey dagger moth) caterpillar

July, in between ninja showers…

23/07/2019flowers, plants, wildlifeJackie Elwin

it is muggy, sunny, and hot. Lots of my plants have some kind of rust or mould on them.. The meadow sweet, verbena bonariensis and a few others have powdery mildew. Some of the roses have rust and black-spot. Some huecheras have rust. I have sprayed the roses again, and have just given them their final feed so I hope they will pick up a bit. I have taken off most of the rusty leaves form plants, but the powdery mildew can be quite stubborn I am having the constant battle with the humongous slugs and have resorted to using some ‘Sluggo’ near my new delphiniums as I am sick of my new plants disappearing overnight.
Normally at this time of year I see loads of bees covering the purple lavender, veronica and agastache out in the front garden but this year there are only a few about. The agastache to the left of the mahonia is devoid of all leaves courtesy of slugs and snails, while the ones at the right side are fine. The purple loose-strife, persicaria, hedge woundwort, verbascums, geraniums, delphiniums, cat-mint and a foxgloves are still attracting bees and other pollinators.
I finally moved the old bird-bath plinth from the patio as it was falling apart and found it had been a good home for the green cellar slugs (which are good guys) so I let them find a new home behind the patio plant pots. I found a cricket on the garage wall (horrid photo taken with my phone) which was nice. We used to hear crickets when we first moved here, but haven’t seen or heard any for years now so maybe they have come back this year? All over the garden are lots of tree seeds: mainly sycamore keys and tiny silver birch seeds. They really make the place look untidy but I have finished dead-heading and weeding for today and I am off out to enjoy the sunshine before the next lot of torrential rain due tonight (along with thunder and hail so they say).

Lavender

Veronica spicata ‘Royal candles’

Persicaria affinis superbum

Sorbus hupehensis Pink pagoda berries

Delphinium cameliard

Verbascum chaxii album

Old bird-bath plinth

Green cellar slugs (Limacus maulatus)

Grove snail or brown lipped snail (Cepaea nemoralis)

Cricket?

Sycamore keys (samara)

New plants…

14/07/2019flowers, plants, stumpery, wildlifeJackie Elwin

for the widened border. I have been shopping at MacPlants again to fill in some gaps in the border. For a nice soft purple and yellow combination there is Nepets junior Walker and Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’. Along side some Cosmos Xanthos (which I had in pots on the patio). A couple of Leptinella squalida ‘Platt’s Black’ for a couple of corner areas. I had planted some Ammi visnagi but the massive slugs got them (one seedling survives). These massive slugs are such a pain and even all the wool pellets I put down are no deterrent what so ever. These slugs have destroyed half a dozen honesty, all my blue poppies, primula vialii, the ammi, knapweed and loads more besides. I do a slug patrol every morning and pick loads. They curl up into a ball to prevent being eaten, and I have found some almost the same size as a golf ball!
The milk churn was moved to a corner in the bed to make a focal point and I didn’t have a pot the correct size but ended up putting a bronze grass on a plastic saucer inside the churn, which is held up by a wooded support underneath. It looks great just now.
We moved the bench that was sitting under the tree canopy (overhanging from the golf course), which was collecting loads of bird droppings so was rather dangerous for anyone sitting there. It is still in the stumpery area but under clear skies so much nicer for resting on.
There is still more planting to be done, and moving plants about – which probably shouldn’t really be done just now but some are now in the wrong place. They used to edge the border but now that the borders are wider they need to be moved to the new edge.