Crikey, it’s been a few weeks after a spate of rapid posts. I’m happy to say things are coming along, some more than others. I’ve been a tad distracted, but have kept a record (mostly) of things with my phone. I’ve also been preoccupied with our fish tank, which was fully cycled about a month ago and I’ve been stressing out over fish, shrimp and snails ever since. I’ll probably blog about that over at Fifty Percent Less Ninja Beaver.
I’m going to start with something relatively new though. The tree!
I’m planning a wildlife/wildflower corner at the bottom of the garden, near the shed (more on that in another post). Part of that will be a rowan/mountain ash tree. I decided to try out Cochrane’s Nurseries in Longtown. What a find! This isn’t a garden centre, selling massive amounts of gifts with café adjacent. Just a proper nursery and florist with many, many plants. Plants in great condition at reasonable prices. The shop is also a fruit and veg shop with loads of lovely looking produce. I’m so glad I decided to try it out.
The reason I got a rowan tree is for the berries. Once the tree is established it should be a good source of food for the birds, and when it’s strong enough I’ll hang the feeders from it as well. The position will be just to the side of the as yet unbuilt wildlife pond, giving access to both food and water in as natural a way as possible. I’m really quite excited about all this!
I was planning on putting wildflowers along the fence and the dogs kinda forced my hand. They been using the area as a toilet since we moved in. Bitch piss is a killer on grass, so I’ve dug out a border which (hopefully) will house a mass of wildflowers as well as the six sunflowers I’ve just planted after germinating and bringing them on indoors. I decided not to sow outside this time, as last year only one grew (I think the birds got to the seed) and that one burgeoning plant was flattened by Nova on one of her front of house zoomies.
You can see the wildflower seeds in the 2nd pic. I used what I call a ‘half-moon’ tool to mark out and lift the edge of the turf, then we dug it out with a spade and my hand trowel. What we didn’t count on was the sheer size of the stones under there. I think we may have hit a previous boundary wall as we unearthed HUGE granite and slate pieces. One looked like a bloody cannonball. See below.
On the plus side, I now have lots of decent sized stones to form the ‘rockery’ part of the long border. So far I have sedum, a bergenia and some heather in there. Pics in another post. 🙂