Thursday 12 March 2009

Could spring be officially here?



For me there is no better sign of spring than the fact there is frogspawn in the ponds! :)

The Common frogs (Rana temporia) have been calling in the ponds outside for about a week now- but today was the first lot of frogspawn of the year. Its also the first lot of frogspawn ive had in the garden since moving in 3 years ago. Best of all it was laid in the wildlife pond i built for them last year! There are however 2 fish in the pond one Golden Minnow and one goldfish. If i want the spawn to survive i must remove the goldfish at least. Im not sure if the minnow could eat tadpoles it has a very small mouth so I hope not. The minnow was introduced to eat the mosquito larvae that are found there.



This is Blechnum tabulare its a beautiful evergreen fern - however the winter temps haven turned a few fronds brown but wont have caused any fatal damage. This will be probably planted in the shady border- its spent the winter so far on top of the wormery however since adding the most recent layer to the wormery its no longer stable enough for such a heavy pot.



Lastly some good news my Yucca rostrata which I had almost given up all hope for looks like it is finally showing signs of recovery. I bought it bare rooted 5 years ago from Germany however it never re-rooted properly and i moved it around a bit and in the process managed to break the roots that had started to grow. The central growing point browned off and died away and I thought uh-oh ive managed to kill it- sure enough it started loosing its crown and thought it really should be chucked as it looked awful!

However instead of chucking it I potted it up about a year ago into a pot and forgot about it- putting off the inevitable. And then about 2 weeks ago I decided to have a closer look at the plant.


There right in the centre a new crown had begun to grow- now it will take many years before it looks halfway decent again but im so chuffed its regrown that im looking forward to nursing it back to being respectable again. Im hoping this means its root system has been established now.



This morning the chooks got a porridge breakfast made with moist layers pellets, chopped tomatoes, grain and some Diatom powder. Yummy! Or at least they thought so! Flo went straight for the tomatoes, Cilla and Susie the grain and Hermione hovered around and waited for the others to finish. I think this is showing how Hermione is now lower down the pecking order than I originally thought- Cilla has certainly starting pushing her way up! Susie crouched for me when I put in the food- ive read that this is a sign the hen is amost ready to lay. Apparently about a week after they start crouching properly you can expect your first egg- lets see if thats true! Watch this space!

1 comment:

  1. My Blechnum came through in a similar fashion, but as soon as I'd unfleeced it, it got battered by some of the strong winds! So I'm going to need to trim it all back before my mother comes to visit tomorrow, otherwise she'll notice the scraggy-looking fern before she notices anything else!

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Owen