Your Wildlife Sightings!

If you’re stuck you only have to ask B, I might not have the answer all the time, but between us all we’ll master it.

 

Thanks Johnie

 

Mrs AMR is very impressed (and she's not that easily impressed ) and says she can't wait till the first crow picture.

 

Slightly off topic but as I am getting older our garden is getting bigger. There's a shady corner between devoid of colour. Can anyone recommend a shrub(s) with bit of colour that will do well in shade...that might be attractive for wildlife? I just want to plant something that I can largely forget about.

 

Red, I have a small yard at the back of the house which is in shade for most of the day, I’ve been buying Ferns and Hostas over the years and have quite a wee collection now, they’re shade loving and very low maintenance,
The Hostas need a wee bit of attention re slugs but worth it .

 

wOwsers @bagforlife that's a cracker and looks serious

 

This was round the side of my house a few years ago. I can't rightly remember the names of the plants but I can tell you that these plants mixed in with blue slate came back year after year and it was the darkest place in the garden. The sun only got there first thing in the morning for about an hour.

 

had to resize it. will try to remember what all the plants were.

 

The ones against the fence look like Mystic Merlin. The plant with the tiny blue flowers is Polemonium (Jacobs Ladder)...fantastic plant and grows almost anywhere. The middle plant looks like a Japanese Hebe of some sort. The feathery ones are Astibi. I later managed to grow Raspberries against that fence...* only knows how!

The bigger leaf shrubs either side were in the wrong place as far as the soil went as they didn't flower well.

I used to just throw anything in around the sides at that part of the garden ..especially if I had some left over wee plants like lobelia and even mimulus. Geraniums grow anywhere. Foxgloves but they might be a bit dodgy if you have kids around. In all honesty sometimes the things I have grown have defied logic If it's damp you might get succulents to grow or perhaps some alpines. Saxifrage (London Pride) is a good spreader.

 

Not my garden anymore but how I miss it

 

This shows how dark that corner of the house was as there was an 8x6 shed blocking the light from the back. That summer house was later painted a lovely shade of blue/green.

 

That's lovely Jeannie

 

Thanks, Johnnie. Daddy had a great hosta in his garden that was eye catching. As you say slugs were a problem but he kept them at bay. The year he died, however, the slugs devoured it. Mrs AMR was raging as she thought the timing was "insensitive" and unfair to daddy.

 

It was gorgeous We had this humungus metal shed at the back, a great big summerhouse and the wooden shed. Loads of areas to sit as well as I had it all like garden rooms and there were flowers everywhere. We had baskets up and down the fencing and bird feeders making a mess too I really miss it as I can't seem to get much growing here.

 

I would only keep hostas in a planter as I've witnessed the devastation that slugs cause.

 

Thanks, Jeannie. Some lovely plants on display. I'm sure you enjoyed many nice evenings in the garden. Always sad to leave behind something in which you have invested so much time and emotion. You can always develop something equally nice but different in your new chez vous.

 

Yes Red I really enjoyed that garden and found that I had a talent for it. If I planted a pkt of seed you could guarantee the lot would actually take. I used to give loads of plants away. It all started because my neighbour gave me a tray of tiny African Marigold seedlings and every single one of them grew into flowers with huge big heads

Got to say I'm fairly obsessive about things

 

We have a decent garden. We spent good bit of time making it "mammy proof" and it's only this year that we have given any thought as to what we would like. We realise it's a shared space with the birds, frogs, squirrels etc but we want to enjoy it too. There is a wile lot of work in it though.

 

Yes we found ours a lot of work too. All that yearly painting the trellises, sheds and fencing. We had to make it safe for my wee old mum too. I used to plonk her in the summerhouse with the doors wide open while I was pottering around my wee greenhouse. A wee cup of tea and her radio and she was hunkydory

I helped hubby build the huge tin shed and * it was a nightmare. The slightest little breeze and you just couldn't do it. The sections were wafer thin but once the whole structure was up you would never imagine it! I even got him and his mate to move the summerhouse from one side of the garden to the other because it wasn't getting enough sun They had to relay a wee patio for it to sit on Oh yes my garden was a load of work but I was mainly the director

I had loads of friendly birds

 

I would like to spend more time in the garden. Daddy was a great gardener. His grandma actually earned his living as a gardener so we presume he got his talent from there. He never wrote a plant off even when it looked dead to the rest of us. "Give it time". He would have all sorts of cuttings and slips that he took from his garden in pots. Don't know how many wee trees, ash, Holly, birch, oak and Rowan that we had that came from daddy's garden...via the birds. Interestingly, there was feature in the Guardian that made me laugh.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...2020/jan/15/plants-is-it-ok-to-steal-cuttings