Bluebells are now firmly in ascendancy, pushing tired reddy rhododendron blooms into second, with wilting yellow daffodils in third (they gave it their best) and not forgetting that First Green Shoot. That's our political garden for you!My second year planting garden veggies and I already harbour failures, favourites & fantasies. Gardening is a continuous adventure with little respect for historic measures of success, it’s all about the present and governing future elemental uncertainties. Remind you of anything?
This year, I wanted to keep my efforts to a minimum, keep it LEAN, with one piece flow I'd cut-out wasteful repetition potting-on here & then. My attempt to focus on value of time meant all nine vegetables, mostly from seed, would all be sown within one day; survive or die, flourish or fail.
Sown in 4 foot drills; Parsnip, Carrot, Spring Onion, Cauliflower, Swede, Red Onion, Peas and Brussels sprout, I lastly added Sweetcorn at two feet intervals around my postage stamp plot. It all took around three hours (not including moosie duty).
During soil preparation, I inadvertently disturbed a Wood Mouse nest, and though obliged time to time to trap the odd ‘moose loose aboot the hoose’ as pictured, this required Rabbie Burns like intervention. I may yet rue such care, waking up to nibbled shoots!There they were swimming in the soil perhaps several days old, who when born resemble pink pencil-top rubbers, now tiny-weeny baby elephants by comparison. Survival of these potential orphans depended on common sense & creativity. I cut an open-ended cardboard tube about 7” long, added a hole on two sides, plugged the bottom with straw to prevent them falling out and stuffed it with their uncovered bedding topped with hay from last seasons hedgehog box. A perfect wood-mouse house makeover.
Add 5 blind mice, plug top with hay, return to oven (terra-firma - not gas); buried at 45 degrees roughly where they'd been unearthed, left the top just below ground level to let mousy smell permeate the air, yet prevent predation or suffocation. I then loosely filled the gap below with hay then backfilled earth. Sure sign next morning confirmed all was well, with an active burrow heading down the side of the tube.Robert Burns – “Tae A Moose” [Original Rendition c/w English Translation]
http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/554.htm
This years Blue tits AKA "chickadees" or "titmice" in the US, have recently hatched (counted at least six, though there could easily be another six). My first brood of blackbirds fledged a week ago from my evergreen clematis and anticipate another brood will follow-on soon. Robin's Nest also fledging. Please share your garden tales with us.
I’ll leave you with one last spring-like political thought provoking rhyme:
The cuckoo comes in April,
Sings a song in May,
Then in June another tune,
And then she flies away. - TPH
Was the mouse alive? How did you manage to keep it still if not? Happy garden watching :)
ReplyDeleteErr.. no it wasn't sorry, it was one of two Wood Mice from an earlier winter that found their way into my lounge - eventually I discovered & sealed their access route, but had to resort to a trap to remove them. Thank you.
ReplyDeletePoor wee mousie! 'the best laid plans of mice and men ...'
ReplyDeleteQuite! I may have seen those youngsters nibbling the apples I've put out this late autumn early winter. A good deed 'n a' that =)
ReplyDelete