24th March 2019 - Wildlife and hard work

On 17th February I posted about cleaning out my pond (link below).  I wanted to get it all done before the frogs started mating and before there was any spawn/tadpoles in the water.  For the last couple of weeks the water has still been a bit murky but it's been clearing.  When I arrived this weekend the water was clear.

http://tinyurl.com/y6gkg93b

I could see the lily at the bottom of the pond really well and so I decided to have a proper look.  One of the first things I noticed is that there seemed to be some frog spawn at the bottom of the pond.  I thought it was weird because frogs normally lay their eggs on the surface.  I could clearly see 2 frogs at the bottom of the pond (against the side) and then I noticed a newt; I've seen 4 frogs and 2 newts so it seems like I have a very healthy pond.  I think they're smooth newts (also known as a common newt) and I'm hoping the spawn I can see at the bottom of the pond is from them.

In addition to finding the newt I also found 8 plants that had been dumped into the compost.  I had a good look at them and they seemed healthy so I decided to bring them to be re-potted.  I think it's hebe but I'm not sure what type.  I've given them a good soak and feed and I'll keep an eye on them.  I know that people throw plants out that are sick or diseased but I would hope they wouldn't just put them into the public compost (although I wouldn't put money on that).  I do know that the people who have thrown them out often throw out perfectly good plants and so I'm not too worried about them infecting any of my other plants, they are being kept away from similar plants to be on the safe side though!

In addition to rescuing plants I've been busy weeding the beds and making a start on weeding the paths.  Last year I neglected the paths and they're pretty bad; I filled a bucket with weeds from 1 path and 1 bed and neither were particularly bad!  I really want to get all of it sorted as a priority so that as I move on to 86a or other areas of the 85a I don't have to worry about the weeds self seeding all over the place.

The polytunnel has been busy too.  I had to prune off a lot of leaves from the lemon tree because they had been touched by frost.  I thought taking it into the polytunnel would protect it enough but it's a lesson learnt that I'll need to take it in and also protect it with extra fleece.  I've put some fleece on it now because the temperatures are still getting down to freezing and even though I've pruned it, some of the remaining leaves had started to curl so I decided to protect it.

The peach tree is in blossom, I'm keeping it in the polytunnel to protect it from peach curl but I'm going to have to take a paintbrush and manually pollinate it because I didn't do it last year and I didn't get any fruit.  I've also got various bits and pieces that are starting to bud.  I bought an automatic watering system that is battery operated.  Each system has 10 spouts and you can set the time that it waters and for how long.  I've dropped it into the big watering can and it's watering all of the big plants for 1 minute a day.  I don't think that's long enough so I need to decide how long or how many times it needs to be done.  It does give me a little bit of security for when the weather gets better and when I can't get up every day to water.  

One of the other plot holders put a note onto our Facebook page asking if anyone wanted some gravel.  I have the car park matting that I put under my shed and that I was going to use as a base for the greenhouse.  It works best if it's filled with gravel so I was delighted to get some for free.  When I started chatting with the lady who had it she said she also had some slabs that her neighbour was trying to get rid of. 

Thankfully Mr L came to help me, because it was hard work, they were really heavy but I'm so happy to have them.  We managed to get 30 slabs as a base for the greenhouse and 6 bags of gravel.  I can use the gravel either inside the greenhouse or in the matting as I'd planned, but as a seating area in front of the shed instead of for the greenhouse.

The last job I did this weekend was plant 4 fruit trees in pots.  The plan is to eventually put them into 86a but because the beds aren't ready yet I've put them into pots.  I've got apple, pear, plum and cherry; I've always wanted to have fruit trees on my plot but because I didn't think about it when I was designing 85a and so I didn't have places for them.  The trees are on dwarfing root stock and they will be okay in these pots for at least a couple of years but ultimately I'm planning on planting them in the ground.  Have anyone else had any success growing fruit trees in pots?

Until next time...
Happy Gardening x