before the storm I think! Rain and high winds later. So a nice walk around the Strawberry Line and Thatchers and then a look at the new estate.
CREATIVITY
I have never thought myself creative, I am sure I am not in an artistic way. I have zero skills. However creative thoughts count, I think?
Take my main interests.
Geography is everywhere is a trite comment but sums up the subject. It includes just about every other discipline.
Gardening copes with the weather, the soil, insects, etc. And the end result is in the eye of the observer. Japanese garden to wild meadow/
Cooking is similar. The set recipes are good, but tweaking the various constituents can lead to something nice or horrible!
GREENHOUSE
Thank you Di for confirming that is still a tad early to be putting in seeds. I did it about the 10th Feb last year and half did not germinate or struggled. So I will wait, maybe to the spring equinox, for 50% daylight and warmer nights (and days!). Cold this morning with slight frost before the fog came down at about 7.30am.
So pots and soil ready for action and seeds (although I could get some more!
PLANTS
Planted dahlia and gladioli today and lots of smaller bulbs to go in later – not sure where?
Greenhouse sorted for seeds with 120 pots laid out, and 4 trays for the shelves. First in are going to be scabious, 3 poppy types, cornflower and sunflower, salvia, Geum, echinacea and cosmos. Making a shopping list for tomorrows trip to Banwell Garden Centre!
Hopefully they will be ready to go out before tomatoes arrive. Too windy today for outside?
Also thinking about pots on patio – Californian poppies, night scented stock. Maybe Himalayan poppy for the first year? Where to put sweet peas? Maybe a wigwam? Very windy so putting off planting out bulbs for today.
I think also one courgette plant at the back of the garage, and one/two cucumbers for end of greenhouse. And maybe the best red pepper plant and grow like a tomato plant in pot in greenhouse with some chillies which I guess will go in the conservatory?
REWILDING
An excellent article here from Rewilding Britain
WILDLIFE – ESPECIALLY INSECTS
There appears to be a massive decline in our insects which will have a catastrophic impact on life on Earth. Are we being too tidy?
Whilst I understand the impact of agribusiness on the countryside I cannot believe that that alone is responsible. In particular I have noticed fewer flies and wasps around my house in the last couple of years. It made me think about the food recycling boxes we now have, with the contents then being incinerated or whatever. In the past they would have gone in a dustbin, and even if in plastic bags these often split, and were then dumped in landfill.
Now with great efficiency disposal is insect free. I do not want to attract rats, so what to do? Entomologists please advise.
I remember Chris Baines stating that the attraction of the Severn Estuary to wading birds was the invertebrates which lived on the sewage deposited by rivers from both animals and humans!
WEATHER AND GARDEN
REWILDING BRITAIN
I just received an email from this organisation, and I wish them the very best. But for the concept of rewilding to work it needs a fundamental change in the psychology of large numbers of the public. Nice books about rich people rewinding their land is great, but I would rather not leave it to the wealthy philanthropists!
DESKS
My front garden
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder! Whilst many see a front lawn with straight parallel lines as a thing of wonder and order, I see it as a green desert, an insult to the diversity of nature. Uniform type of grass often sprayed with herbicides and fertilisers. To further insult the planet it needs to be cut every 2 weeks at least. I am not sure that there are many more boring and energy wasting activities than mowing a lawn using electricity or petrol. I wonder what the fossil fuel energy use is in this country.