Activity has been minimal for the last four weeks, as Miss Swallow has been off ill! This has given the wasps a chance to die off, so their nest is no longer a problem! This week, the competition potatoes were collected from Frank Nicol's and the Greenhouse community shop. We now need to weigh out the produce from each one, to find a winner. This will keep us busy after we return from our October break (two weeks, starting tomorrow).
The sunflowers are looking good and generally the garden is in pretty good shape considering nothing much has been done since June!
The teasels look wonderfully structural now they have gone to seed.
Even this hanging basket looked after itself - with some help from the rain!
There are way too many "Jersey Kale" seeds for us to collect though we will do our best!
Some Lupins are still in flower though most have gone to seed - again, we are collecting as many as possible.
The wild flower seeds are also giving an excellent show! The mixture contains: Cornflowers (blue), Corn Cockle (purple), Corn Chamomile (white/yellow), Corn Marigold (yellow) and Corn Poppy (red).
Today, we sat for fifteen minutes to watch the insects visiting them. We were completing a survey for "buglife" to help the Royal Horticultural Society build information about which flowers are best for attracting pollinating insects.
There aren't any butterflies, bees or wasps about now, but we saw loads of hover flies and other flies of all sizes - they preferred the Corn Chamomile and Corn Marigold.
Our garlic has gone to seed - the heads are architectural marvels! Not sure if that affects the garlic - we'll dig it up after the break, as we love our garlic bread!
The strawberries have grown runners that have rooted into the soil - new plants for next year!
Hopefully, bugs and insects will be finding a nice home here for the winter.
In November, we will be planting hedge-row plants along the side of the wild flowers - this will make more wildlife friendly habitat in future.
Seeds drying in the shed
