I’ve been banging on about nature, letting your garden go wild and being a lazy gardener for some time now, and this autumn, winter & early spring I have really excelled myself. I have been very lazy indeed.
With the exception of the lawn; which is generally my husband’s domain; I did nothing this season in the garden until April, I resisted the urge to tidy, which wasn’t at all difficult.
Every plant left to seed. The borders unweeded, grasses untidy and uncut. The result? A very untidy garden, absolutely bursting with life!
We have had more birds in our garden than I can ever remember; never seen before Goldfinches, not just one, but a dozen, a similar number of blue tits, all buzzing around the trees and seed heads. House sparrows are also a new friend along with some ring necked doves and our old friends the robin, wood pigeons and the black bird. We also have a resident squirrel bringing his prize possessions to bury in the garden and finding them again.
More mess has meant more bugs hiding under things for birds to eat; no deadheading meant more seeds to eat. (Gold finches like Japanese anemones). And as spring moves on, we are watching nest material be collected from twigs to fluffy grasses, being gathered and taken away to hedges, nest boxes and trees outside the garden.
Our see through bird feeder on the garden office window was left untouched all winter, a failure we thought, but it seems nature takes time, and reflective glass can be confusing, however a year after putting it up, finally this spring it’s become a hit. With everyone, even the squirrel on one occasion. Thankfully the wood pigeon is too large, but she picks up the spoils on the patio below, the dove’s do some sort of contortion to be able to get a seed or two, whilst their mate waits patiently for a turn. Blue Tit, Goldfinch, Robin and Blackbird, have all eventually been brave enough to give it a try, it’s a wonder we get any work done at all, with all the watching we do.
So now I really need to have a tidy, cut back grasses to let the new shoots come through, weed out the ever increasing wild strawberries to make way for some new additions, reduce my Penstemon by 3/4 to stop it swamping everything else, and hopefully by the time you read this, my big annual tidy will be completed and some sort of order resumed.
But not too much…
