Winter Passion and Brazen Hussies

One bit of sunshine and I've succumbed to the urge to buy a plant. I should have planned, cleared and all those good things but ... it was red.

Winter Passion Perennial Wallflower.

So I hurriedly cleared out the worst of the invasive Lesser Celandine from a patch of ground and bunged it in with a handful of grit, some of our own compost and an apology. As usual, I had been distracted by bees. Our first Hairy Footed Flower Bee of the year - a male - had put in an appearance and it led me a merry dance before I could identify it. Then a Buff-Tailed Bumble Bee had to be removed from the conservatory. No wonder I don't have time to clear weeds properly!

Brazen Hussy in the path.

While I was working, I noticed plants in the gaps between the paving stones. The one in the photo is Brazen Hussy. This bronze-leaved Lesser Celandine is a little less invasive than its wild cousin but I still need to keep an eye on it.

Tapered Drone Fly (Eristalis pertinax) pollinating a Brazen Hussy.

The sun-like flowers are very good for pollinators. The photo shows it being visited by a Hoverfly. 

Neat edges and a bird box

There is a fine line between a wildlife-friendly garden and a total mess. The key differences are neat edges and a bird box.

The bird box can look after itself. I know some people diligently clean them every year but ... that involves ladders. I did try it once. I got three steps up and chickened out. So now the Blue Tits have to sort it out for themselves. They've been looking at the box and got into a right strop when another Blue Tit went near it.

Shaggy Edges.

It has be said though that our grass edges are very shaggy. Really the ground is far too wet to do the edging properly but I've gone round roughly with edging shears and things already look a lot better.

Hooking out mud and moss.

In a few places the edges had become a muddle of mud and moss, so I used a half-moon tool to cut a neater edge and hooked out the carved out muck with a weeding tool. The Lazy Gardener does not worry about having a straight edge. Instead, if it is beginning to look wavy, I exaggerate the bends and dents into graceful curves. No pegging out lines, no fretting over bits that don't line up. Just go with the flow.

Angle-Shades moth caterpillar

Luckily, I was going steady otherwise the Angle-Shades moth caterpillar might have come to a sticky end. I hid it amongst foliage amongst foliage nearby.

Buff-tailed Bumble Bee queen on Winter Heather.

The caterpillar wasn't the only distraction. I had to wait while a Buff-tailed Bumble Bee queen feasted on the Winter Heather and pause while the Robin checked the disturbed soil for worms!

Why a compost heap is the lazy gardener's best friend

I'm sure more diligent gardeners would have finished disposing of their Christmas trees by now.  However, the lazy gardener has to spend time exploring local heritage, rescuing bumble bees, sketching plants, counting birds, and so on.

A mix of Christmas tree clippings and compost from the heap

This time, I'm making an ericaceous mulch for a somewhat underpowered Camelia so I've mixed Christmas tree clippings with compost from the heap. A compost heap is the lazy gardener's best friend. Instead of findings ways to dispose of prunings and vegatable scraps, I just sling them on the heap. A few months later I have a half-way decent mulch. I don't go in for the sophisticated systems that create compost that is so beautiful you could write a poem about it but if that is your thing, go for it.

Robin doing a quality check on the mulch, plus underpowered Camelia

I threw handfulls of the mix round the Camelia and was delighted to see one of our garden Robins. It daintily picked up a worm that must have come from the compost heap. .

The compost heap - do not disturb!

Our compost heap is a very basic pile of prunings and vegetable scraps. In the warmer months, I'll  turn it every now and again but until all chance of injuring hibernating wildlife has passed, I'll just add more material to the top.

A compost caddy just outside the back door saves time!

We keep a compost caddy to save having to keep trudging down to the heap. Lining the bottom with one of those awkward-to-recycle compostable magazine covers saves having to clean the caddy.

Protecting the Rhubarb.

Finally, our Rhubarb is getting a little ahead of itself, so I used a couple of the old Christmas tree branches to protect it from frost.

Just call it a wildflower and leave it alone

I'm not too fussy about weeding but I try to keep on top of anything that will obscure or swamp more favoured plants.  As the old American saying goes "One year's seeding makes seven years' weeding" so any self-respecting lazy gardener will deal with weeds as quickly as possible. Obviously, you can minimize work by calling most weeds "wild flowers" and leaving them alone.

Trimming Ferns so I can see the snowdrops.

I tend to leave last year's fern leaves as long as they still look reasonable. However, the snowdrops are showing colour, so it's time for a short back and sides.

Pulling up cleavers seedlings.

While I was uncovering the snowdrop flowers, I noticed cleavers (goosegrass) seedlings coming up. These overtake, and start sticking to other plants, very quickly indeed so it saves a lot of time untangling them if I whip the seedlings out before they get a chance to do that.  A quick glance at the photo shows that I have left the magnolia leaves where they have fallen in this woodland area.

Bird table back in its rightful place.

A month or two back the bird table came crashing down in high winds. It has been waiting for me to fix it ever since. It clearly wasn't going to happen so I've bodged it up with some wire and will deal with it properly later. Much later. At least this way, it's in place for next weekend's birdwatch.

Confessions of a Lazy Gardener

It's not so much that I am lazy, it's just that I prefer looking at wildlife - birds, butterflies, wildflowers etc. rather than doing grown up things like weeding. After all, those butterflies won't chase themselves.

The Christmas tree in its Yuletide glory

At Christmas I enjoy dressing and being with a real tree - particularly the smell of it. However, all good things come to an end and on the 12th Day of Christmas, I packed the decorations and lights away and put the tree outside. Over the next few weeks, I will be using some of the ideas in Aly Fowler's article What to do with your Christmas tree to make sure that not a scrap of our tree is wasted.

Removing branches from the tree.

I've removed a number of branches from the tree and clipped the needles and smallest twigs into pieces to use a mulch. I sprinkled pieces that were too big on one of our muddy paths.

Christmas tree mulch sprinkled under the heather.

I sprinkled the mulch under heathers. Soon, I will make some more mulch for the camelias. According to Alys Fowler:

The needles of fir trees make excellent ericaceous compost, perfect for pleasing blueberries, cranberries, bilberries, heathers and azaleas.

We stopped using peat some time ago and maybe Christmas tree needles will prove a useful substitute.