Tag Archives: Garden

Mother Squirrel

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For me, one of the most enjoyable things about having a garden is the wildlife.  We see lots of birds and butterflies, at least one fox and several squirrels.  I love watching them all.  But, although I know there are people who have differing views, I was really surprised to get the following reply when I posted a video on Facebook of a squirrel feeding in our garden.

“I hate squirrels, they dig my plants up, and at work they scatter rubbish out of the bins everywhere, and they’re mass murderers of newly hatched birds, there’s far too many of them with too few predators able to keep their numbers in check.”

For some reason, I can’t post the video on my blog, but here’s a screenshot.

I’m not going to argue with his comments — they are his experiences, thoughts and feelings.  As far as I’m concerned, this squirrel has obviously recently had babies, and I’m more than happy for her to raid the birds’ peanuts to feed herself up, so she can provide them with the milk they need. The End.

A Cross Between a Squat and a Plié

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Another day in the garden, and my thighs are killing me as I seem to have adopted a strange cross between a squat and a plié while doing the weeding — this is not one of the photos I’m afraid.

There were loads of strange grass like weeds in one of my borders.  I have no idea what they were, but they appeared to have sprouted from little bulbs.  You can see some of them in the photo below, next to the mini daffodils.  I got many of them out by the roots, but it took ages digging between the bulbs.  Hopefully, they won’t come back and I won’t have to do that again.

I have also planted some chopped up, sprouting potatoes from my kitchen cupboard. I don’t know if they’ll grow, but my mum told me my Grandad used to do that.  After the work I put in last year clearing all the weeds, I now really enjoy seeing freshly dug, cleared soil in the garden.  Here’s a photo of soil that I’m hoping will become my potato patch, for your enjoyment.

My garlic is growing well too.  My mixed salad leaves have germinated and look very cute if I do say so myself.  Also, peacock butterfly! 😀

And does anyone know what the shrub in these last photos is?

“…And Stuff” Now Includes My Garden

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I may not have blogged for a while, but I also haven’t done much sewing for a while either.  In fact I’ve been busy buying a house, and then moving house in August 2019.  Well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Now that we are firmly at home in our new house, I’m getting back to doing interesting things.  One of those is gardening, which is new to me.  Hence, my Vivid Kitty’s Fascinating World of Sewing …and Stuff now includes my garden.

Our new house has a lovely garden which I’m enjoying playing out in.  Thankfully it’s not too big: a rockery and a small patch of grass at the front; a small lawn and with three borders and a separate vegetable patch at the back; and a tiny ‘jungle’ for the wildlife just beyond the back fence.   We get loads of birds, butterflies and a couple of squirrels visiting regularly.

Last year there was some serious weeding required, and I’m kicking myself that I didn’t take any photos before the hard work I put in to clean it all up.  Since then, I’ve been mainly just keeping on top of things, and given that winter has also happened, this hasn’t taken much work at all.  I did manage to plant a few spring bulbs and some veg before the bad weather set in.

The first of the bulbs I planted last year are starting to show. I have a single crocus, a couple of purple anemones, and some miniature daffodils poking through.

I also cut back the out of control buddleia yesterday, with some help from Jez and his saw, then started thinking about how to fix my apple tree — some serious pruning is needed there.

My garlic is growing well and I’m hoping to get some seeds to germinate in my potting shed, but not sure if it’ll be warm enough. Time will tell.

Any tips on any of that much appreciated… I’m making all of this up as I go along, using the internet and some actual paper books.