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| Wildlife water bowl. |
It's been another wet week. All this rain gave me plenty of opportunity to see posts about what's growing in other gardens. Between showers, I compared notes to my own space.
While the freesia are still asleep & the clematis has no noticeable new growth, there are a few things happening out there.
1. I admit, I've been worried about my witch hazel. When it dropped its leaves early last year, I told myself the move had changed its signals. Then all these great photos of yellow & orange & red squigglies appeared in my Twitter feed, convincing me my tree had died.
But hello!
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| Witch hazel tutu blooms. |
2. The leucojum has had its first blossom.
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| Leucojum not yet fully open. |
3. I've been keeping an eye on the sweet peas, self seeded & . . .
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| Self seeded sweet pea next to the toadflax. |
. . . 2017 survivor.
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| Old man pea. |
4. The greatest joy of week, proof positive the daffs have survived Brer Fox. (You can read about our Neighbour From Hell saga here & here.)
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| The Brer Fox repellant worked! |
5. The kerria surprised me with a blossom in the middle of its many wands. The smudged yellowgreen bits below the horizontal stem are leaf knobs getting ready to open. This is the kerria overshadowed by the elder tree, which I've been pruning back, so hopefully there'll be more vertical & less horizontal this year.
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| Oh kerria, you yellow face delights us. |
6. Mlle DoodleFace pointed out a new hole under the fence, this one too small for Brer Fox. I keep filling it in & it keeps getting opened again, sometimes by Mlle DoodleFace herself.
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| The new rat-sized hole. |
Mizzy BunnyButt (who tends all things rodent) sent a memo about some big heavy stone to be lodged in there quite soon. (As you can see in this photo, there were no blossoms on the witch hazel earlier this week, so WOW, eh?)
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| Mizzy BB inspects. |
All these new things in our new year.
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| Tuckered Mlle DoodleFace. |
Ah the portents of spring when young men's fancies turn to ... and this old codger sharpens his spades! If it is rat(s) making that hole, shoving a stone in or even filling it with concrete won't stop them - they'll just dig around it. You might invest in one of those "walk through" bait contraptions. Only rodents can get in but will nibble the bait and .... you know. Meanwhile, you may want to stop feeding the birds for a bit.
ReplyDeleteThanks, John. I need to get my wildlife cam fixed & sited in on the hole. As to blocking the hole, they can simply go through the fox's hole, too. Perhaps they'll be reported on in another 6 of the future.
DeleteGreat to see everything starting to reappear, even when its as cold as it is this week. Your garden must be a couple of weeks ahead of mine as the many signs of new life here are a bit smaller. I've lots of new shoots but certainly no flowers on the witch hazel just yet.
ReplyDeleteIt is an exciting time of year, like waiting for packages to open themselves.
ReplyDeleteWell put. Spring is on its way!
ReplyDeleteYay for your witch hazel! And boo to your rat. Hard to keep them out. Apparently the only thing that works is plugging the hole with steel wool. That irritates their lips. In this case though, they might just dig another hole. How effective is the rodent watch in your household? Tell them to go on high alert please
ReplyDeleteNot only does my Mizzy BunnyButt patrol the grounds, but the wildlife cam shows there's several other cats plus at least 2 fox who visit regularly. What I need is an owl.
ReplyDelete