Honey bees?

I think I might be lucky enough to be hosting a honey bee nest. I lifted the lid off the compost bin to empty the hoover and about six bees came flying out! I was Very Scared and threw the lid on and ran away. I've popped back out, which is how I got the photo, and I'm pretty sure they are honey bees. I rang some local beekeepers and they are talking amongst themselves about hopefully coming out to double check that is what I've got (and ideally if there is any chance they can adopt them).

If they are bees they should be safe to pass in and out of the house, obviously I don't want to disturb them, but I fear Jacob might be a bit unhappy about it. Really, I'm not too happy with the positioning myself, could be a bit farther away from the entrances to the house - I won't be able to open my kitchen window while they are there. But to have a bees nest, I haven't seen one of those in the garden since I had some bumble bees, so I'm very excited!

Feeding Garden Birds

I read recently that feeding wild bird seed in a mix wasn't a very good idea. There's a lot of waste, and some birds won't visit. So recently I invested in a few more feeders, and now I feed peanuts, peanut chunks, sunflower hearts and niger seed. Which is all I could find in the local shops.

I have had chaffinches visiting since I planted the teasal a few years ago, but I was really pleased to see a goldfinch a couple of days ago. I've also had some great tits as well. I think there have been other birds as well, that I would have called 'sparrows' without my binoculars, but I'm not confident enough to really try to identify them in public.

It's not a very good picture, but on the green feeder to the left is my goldfinch. There were two, but one flew off while I was getting my phone out. I think I will ask my son to leave his digital camera out, so I can try to get some better shots.

Tadpoles now have legs, but every time I try to take a photo Fred sticks his head in the pond and picks out all the plants.

Tadpole Killer

Sadly one of the ponds is completely turning into something really nasty, and nothing appears to have survived. This is a shame, as it's the one that the frogs don't spawn in, and every year, I put some spawn/tadpoles into it from the other pond. They never seem to live.

The water has gone completely green! Everything was dead in there - no tadpoles at all. So am in the process of emptying it.


To show how green it is, here it is in a white container, against the grass. Please excuse very nosy terriers who wouldn't get out of the way (and tasted it - yuk!).


The other pond isn't doing too badly. Admittedly it's brown, but I'm not sure what to do about that - I think it's the soil at the bottom. Once the tadpoles have moved on I will investigate.


Also a short while ago I planted a couple of fruit trees for the wildlife.
Pear

and Apple.

Butterflies

Today I finally divided my Sedum spectable 'Ice plant'. It's a late flowering sedum, so extends the times butterflies can feed in my garden. I don't think I've ever seen a butterfly on it, but never mind. Each year brings new hope. There's also a chance goldfinches will come for the seeds, but I haven't spotted them either. Hey ho. Water gathers among the leaves and that must surely be useful to something.

In this photo it's surrounded by last years seed heads, weeds and grass.

It's needed dividing for a few years - it spreads out and leaves a gapping hole in the middle. The (mythical) butterflies and goldfinches won't mind but they do have to share the garden with me.

I've pulled out all of last years dead seedheads, and with them come 'new' plants as Sedum is stupidly easy to grow - break off a leaf and it'll grow roots - when pulling out the stems there's usually a 6" plant attached, already rooted. In fact, some baby plants have spread themselves out a bit anyway. Last year when I pulled out the dead heads I just poked them into holes in the front garden (north facing) and they're all growing away like crazy.

Once I'd very messily divided the main plant, I put the new half back in the ground a short distance away - it's looking a bit sorry for itself as it fell on its head then Fred attacked it. I gathered up all the baby plants and put them in a hole together as well. I'm sure it will survive! I'v kept them close rather than spreading them around the garden as sometimes 'volume of plant' can help encourage wildlife that has ignored it before. It's a very forgiving plant - it's forgiven me many years of neglect, so I do recommend it for any wildlife garden.


You can see the three plants in the photo, along with the bag of waste! Normally I compost, but my heap has also been neglected, due to me moving it to a spot that is now inaccessible behind some (also neglected) clematis.

It will perk up after a while, so I hope to update with some new photos later in the year.



And as this is the tadpole diaries, here they are, mobbing together and blowing bubbles in the bath pond, and more visible as individuals in the bigger pond.

Tadpoles!

I've been wildlife gardening for a long time, but it's all fallen apart a bit in the last couple of years - mainly to do with mowing the lawn, which I hate!

I've got two ponds, both tiny, just for wildlife. I live on Essex clay and I'm not digging any deeper than I have to, so tiny ponds it is. One has been there for 8 years, the other is a year or so younger. I also have as many habitats as anyone can squeeze into a 60' garden on a large housing estate a stone's throw from the A12.

The fork is to show the scale! The ponds have been very neglected, one of them only had about an inch or so of water in it, as the stupid reeds had taken over so much. The other had a huge ants nest next to it, which finally toppled over, landed in the pond and started becoming a lawn.


I kept meaning to sort them out, but the frogs kept spawning before I got around to it. Yeah, I know, I had a year between each time ...

Today I just dug them all out, and was left with nothing in the ponds except tadpoles and muddy water. I've throw in some lettuce for the tadders, and will be topping up with new plants over the coming weeks.

As I've now got so little time for everything in my life, I thought what more could I try to squeeze in, so I'm going to get my wildlife garden back up to scratch, and will be blogging it.