Extreme Gardening?

It has been one of those years in our garden.  The grass has been getting patchier, the weeds more abundant after each rain shower, the moss getting hold and on top of that the hedges, shrubs and plants have all been growing at a rate only comparable to that of the Triffids of John Wyndham’s eponymous novel, The Day of the Triffids” ,  or at the very least tropical jungle fauna most likely found in Brazil or Borneo.

One day I was surveying our vast expanse of manicured lawn (I wish), yes all 45 sq metres of the rear garden and decided that action was needed to make the garden a more attractive place to sit by actually sorting it out. 

I had nurtured this patch of grass from rough pasture to something approaching a mown area of green stuff, or could I say, less rough pasture and it had let me down.  The grass, despite my efforts of weekly cutting and careful removal of weeds, feeding and treating with moss killer had now developed large bald patches where I had been successful in my war on moss.
The shrubs needed pruning and in many cases actually digging out and moving to a more suitable place in the garden.  We also have a large hedge that comprises a couple of small Yews,  very large Scots Pine and several Hawthorn bushes which look great but were harbouring wayward cats, mating foxes and a large number of brambles that made getting in and around the area a bit of a challenge.

So along came Alan, a man with a pair of shears and a spade and a bit more knowledge than in terms of gardening.  He arrived every Monday morning just in time for a cup of coffee and a chocolate biscuit and a bit of lamp swinging and chat between me and him.  He would then set about the various tasks we set often with some “labouring” help from me and now we were able to go about the various garden centres buying up the plants and shrubs that Alan directed us towards.

As we approached mid October we knew we would have to put Alan “on-hold” until next spring but not until we had completed just one more task.  Alan had noted that a branch of our very wild Scots Pine (that’s the Scots for you, leave them alone too long without a bit of a haircut and treatment and they get wild alright!) we decided to lop the rather long branch that was starting to dominate the garden and block the light into my “study” on the first floor.

Once we realised that neither he nor I had a ladder long enough to reach the branch at the correct spot Alan initially suggested that I hold the ladder while he crawled out along the branch to cut of the correct amount.  We soon dismissed this plan and moved to plan number two, We would hang the ladder from the branch, no.  OK, plan three, we would get the step ladder, the extending ladder and our empty wheelie bin and make a tower of sorts that the mighty Alan would scale to amputate a portion of the branch, if not all or part of one of his limbs.  Plan three worked, yes worked and here is the evidence.  I know, all limbs are present but you can see that there is a missing tree limb!

 

No animals or humans were hurt during the making of this photograph and the tree is recovering well and demanding more attention next year!

I will try and bring my loyal readers up to date on this and many other matters as the year progresses.

Finally, reading the Ibiza Sun Newspaper today I saw a rather nice reference to my Blog from another “frequent visitor” to Ibiza, Mr AJ! Thank you AJ for mentioning this madness that is my Blog and thank you for your kind words also.  So, keep reading!

I have eye for the birds!

I never thought that expression “pulling a few birds” in retirement would be so easy given the number of visitors I am having at home right now.  All shapes and sizes and degrees of “friendliness” and all sorts of colours too.  OK, to be honest they are the feathered variety of birds but nonetheless they are welcome visitors given the time and effort that has gone onto attracting them to the garden.
So far we have seen three varieties of Tit, blue, common and coal, a Robin, a host of sparrows of course and at first a lone Starling.  At first we thought that this poor lonely looking Starling had got lost, was abandoned or had been brought up thinking it was a Sparrow.  So my plan to “discourage” it was put on hold which with the benefit of hindsight was a mistake as now we have six of the flaming things thrashing about among our little garden birds like a gang of thugs.
I tried all sorts of ways of deterring these unwelcome guests but somehow each time they managed to outwit me and take most, if not all, of the suet block I had put out for the tits etc.  I think I have found a partial solution now (omitting the Facebook suggestions I got involving my already discounted 12 bore and a new one, “get a Sparrow Hawk” ) which is to hang a peanut feeder ball that is not so attractive to the Starlings as they are rather ungainly in flight and find hanging or flying upside down somewhat difficult.  Added to this is a new cage type feed with tube for seeds in its centre.  So now I hang a square of suet in its small cage inside this larger bell shaped feeder cage.  This doesn't stop the Starlings feeding but it does limit the amount that they can take and they soon get bored and clear off.
These arrangements have not gone without problems though and I have been forced to go out in all weathers to re-hang the feeders, top up the peanuts, the suet block that has broken and scare off the cats that are sitting underneath the feed area in hopeful anticipation of a bird supper.
We have had some very funny moment watching the hapless and greedy Starlings, perched on a metal rod that keeps the inner suet block away from them, spinning round desperately trying to leap from the rod to the peanut feed ball that is hanging nearby.
Our highlight though this week was to see our first of now what has been several visits of this little colourful chap!

Meanwhile my efforts to thwart the starlings are almost as epic as the efforts I made a few years ago to deter the cats of the neighbourhood when they were using our garden as a cat public toilet and battle ground.  I spent a fortune on cat repellent potions, condensed lion dung and an electronic device that only worked once before I gave up on that little purchase.  The first night I installed it we had gone to bed and at about 10:30 I heard this blood curdling caterwaul indicating that the unfortunate cat from next door had triggered the device.  From then on “Bob” the cat from next door still came into the garden but walked all around the edges keeping his distance from the detector.  One day to our astonishment Bob came into the garden peered down the length of the lawn and then bunny hopped over the beam given off by the cat deterrent device!  I gave up after that and was shocked to learn form our paperboy that he was the one that could hear the painful subsonic sound given off by the device and it made him want to run away!   In the end the real and as it turned out the cheapest and most successful was the positioning of three or four 2 litre mineral water bottles half filled with water at strategic points in the garden.  These it seemed had the effect of “dazzling” the cats and deterring them from using our lawn as a toilet.
These days the cats are kept at bay by simple vigilance and a sharp clap of the hands but my latest attempt at blocking their route under the fence at the side of the house has caused a minor mystery which I think we may have solved.  The other day I laid all sorts of entanglements in the shallow dip under the fence knowing that the cats would not be bothered with trying to negotiate the tangled maze and would climb the fence if they wished but it would limit their access to the undergrowth directly under where the birds were feeding. Today I saw a cat shooting out of the garden using the old escape route and on investigation found that all the tangled branches and thorny twigs etc had been removed and the scrape made completely clear.  Now no human could have done this as the scrape is inaccessible to any path outside.  We think it is our old friend Mr Fox who has been along and cleared his pathway given that we blocked one of the three that featured in our garden when we moved in.  Clever devils foxes!