Good ol' close season

Last May

Last May

Garden revisited


Whilst it hasn't mattered too much to me with my fishing expeditions somewhat curtailed this past year or so.
 I have been reminded of why the close season was an opportune time to take a break from fishing, before the rules were relaxed for still waters. Loads of of work to do.

This winter had quite a devastating effect on my garden as alluded too previously.
We lost well established shrubs, from the mahonia, some of our clematis and various honeysuckle plants, through to our 3 butterfly bushes(buddleja).
I have to say I won't miss the buddleja too much, because they were a high maintenance shrub, but I will miss the hoards of butterflies that took advantage of their nectar. So I shall replace them, but they will not flower enough this year if at all.Plenty of seedlings growing in the path cracks.

Today

The climbing shrubs will also be replaced as they did make effective barriers between our separate sections of the garden, bare trellis is not a favourite of mine.
Anyway, as a result of this substantial green waste was accumulated and we only get one bin a fortnight which didn't start until a fortnight ago regular trips were needed to the tip.I'm not a fan of burning it, and I'm sure my neighbours would rather I didn't too.

Just now

One very good affect was that the grapes survived and are currently bursting into leaf, maybe a freezing winter will help our harvest to improve on last year, well it will if we beat the birds to it!!
Talking of birds, another knock on effect is that the garden is bereft of nesting sites,with the exception of one of our boxes which a pair of great tits have built a nest.The hawthorn and elder hedge on the rear boundary is also now thickening up so perhaps that will get  more use than usual. The woodies and collared doves appear to be almost resident in there at the moment, along with hoards of house sparrow..
We still have many visitors as a result of a constant supply of seed and peanuts, but the disappearance of the greenfiches from dozens of pairs down to just a single pair is very noticeable. What it may have done though is encouraged the goldfinch to the garden, a very welcome new sight and sound..

We lost all of our rudd out of the pond and our resident frog,all were found after the ice had melted, the frog despite easy access to and from the pond didn't move fast enough in our registered minus 20 on a couple of days.  The pond is also very low at the moment, due to long term lack of rain, so another job to do tidying that up..the Canadian pond weed and lily have thrived!

That's my lot, jobs done for today, so off out to that waiting chair, with a bottle or two of Marston's Pedigree to warm me up for quiz night at the local, and his row of 4 micro brewery ales for me to try.
Happy birthday Maj!