Sometimes i think that my friends are just the best. I know that people always think that their friends are just the best, but my friends really are. I went to visit someone whom i have known since we worked in a conservation charity. This person is, despite having left the place many years ago and written several books. still really involved in conservation. He is now addressing conservation action on two fronts - habitat management as well as predation and being the person he is, he brings all the skill and knowledge and experience he has to bear on any issue that he takes on. Whenever i emerge from a meet up with him i feel so incredibly privileged to have listened to what he has to say on any topic.
His approach to everything is what intelligence is supposed to be; which is observing something, applying it and then honestly recording the results. The thing he is working on currently is using egg aversion techniques to prevent gulls, corvids and foxes from eating the eggs of endangered breeding birds like terns and lapwings. What is really interesting is that he still gets so excited about the results. It is all new to him as well and it is a technique which he had to try from the very start. Working with a publican, chemist and a fisherman, he has managed to successfully manage to get the tern colony on Inishboffin to rear chicks for the first time in ten years. He was ecstatic and he was telling me how they went about this experiment. Just the four of them - doing this cheaply but effectively.
I am in awe of people like him, who despite all the obstacles the world throws in their way, will continue to do the things they love and want to do. And the obstacles are many of course. This is not scientific is the first thing what would be said. Then it is breaking the law. Sometimes i wonder what people are thinking? It makes my heart break that instead of facilitating people like him, institutions who purport to be saving wildlife are being bureaucratic and territorial. They make themselves look idiotic at best and useless at worst. Or even bullying. Actually he doesn't even care because it works. It works, he said, what other proof do you need? It works.
Meanwhile, my garden.... my heart is breaking here too. It is just about to go into flower and i am taking off to Singapore.
Here it was four months ago.
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| This was taken in March |
Here it is now. Same view.
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| Complete with BBQ |
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This bed should have had lots of honeysuckle and clematis but
a fungal thing happened. I am leaving it alone to
see if the plant is able to recover itself. Should be interesting. |
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Close up of the blossming nastursiums. They should have had more flowers
but i have been harvesting and eating them in salads
I have also been transplanting the nastursiums around the rest of the garden. |
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Lavender flowers, and mustard plants - this corner will look spectacular in
three weeks as the hollyhocks and delphinums all bloom |
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The violas and the pansies did really really well.
They all thrived. |
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| I planted these chamomile from seed |
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They are adorable and smell gorgeous
They grow like crazy too! |
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This corner too is due to explode with even more colour
Cornflowers and other wildflowers are in bud |
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| I have been giving away my lettuces |
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| Close up of the flowers in the pond area |
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The nettles have grown around the pond area to give it a shady
woodland feel |
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| Peas, nastursiums and mustards |
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| Beans wind around the branch |
I have discovered the following:
companion planting is very good - plant herby plants with pungent tastes in between the juicier plants - this means that they protect it from slugs.
have an area you sacrifice around the place - just a few plants which are meant to be eaten at the edges.
the purply lettuces are bitterish and the slugs do not like them. They also do not like herbs or nastursiums. Companion planting has also meant that the other not purple lettuces are not eaten by the slugs.
strawberries love growing with herbs - interplant them for a really pretty effect.
keyhole beds rock - the most practical and efficient way of making use of garden spaces
have nettles - these attract butterflies and they make great habitat. They also grow tall really quickly and if managed can give the garden and secret garden feel - but like a wild secret garden
i am going to have roses more roses next year
don't be afraid to experiment with plants - generally have plants which are lower in the front and higher at the back - then keep them this way
have colourful borders which you can eat!
have a seating area in the middle of the garden - or somewhere at least - so you can sit and be really super smug about how clever you are
check under any logs that you have used for the beds for slugs - surprise! - i throw my slugs on the road - sssssh, don't tell the neighbours.
as far as possible - in fact only native species should be planted. Forget about the ornamentals which never do anything all year round.
a garden should rest in the winter - sheet mulch it when it does.
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