MANURE ANYONE?

This week the planning for next year is in full swing with lots of crops finishing the harvest and soil being turned over to increase the mixture and give the earthworms a winter job of regenerating the soil.

With lots of leaves about from the recent windy weather it’s a great chance to use them to cover the borders and give the earthworms a helping hand with a ready-made food bank.

My search for horse manure has been rewarded and over the next couple of weeks I’ll be collecting varying amounts to provide the garden with natural nutrients to help with growing plants next year.

I might even plant a few crocus and snowdrops so when spring arrives there will be a colourful scene in the garden while the days start getting longer.

Autumn is an amazing season with the low lying sun reflecting an enormous amount of colour from the ever changing leaves on trees and bushes.

The climbing plant in my garden has already shed its leaves – probably helped by the recent strong winds – but others are reluctant to start turning away from green at the moment.

I think the warm October temperatures (even at night) have led some to hang on for a while. Now we’re about to start November, the temperatures are starting to fall in line with normal conditions for this time for the year and I’m sure the green leaves will soon become a rainbow of reds, yellows, oranges and browns.

For the wildlife, the birds are not spending too much time in the garden, apart from the house sparrows who are gathering in larger groups for shelter and food in the rose hedge. The dunnocks have made a few appearances, but the robins and blackbirds are scarce.

I'll know the natural food supplies are low when the long tailed tits arrive to feed on the peanuts and fat snacks.

I’ll be clearing out the nestboxes soon and preparing them for any winter roosting birds, before they hopefully are claimed for nesting once again next year.

I have another camera nestbox so will try and hook it up to the sparrow nestbox in the hope they nest there again. Given there are three chambers in that nextbox and the camera will only cover one, I do wonder what the chances are of my successfully guessing which one will be used, if  any.

I’ll probably go with the one that was used this year and see what happens.

Right, must go and pick up that horse manure!

AUTUMN RAIN BUT SUMMER TEMPERATURES

Heavy rain is affecting all of the country, but I wonder what it is doing to the wildlife.

One thing it’s doing to my garden is attracting lots of slugs and snails, plus encouraging flowers and plants to keep producing displays to attract the declining number of insects.

The birds have not been frequenting the garden much, which I presume is down to the amount of natural food available out in the fields, hedgerows and woods around my house.

Only the house and tree sparrows have been seen regularly and even the blackbirds and robins are conspicuous by their absence.

I hope the wet weather doesn’t flood out too many earthworms as these have suffered enough in recent years and they are the aerators of our soils, making sure it doesn’t stagnate. Plus they are food for plenty of other animals.

In the next week or so I’m planning to finish the harvesting of the crops, apart from the parsnips. I’m still collecting ripening tomatoes and have carrots, potatoes and runner beans all ready to be picked.

Once all the harvesting is done I’ll be off to get some horse manure and then mix it in with all my borders and hopefully this will help generate even better plants and crops for next year.

THE CHANGING OF THE BRITISH SEASONS

Autumn has arrived, the last of the swallows have gone and jays are busy burying caches of winter food.

Now is the time when the hard work of our plants and trees starts to pay off as the seeds are taken by birds and mammals and deposited nearby, either through accidentally dropping or through passing through the digestive system and landing with ready-made ‘fertiliser’.

The sunflowers in my garden are proving irresistible to the great tits, while the blue tits are also enjoying the harvest, but having less success with the larger varieties of seeds.

The cooler and wetter weather of recent days has meant sightings of butterflies and bees have dropped to virtually zero, but I’ve seen an increasing number of spiders located in the house.

One such spider, which I thought had not ventured this far north in the UK, was the Noble False Widow, which has been causing increasing amount of concern among the general public.

It’s the less venomous cousin of the Black Widow spider, but is still capable of inflicting a nasty bite when is feels threatened.

To be honest I felt threatened when I saw it in my kitchen, so promptly took it far away from the house.

I knew it was a Noble False Widow because the day before I saw it I’d read about these spiders in a number of papers and researched images online.

The distinct pale pattern on the dark rear abdomen was clear to see and before I thought about a pic, I simply took it away from the house – next time I’ll get a pic, although I hope there’s not a next time!

With the swallows long gone and another six months of waiting to see them arrive back again, I’ve started to notice a number of jays near the house.

I always had them down as shy woodland birds, but in the last two years I’ve seen them on the hard shoulder of motorways, inches from high speed traffic, collecting things.

I’ve also noticed an increasing number of them on the road leading to my house, this week appearing to stuff a food supply in the soft road side verges.

They are clever birds and it appears we have an expanding population of them which is forcing some to come to the less wooded area around my house.

Finally the weather ‘forecast’ for this winter seem to be snow and very cold, which could help rid us of nasty bugs, but also increase our heating bills. No point worrying about it now, if it does happen let’s just try and enjoy it.