What are we doing in the garden 2025

The blackbirds love our woodshed , think this is the 3rd year running now , and despite moving stuff around inside it doesnt deter them so i accept it for what it is . Why they always have to set up home next to my bags of peat free compost is a mystery. Still as you say , its only for a short time and if the nest is empty while Mrs Brown the Blackbird is out grabbing a quick morsel i can nip in and get some more stuff out.
The other conundrum is the fact that i have placed nest boxes in different parts of the garden aiming to get tits to nest in those and not in the fabric of our home but they wont have it . I have seen them “ knocking” for inspection purposes but they are clearly very fussy and use our house instead, i have tried moving the boxes to various locations , but no. C’est la vie !

 

I've been clearing the spring bulbs around the path and did the weeding there, i haven't finished it yet.

 

I'll say one thing about this dry weather, it certainly makes weeding (or, as I like to think of it, thinning out of self-seedlings ) easier when the roots are dry and the soil less clingy. I have managed to take out a few more Carex grasses without upsetting my frog.

My slowworm has been out for a wiggle round the garden and then safely returned itself to the cool comfort of the ivy ground cover.

 

I understand a slowworm in the garden is a sign of a healthy well balanced garden. I did find a tiny one last year but only an inch long. I have put some slate down in a hotspot but no joy yet but my good friend Hedgy was out last night hunting slugs and snails so thats a good sign.

 

I think the slowworms moved in when some previous habitat got built on nearby. I have no pets, so that is another plus as almost every other household has a dog. I also have a fair bit of ground cover ivy and waldstenia ternata, which I leave untouched, so that supplies peaceful places.

The one I saw today was about 12-15" long and I have seen a baby, about 6" long with a diameter of a thin pencil.

I have never had a hedgehog sadly, though I have seen the odd rat pass through on route to gardens with loads of bird food available.

 

We had slowworms in our previous garden, and I miss not having them. They were always a joy to see - especially the young ones.

 

In the local park they lay out pieces of roofing felt, in long grass areas, about a square meter in size.

I think someone is doing a check on what cold blooded reptiles are there, as I've seen someone checking under them on sunny mornings.

I see mostly tails or dead slow worms in my garden, the cats are bad for killing them but I have a feeling my dog is also killing them if he sees them.

 

I've been working to remove dead growth from one of the jasmines we have. The problem is that it grows halfway across the garden on wooden beam some 8ft off the ground. I'm not as steady on the stepladder as I used to be. Still, I'm getting there, and OH is out again tomorrow, so she will never notice I've been up there, when I ought not to.
She's only 5ft 2, so I don't imagine she can even see the dead growth.
Now to settle down for GW.

 

I've never seen a slowworm and our dogs don't go out in the garden, they go around the back path.

 

I have quite a few slow worms around the garden, often in the compost heap.
The compost heap also plays host to grass snakes and quite often there will be eggs and young towards the end of the summer, also find the occasional shed skin.

 

Same for me , no pets , we inherited goldfish in the ornamental pond when we moved here and i have them sharing it now with water hyacinth , water lily , marsh marigold etc and theres always a frog or a toad lurking when i clean the pond out to thin out those thuggish plants .I just enjoy seeing the variety of creatures that visit such as the bushy tailed fox that has visited at 03:03 am this past couple of nights. Not found anything substantial living in my compost heaps but i do turn them regularly .
Anyway yesterday was a dead head and tidying up day , even that created a wheelbarrow load of goodness for the heap - i have also got a new weed in the front garden , verbena bonariensis , more seedlings than i could shake a stick at but i can think of worse things.
I am going to try taking softwood cuttings from my fastigiate crab apple trees today. Worth a try i feel.

 

I am intrigued , Shiney! How do you know they are Welsh Poppies? Are they all singing Calon Lân at every opportunity?

 

I would love to see slowworms but never have. Always assumed they were a bit too "exotic" for wherever I've gardened

 

Thats a shame but i notice nearly everyone who has commented on slowworms lives in Kent , wisely i think slowworms avoid humans and stick to quiet relatively untouched or overgrown spaces.