Little Green Space
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Little Green Space |
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| August 2008
August 27, 2008 Nesting Boxes My dad arrived for a visit yesterday with a couple of nesting boxes he had made. They are suitable for robins, wrens or flycatchers - the latter would be great as we are yet to spot one around here. Today Dad has put the boxes up - one under a creeper on a wall, and one in a large hawthorn tree in the corner of the meadow. Now we just have to wait until next spring to see who moves in! August 26, 2008 Hay-making
Rich's school-friend Tony, who has a large farm down the road, arrived today with his tractor to cut the grass in the hay meadows. The weather has been so wet this August that it was a little later than he would have liked, but better late than never. The grass is cut, tomorrow it will be spread out, and the day after that - weather permitting - made up into bales. The wild flowers in the meadow will benefit from the late cutting - they have had plenty of time to set seed, and so won't have to work so hard to compete against the grass. The fields look a little bare now - but the smell of freshly cut hay is wonderful! August 16, 2008 Well dressing
We have just returned from the blessing ceremony of the Hackney well dressings. One of the springs feeds a stream that runs through the meadows at Hackney Leys, creating a useful habitat there. This is the second year the springs at Hackney have been decorated with well dressings, and it seems set to become an annual tradition. Many people in the community were involved including our neighbours Sue and Phil, who organised the first Hackney well dressing at their spring on Greenaway Lane in 2007. Another neighbour, Marilyn, created the beautiful angel designs. Moira, a potter who lives locally, donated the clay, and lots of people provided flowers from their gardens. We got involved too - I spent one evening with our friend Debbie making one of the side panels with cloves, and took the kids to help push in some of the 25,000 pieces of maize that made up the yellow background. Rosie, Bramble and Holly also contributed, by donating some of their eggshells for the background behind the angel! This year there are three well dressings, if you are in the area and want to take a look: one at the far end of Holt Road, one halfway along Holt Road, and one at the junction of Greenaway Lane and Ameycroft Lane. Drop a coin in the spring - any money raised from donations will go to the League of Friends at the Whitworth Hospital. August 11, 2008 Save the World! Check out our new climate change feature, with lots of ideas for reducing your carbon footprint. Go on, save the world! And have a look at our feature about keeping chickens. August 9, 2008 Speaking of Thistles... ...they have begun to seed madly, so Rich has spent a (not-so) happy couple of hours in the field this morning, snipping off the flower heads before they go everywhere. We want some thistles in the meadow (good butterfly breeding habitat, see August 6!) but don't want them to take over - and they are finding their way into the veggie patch. August 6, 2008 Free!
Our five painted lady butterflies have now all hatched and so today we released them into the garden. They were quite dozy at first, and the kids had to gently lift them out - the butterflies sat on their fingers for some time before fluttering off, much to the children's delight. We're hoping they'll stick around for a bit (the butterflies, as well as the children) - we have loads of thistles in the field, which is one of the preferred egg-laying plants for the painted lady, as well as plenty of nectar-rich plants such as buddleia growing in the garden. August 3, 2008 New Patch Today we began to dig out a new area for extra veg-growing space. I plan to sow swiss chard, perpetual spinach and winter salads there, and protect the crops with a tent cloche during the worst of the winter weather. Of course, as with much that we do, we are up against the clock - the seeds will need to be sown by mid-August to give them a chance to grow before the days shorten too much. At least the new patch is not too big, so hopefully a couple of afternoons digging should do it.
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