Books by Ian Rogers
Books by Ian Rogers
Forgive me, gentle readers, for the rather erratic posting of the blog over the last few months. I hope you haven’t been biting your fingernails and kicking the cat. There are reasons, of course, one being the garden. Autumn can be as busy as Spring. We have quarter of an acre with a damson tree, two old apple trees (one Cox and one Charles Ross) and a soft fruit area. This year the apples have been particularly large and abundant. Every year we have lovely apples, many of which we store over winter in the shed. They will keep until the end of January.
I have been mowing my lawn in thirds on a rota which cuts back the wild flowers in one section, lets them recover in the second while the blooming beautifully in the third! This year I carefully mowed round a number of self-sown saplings.
We have a walnut tree and a self-sown hazel tree. Both shed nuts prolifically and the squirrels bury the nuts all over the place, which then grow. I, too, cache nuts! I can’t resist picking up handfuls off the ground. We shall have nuts at Christmas, plenty to give friends and neighbours and left-overs all next year.
I love watching wildlife from the kitchen window while I am chained to the sink. The squirrel rushes out from the bushes, digs a hole, pops the nut in and pats down the soil before frantically rushing off to fetch another nut. We are blessed with birds that are becoming scarce in other parts of the UK, abundant insect life and frogs and newts even though we don’t have a pond. We’ve had field voles, a Pigmy Shrew, a grass snake, slow worms…
Last Spring I offered to allow continued growth of the nut saplings so they could be passed on to help with a local rewilding project. For a few Autumn days, I was busy digging up them up. I had also rooted some Pussy Willow cuttings in pots and the first batch of saplings and cuttings went to their new homes about a week ago. More will leave soon.
In corners of the garage I find drifts of shells where the field mice have stored nuts and eaten them through the winter. The same is true of the garden shed and other sheltered places.
A few years ago I planted a wild hedge along one boundary that only had a metal post and wire fence; more hazel, hawthorn, field maple, holly, pussy willow, wild rose. Closing gaps in hedges is one way to help our wildlife.
Once the weather turned cold and wet, I mowed all the grass for winter as soon as there was a fine spell. It was hard work and it led to a general bed-weeding and tidy up. Self-propagated perennials were dug up and potted for the church plant stall. COVID stopped the church’s Annual Plant Sale last May but a lady nearby has trestles in her lay-by. She is a prolific grower and other people add their contributions. She gets a steady trickle of donations through her letterbox.
Nature came a little too close to me a few weeks ago. As my wife has a chronic illness I sleep in a small attic garret (ok, a quite nice loft conversion room) with a dormer window. One night I found there had been a leak and rain had wetted my bed. Cue stripping it off, changing the mattress and remaking it. Thinking the lashing rain had been blown through the ventilation strip, I dried things out and carried on as usual - only to find it happened again a few weeks later. In self defence I embarked on a major rotation of furniture so there is now a catching pot on a melamine surfaced desk under the drip. Builder needed!
<< Next Archive Previous >>