Feed the Birds





The weather forecast suggests an end to the mild weather we have been enjoying and some cold frosty days ahead. This time of year we need to think about our garden birds and ensure that they have sufficient food and fresh water to see them through the winter. Hanging feeders from trees will attract certain birds but others need ground feeding areas or bird tables. Sparrows, finches, blue tits and great tits will happily feed from suspended feeders but robins, thrushes and blackbirds prefer tables. Think carefully about where you are going to hang your feeders and site your bird table, avoiding low level feeding tables if cats visit your garden. If you do not have trees from which to hang your feeders buy a pole fitted with hooks which can be pushed into the ground or mounted in a stand and placed on a hard surface. Place it no further than 6ft from cover such as a hedge or shrubs so the birds have shelter from predators. do not hang feeders above dense shrubbery where cats might hide.

Try to give your garden birds a varied diet. A range of feeders is available designed to hold peanuts or seeds and most garden centres and pet stores sell fat balls. If you are going to hang fat balls always remove the netting and put them into a hanging container designed for the purpose, as the birds can tangle their feet in the plastic netting. Grated cheese (not the blue vein cheeses), apples and porridge oats can be added to the bird table. Robins are especially fond of mealworms. Don't put out any food which is salty, spicy or has started to go mouldy. Avoid putting too much food on the ground as this could encourage vermin.

Water is very important too. You can buy small water dishes to attach to the bird feeder poles but a bird bath is a much better option and makes an attractive feature for the garden.

The best website for advice on caring for your garden birds is the RSPB website at http://www.rspb.org.uk .

It's well worth encouraging birds to your garden. Not only are they a delight to watch, they also feed on many garden pests such as slugs, snails, earwigs, greenfly and caterpillars.

Evergreen Plants

It's a good idea to incorporate a few evergreen plants into the garden to give a bit of winter greenery. There are plenty of evergreens to choose from and one of the best for green and gold colour is the Euonymus Fortunei 'Emerald and Gold'. This is easily grown in ordinary garden soil in sun or partial shade. I planted mine as a tiny shrub over 15 years ago and it has grown into a handsome 5ft tall specimen. It is a good choice for evergreen hedges as it withstands regular pruning to maintain shape. It may need some protection from extreme winter weather but will tolerate the average British winter.

Choisya Ternata (Mexican orange blossom) has glossy dark green leaves which are aromatic when crushed and produces sweetly scented white flowers in spring. I grow the golden leaved variety called 'Sundance' which brings a welcome bright splash of colour to the garden on dark winter days. Choisya has a wide spreading and rounded bushy habit and will grow to about 6ft tall and 6 - 8ft wide. It is pollution tolerant and therefore suitable for town gardens. Grow in any well drained garden soil in a sunny position. It will tolerate partial shade but the leaf colour is better in full sun. In very cold gardens it is best grown against a south facing wall as the foliage is prone to frost damage.

.A smaller pollution tolerant evergreen shrub which can be grown in containers or in the border is the Skimmia. These shrubs have oval green leaves and produce creamy white flowers in 2 inch long conical spikes which are followed by bright red berries which persist throughout the winter. As with holly bushes, you will need to plant male and female cultivars of this shrub close to each other in order for the female cultivar to produce berries. But a single shrub will produce flowers regardless. There is a red flowered male variety called 'Rubella' which is particularly attractive and this would be my choice. I am currently growing a variegated form of this shrub in a pot on the patio. The pot has been placed against the patio wall for protection as I am not sure if this variegated Skimmia will be as hardy as the other varieties, but it has a very pretty leaf edged in cream.

Winter Flowering Viburnum

Viburnum bodnantense is one of the best frost resistant winter flowering shrubs. I have two of these, one in front of the house and the other at the bottom of the garden.

It is a deciduous shrub of upright habit which grows to about 8ft tall. The leaves are green oval shaped, the young leaves being tinged with bronze. Flowers are borne in 1 to 2 inch long clusters on the bare branches from December through to February. These open from rose red buds and gradually fade to pink, and then to white. As a bonus the flowers are also fragrant. When the sun catches them they look like little fairy lights adorning the branches.

This shrub grows well in any fertile moist garden soil and is best planted in full sun. It requires very little pruning. Just thin out overgrown shrubs by cutting the oldest stems back to the base after flowering (about April/May), and at the same time cut out any damaged or dead wood. 



Planting in The Woodland Border

At the bottom of my garden is a raised border lined with trees and a few shrubs such as the winter flowering Viburnum 'bodnantense' and the spring flowering Choisya ternata 'sundance'. The soil tends to be rather dry here so I need to think carefully about what to plant. At the front of this miniature woodland border, trailing over the dry stone wall, I have planted aubrietia, arabis and saponaria which I wrote about in a previous post.

The border also has spring bulbs such as daffodils, bluebells and hyacinths together with spring flowering plants such as pulmonaria (lungwort) and primulas. There are also a few cyclamen hederifolium plants which were given to me by a former work colleague and are thriving under the trees.

Although cyclamen hederifolium originates in the Mediterranean region it is fully hardy in the temperate gardens of Britain. The leaves are a deep green with silvery markings and shaped rather like ivy leaves, hence the name 'hederifolium'. It is a low growing plant (approximately 4 inches in height) and bears shuttlecock shaped flowers in shades of pink. A white flowered form, 'album', is also available. The flowers appear from August to November, the leaves persisting longer throughout the winter and spring months. These plants do well in woodland conditions as they need shade from the hot sun and shelter from the winds. Another variety worth growing is the cyclamen coum which flowers in late winter/early spring. It is similar in appearance and flower colour but is smaller with more rounded leaves.

This autumn I have planted some anemone blanda rhizomes in the woodland border. This is another low growing plant from the Mediterranean region. It grows to about 6 inches high and produces pretty starry flowers in blue, white, pink and mauve. Flowering in spring just after the snowdrops have faded these plants are suitable for naturalising under trees. I just hope they are not as attractive to the squirrels as my crocuses were. I planted about 100 of these a couple of years ago and the squirrels thought Christmas had arrived early and promptly dug them all up! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these will survive to make a good show in spring. 

Unusually Warm Autumn Weather

The unusually warm weather we have experienced this autumn has extended the flowering season of my annual plants. The white daisy flowers of the Marguerites in pots on the patio are as abundant as they were in midsummer. The Pelargoniums are also still producing flowers. Many perennials have had a second flush of flowers, including my lovely climbing rose, and this has combined with the reds and golds of the autumn leaves to produce a rich tapestry of colour not normally seen in the garden this late in the year.
Primulas which are normally spring flowering have also come into flower and the Camellia shrub is in bud. This is very unusual and I'm not too sure if it will flower as normal in the spring. The weather is changing now and temperatures are dropping. Leaf fall is increasing and I am expecting the first frosts soon.
I am definitely not complaining though when I think of the extreme winter weather we have suffered for the last two years. Hopefully this year the weather will follow a more normal winter pattern. I'm looking forward to the first frost as this is when I will sample my curly kale - it always tastes better once it's been exposed to frost. The kale plants and the leeks are growing really well and will hopefully provide me with fresh grown vegetables throughout the winter months. 

Sweet Chestnuts - Food for Free

This is the season for sweet chestnuts - collect them now for an excellent wholesome free food which is high in fibre and full of vitamin C. The ripened nuts fall from the tree during October and November so get out in the woods and start collecting. Not to be confused with the inedible horse chestnut, the sweet chestnut husk has longer spines and contains two or three nuts. Stamp on the spiny green husks to split them and reveal the shiny brown nuts within.
You can eat them raw but be sure to remove the inner brown membrane as this can taste bitter. The shells and inner skins can be hard to remove but roasting them makes this job a lot easier and brings out the full flavour of the nuts.
When roasting chestnuts always slit the shells otherwise they will explode. The traditional way was to roast them in the hot ash of an open fire or close to the red coals, slitting the shells of all but one of them. When this one explodes you know the rest are ready. I wouldn't recommend this for an indoor fire as the explosion can be quite dramatic scattering shell shrapnel across the room. Perhaps this method is best left to outdoor fires.
If you don't have access to an open fire the chestnuts can be cooked in a conventional oven. First cut a slit in the shell on the flat side of each nut (very important to prevent exploding nuts!) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees C or Gas Mark 4 and place the nuts in a single layer in a baking dish. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. If you just want to heat them up to make them easier to peel rather than fully cook them, then just bake for about 15 minutes. Remove the shells and inner skins while still warm. If you leave them to cool they will be harder to peel.
Sweet chestnuts can be used in stuffing and to make puree. The nuts do not keep for long so if you want to store them for future use one method is to dry them in a very low oven until hard. Once dried store them in a dry jar in a cool dark cupboard. The dried chestnuts should keep for at least a year. To reconstitute the dried nuts put them into boiling water and cover. Leave them for an hour or so and then use them in your recipe. 

Plant Garlic - It's so Easy to Grow

I love using garlic in cooking and it is really easy to grow your own. Heads of garlic for planting can be obtained from garden centres and mail order catalogues. You can get garlic for free by planting supermarket bulbs but the crop won't be as good. Split the garlic heads into individual cloves and plant these about 2 inches deep and 6 inches apart. Plant a bit deeper in light soils but if your soil if heavy and poorly drained you will need to plant about 1 inch deep on a bed of coarse sand and potting compost. Once planted just leave it to grow, weeding when necessary and watering in dry spells in spring and summer. You can plant the cloves in stages between now and February (depending on soil and weather conditions) which will give a harvest between June and August.
Lift when the leaves start to turn yellow and bend at the stem. Dry outside for about 7-10 days if the weather is fine and dry, otherwise dry in a well ventilated greenhouse. Store in hanging bunches or plaits so that air can circulate the bulbs.
If you don't have room in the garden to grow garlic, grow it in pots as it is shallow rooting and well suited to container growing.