Netting more plants

Toad held the torch while I scrabbled about in the loft, shifting planks to kneel on over the rafters and hoiking out of crannies old curtain poles that had been left up there before our time. They would be ideal, I'd decided, as posts on which to fasten some netting to protect plants whose growth has been stunted in previous years by roe deer chompings: Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) and Chilean Lantern Tree (Crinodendron hookerianum). The C.hookerianum had even flowered but then the deer chewed its bark off. I had given them some protection last year but they needed serious stuff sorted this year. Toad was enlisted to hammer curtain poles into the ground. He reckoned the deer were up the hill in the woods complaining about how mean we were keeping these delicious plants all to ourselves!

 

The fern behind the lantern tree is Lemon-scented Fern (Oreopteris limbosperma). It usually looks lovely later in the year.

Now I have a basketful of large wooden curtain pole rings. I suppose I can always chuck them on a bonfire if I haven't thought of a better use for them before we get some bonfire weather.

Bee house under the step

Looking south from back door yesterday afternoon

There are very few days when it's warm enough to sit outside to eat one's muesli. Yesterday was one such. I put one of my sit-upon-ery mats on the middle stone step at the front and enjoyed the morning. Looking down to the bottom step–a rough slab of conglomerate added after some house settling, I think–I saw a small bumblebee disappear 'into' the step. I had noticed it had an arch in previous years but hadn't seen anything going into the hole.

the rough conglomerate step

The first pic shows where the bee went in. A bee came out of the other end of the step (second pic) several times. Whether it was one bee or several I don't know. I didn't get any pics of the actual bee.
I wondered, sitting there munching muesli, whether I should mow the back terrace yet but decided to wait a bit. The primroses that have seeded themselves from elsewhere in the garden onto the terrace haven't fnished flowering and making seed yet.




The photo below is of a small bit of the back terrace where bugle and ferns grow on and near the retaining wall.

Chilly welly wander

I've been wondering who had yanked up the liverwort on top of an old spruce stump (a Christmas tree from a long ago Boggy Brae family). This morning I saw a magpie mining the wood, presumably looking for grubs or ants. I wasn't quick enough to get a pic.

Down there beside the stump the ground is very soggy... well, it's soggy everywhere at the moment!

The lichen and the mosses on the stump are lovely.

From higher up the garden I was surprised to see some snow on the hills to the north but I noticed that the rain had hit "Scrawny" from the north-west so I guess what was rain here was snow a bit higher and 'norther'.

Scrawny's trunk dry on one side

Wet and ivy-clad on the other

I enjoyed the colours of fallen leaves, young birch bark, and dying lemon-scented fern. It was chillier than I expected out there. I haven't taken my hat off yet.

May Findings

The first buttercup has flowered. This is Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens). Leaves pictured below.

Silvery scales of Lemon-scented Fern
(Oreopteris limbosperma)

An unfurling crozier of Lemon-scented Fern

Slender Rush (Juncus tenuis),
one small step outside the back door,
looking colourful in afternoon light

Fern and bluebell

and today's favourite daisy

I found what I think might be a Wood Pigeon's eggshell at the top of the garden.
And several bunches of small feathers. Whether the two are connected, I don't know.

The Grey Sallow I pruned vigorously in the autumn is fighting back. It might not be as easy as I thought to use this horizontal branch as a garden seat.

Autumn Gold

Chocolate puddings and ferns

After some chores I sat down on a pallet with a pot of chocolate Gü and a mug of tea.

I'm testing chocolate puddings for when my grandsons visit. Their other grandparents down in England supply Mini Magnums so I decided to be the supplier of chocolate puds. I make a fabulous mocha upsidedown sponge pud but sometimes one needs something that comes in a little pot which is best eaten with a baby's little horn spoon.

I'm giving the Gü thing five out of ten so I won't be buying it again. I had to read what it said on the box after eating it to know what it was supposed to taste of––other than chocolate of course. Not impressed with what they call "our richest ganache yet" and I'm a bit of a ganache expert.

Anyway, moving on...

I looked at the next task while I had my snackeroo: this wall of ferns

I wanted to clear the larger ferns back to the wall before they shot their spores everywhere. We have plenty of ferns and though I like them I feel I do have to limit them a bit or they'd smother everything else. I also wanted to check out what else is growing on this damp holding wall. Some people actually plant vertical walls with stuff. Nature just does it herself at the Boggy Brae.

Here is a small section with

Athyrium filix-femina (Lady Fern)

Phyllitis scolopendrium (Hart's-tongue Fern)

Asplenium trichomanes (Maidenhair Spleenwort).

The tiny white flowers are Enchanter's Nightshade. I think it is Alpine Enchanter's Nightshade because the leaf bases are heart-shaped rather than truncate.

And then there are mosses and liverworts growing on the actual stones

plus a few other things

The main liverwort is Crescent-cup Liverwort (Lunularia cruciata) on this section of wall.

You can see one of the crescent cups with 'gemmae' in it near the bottom centre of this pic.

 Same liverwort with female 'receptacles' (those pointy dot things)

and a red-stemmed moss that I'm not sure about yet.

I found a tiny purple grub during my pokings and peerings;

took this shot under the microscope and then put it back where it was.

It was about 15mm long.

 That bit of wall looks like this now.

I stopped at this bunch of ferns because there is a wasps' nest in the wall behind them. The wasps haven't been a bother so we have left them alone.

Hard Fern in my garden

There is a lot of Hard Fern (Blechnum spicant) in the Boggy Brae garden. Like several other species of fern, it thrives on our damp, acid hillside. I like them and I'm slowly learning more about them. The photos in this blog post show how Blechnum spicant changes through the year.

29 April: evergreen infertile fronds that over-wintered
and new fertile fronds unfurling

11 May: the tall red stems of the fertile fronds
show above the lower-growing inertile fronds

6 June: I took this photo because I liked the light

6 August: the largest plant –
a metre wide and a metre high

Same plant 11 Aug: different angle
near the base of a downy birch tree

16 Aug: light green infertile fronds
and dark-stemmed, narrow-leaved fertile fronds

16 Aug: if you enlarge this pic you'll just be able to see
the sori on the backs of the leaves.
Can't take a better pic at the moment as it's raining