As I sit here, on yet another dismal, wet and grey weekend, chomping away at some toast and marmalade Mrs PR has kindly done for me, along with a nice cuppa, and sorting through the few photos I've managed to grab so far this year, I think I recalled a thread some time back of plants or flowers people have seen, but couldn't find anything in the searches.
So, without further ado, I thought why not set a thread up for , where all can share their photos, not just in the wild, but the garden, local municipal parks, anywhere, because without these plants, there wouldn't be nature.
It's not unusual to see flowers virtually all year through, not because of global warming, climate change or whatever scenario you prefer to use, but because some plants are hardy and prefer to be winter borne. But for many, the first flowers they really see properly, are snowdrops in February, followed by crocuses (late February- Mach) and then the delightful daffodils (March/April)., bluebells (April time), and much more.
So lets put some colour back into the grey world, spring is coming, so here's a few to set things going.
February; snowdrops
February: Sweet Violet
March: the first daffs in bloom
March: always a sign that spring is on the way, the primrose
March; crocuses (from a local municipal park)
March; mini daffs in our garden
and some proper daffs in the garden, starting to bloom
BTW, I've seen my second bee of the year, having a nosey around the daffs above, the first was late Feb, the second was earlier today, but on both occasions, the weather wasn't right to get the camera out...
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
To prove your point Wendy,
Tony
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wherryman/
Tony T said:After the flowers finish do you collect the seed pods to make garlic capers?
We actually bought a few Wild Garlic plants a few years ago at a country house garden where they have woodland filled with the plants. It’s only been over the last two years that the plants have been thriving in our garden, so at the moment I only use the leaves for salads and let the rest of the plants do what they need to do to keep going for the time being. Perhaps if they establish themselves more and start spreading out a bit I’ll use more of the plants in the future.
My bird photos HERE
Common Spotted Orchid
I probably knew what this small flower was last year ... and then forgot again!
Ox-eye daisies
And with a visitor - one of the 4 yellow sawflies that are practically indistinguishable (Tenthredo sp.)
And I finally spotted the virus. I have to say that it was a lot bigger than I expected.
Ok it was really the seed head of something but doing a fine impersonation, I thought.
__________
Nige Flickr
Tony T said:Had never thought about trying to buy and grow Wild Garlic Paul, is your growing in a shady area and is your soil light or heavy/clay type. I'm wondering whether we might have a suitable shady area but our soil is quite heavy.
When we moved into our house, Tony, we had to cut down a few trees which were just too close to the house for comfort, so I used a few of the old logs which were lying around and not yet split up for the log burner at the bottom of the garden. The logs were now a few years old and pretty dried out. I also used a few stones left over from the pond build to make a wee feature of it. Mrs A has also added some driftwood around it over the past few years.
We filled it in with cheap garden centre compost.
The feature is underneath an ornamental Willow tree in the garden, but it also gets direct light from the southwest. If I remember correctly, we tried a few different plants here, and initially only the Chives seemed to like it there.
We bought the Wild Garlic on a whim one day (it was bought as a bunch of full plants with bulbs and leaves intact, but wrapped in damp newspaper and not already potted into soil).
On the way home I thought I’d give it a try under the tree because there was a space where other stuff had failed. I think it was the next again year before it took off, after dying back not long after planting.
As you know, it has really nice flowers, and to me, it smells lovely as you pass it by in the growing season. We do water it as it’s only a small area and dries out quite quickly under the tree, but we don’t feed it in any way.
The apprentice gardener insisted on becoming involved here, if only to give a sense of scale. :-)
You can see here that I chopped my Chives back yesterday. They shoud come again and reflower before the season is over.
It's good timing actually as some of my Spring Onions are now ready to pick, so I can substitute them for the Chives in my salads until the Chives come back again. :-)
Looking roughly northwest.
The overhang of the tree is in line with the edge of the path.
The area is slightly sheltered as you can see, but it is still fullly open on the southwest (ish) side.
I do like to dabble with things that you can eat, but Mrs A is the real gardener in the house. :-)
Stunning updates everyone,
@ Paul, your photos of the beautiful log area reminded me of our old stumpery and of the other day when I visited a garden centre to try get ideas for the new large balcony area; not sure I will grow vegetables but what do you think about maybe this idea with butyl lined wooden base plant type boxes filled with bark chippings or stones and a water feature added ! ? Still early days for the work as there are plenty more urgent jobs to do first but I like the idea of having a natural log area similar to what you have done there Paul. I would like to incorporate planted ferns, maybe wild garlic or herbs ! and have a mini stumpery area if it is possible here.
the ideas going round the cogs in my brain are maybe start with a raised wooden platform like smaller version of this ........ camouflage the edges with pots of pollinating plants .... but making it more stumpery/logs/rocks rather than like than the alpines shown here.
incorporate a water feature - I like this one .......... it's not quite as big as it looks on this photo !! We have double outside power socket.
and make the area look a bit more like this ............. but raised slightly off the ground like in the first pic.
probably too ambitious but I have plenty of time to think of ideas lol might be next year before we get round to the balcony as lots of other things will have more priority. Always nice to start with a blank canvas and think outside the box !! lol
_________________________________________________________________________
Regards, Hazel