Hungry Plants

This afternoon a fly carelessly landed on a sticky leaf of a sundew plant which was growing under one of the pitcher plants. It stuck instantly on the leaf. This is how the plant feeds. It is an insectivorous plant which, like the pitcher plants, attracts insects- principally flies - to the plant and then slowly devours them.  The sundew leaf will slowly curl over the fly and the fly will be digested by the plant.

 

The sundew plants came along for free with one of the pitcher plants. They are very successful with their catching techniques.  A fly was recently seen to land on one of the pitcher plants and fall in but alas no camera that day!

In the greenhouse the gourds, planted for year 3, are now growing very fast-  about 4 inches a day. The tomatoes are also growing well and the warm days are helping with the papyrus which is slowly awakening after the winter months.

In recent days a rose chafer ( see blog from last year) has been seen in the garden.  A bright green jewel flying fast around the garden.  With the garden open day now over we will have to reinstall the anti-pigeon and squirrel defences.  Hopefully  some pictures of bee species recently seen can be uploaded shortly after a little work done on them.

Pigeon defences!

Yesterday the pea-asparus plants, which were brought on in the greenhouse and recently hardened off, were planted out in one of the Gardening Club beds. Whilst planting them there were two pigeons sat in the tree above watching. After planting them  serious anti-pigeon  measures were taken

Pea-asparagus on the left and purple sprouting on the right

The Mange Tout which the Gardening Club planted two weeks ago has also sprouted and again measures have been taken to keep the birds off them

The Mange-tout

In the greenhouse things are going well and the new papyrus seedlings have responded to a few warm days.  One of the the cactus plants has some stunning flowers

On a more interesting note over the past few weeks we have seen False Black Widow spiders in the sheds and also about the school garden.  These spiders can bite and it can be very painful but generally nobody will come up against these spiders.  However if you should see a black spider in the school garden with a large black hump shaped body give it a bit of respect and do not approach it

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The pale crescent shape on the abdomen is a clue to the identification of this spider.

A recent bee survey has identified six species of bees in the garden in recent weeks. More later.....