Look at me!

Hiding in one of the old coconut shell bird feeders was this delightful spider. In the greenhouse the Venus Fly trap had relaxed its' grip on the fly which it had caught last week. The fly had been completely digested.

This one will bite!

The Venus Fly-trap releases the dead fly

Whilst topping up the bird feeders the familiar sound of young birds in a nest begging for food was heard. With caution and stealth the source was traced to  a hole in the wall at the back of the graden behind the bird hide.  A Wren was watched several times taking food into the nest for the young birds inside.  The Wren builds a domed nest so you cannot see the chicks!

Click to enlarge the picture of the Wren

About the garden the small patch of Wheat, Oats and Barley are all doing well and have their seed heads proudly showing.  Barley heads are wonderful things to watch in the breeze.  This fact was captured in poetry by Katharine Tynan in her poem ' The wind that shakes the barley'

There's music in my heart all day,
I hear it late and early,
It comes from fields are far away,
The wind that shakes the barley.

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.....

IF.........(part two)

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same"

Apologies for delving back into Kipling but sadly the pair of nesting Blue Tits met these two imposters.  'Triumph' that the eight chicks in the nest box were doing well but then' Disaster' when recent extreme weather caused the poor chicks to perish as the adults could not get out and about to get food for them

Moving on though to more exciting things. The Gardening Club had a successful session yesterday and encompassed several jobs around the garden. This included mainly weeding and planting onions and other vegetable seeds. Some potting on of smaller plants was also undertaken.


Just before the children gathered the first dragonfly of the year on our pond put in a brief appearance - a delightful male Broad-bodied Chaser

Whilst collecting some pots to transplant some flowers a slow worm was spotted

The Red Mason bees were very active as they are now hatching out of the bamboo canes which are places around the garden. These are delightful bees to watch and very much the gardeners friend

Red Mason Bee

Red Mason Bee leaving bamboo home

Other garden news include the erection of a new shed kindly donated by our friends at B and Q. This will be our machinery shed and used to store heavier items which will leave more space in our other shed for tools.

Over the half term it is hoped to arrange a working party to have a general tidy up and also to make a start on the eco-loo building

The class plots are starting to look good with a lot of effort and thought having been put in by both teachers and pupils alike. Hopefully on our Open day - June 23rd - many people will turn up and enjoy the garden

An ornithological slant...

This morning the pair of Blue Tits which had nested in the green nest box were very busy feeding their chicks.  The chicks hatched on Saturday morning and for the next two weeks the adults will be very busy making hundreds of trips around the garden looking for caterpillars to feed the eight youngsters.

Mum off on another caterpillar hunt

Not singing just very hungry!

The new bird hide is almost complete and just needs a few finishing touches to it.  Just ten minutes this morning spent watching produced some good close views of our school garden birds.  The first birds seen this morning were a pair of House Sparrows feeding on the seed. Then a Woodpigeon dropped in..........

The bird watching hide

House Sparrows feeding at close range

If the Pigeon is here it is not eating anything else

Over the weekend the class beds were also numbered. There are a few more to do but most of them are now numbered

Class Plot 3

Close up detail Plot 3

The Wheat, Barley and Oats are surviving and have now germinated successfully and growing well and it seems that the third effort to exclude the pigeons has worked.  They are however still pulling up the onions but the Blackbirds may be culprits here. More netting over the weekend!

An interesting Digger Wasp was discovered this morning and hopefully the next blog will name the insect.

New arrivals

This morning the pitcher plants arrived and after carefully unwrapping them they have been positioned in the greenhouse.  Many are found in Carolina in the United States of America but they do occur elsewhere in the world.  They are carnivorous plants and eat flies mainly but anything which lands on the pitcher and takes a peep inside will be welcomed for lunch! The inside of the pitcher holds no grip for the insect and it slides down into the base and becomes the next meal.

As the last picture shows RAIN WATER only for these plants.  There are two white buckets in the greenhouse with rain water in them. Please only use this for these plants and not anything else in the greenhouse.  They do not like salts and minerals.  Sitting on a bed of wet moss they should survive.

Recent insects in the garden include the Bee-fly which occurs at this time of the year and an unusual mining bee Colletes daviesanus which lives underground often in large colonies. Pictures of these next time

IF.................

"If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run...."

Rudyard Kipling

New pigeon defences

Can we forgive the pigeons? They are testing us considerably at the moment.  The second sowing of wheat, barley and oats was doing well until the pigeons again swooped in!  Trampling down the net they have grazed the tender young shoots for the second time.  A new metal cage  has been constructed which hopefully will save the third sowing from destruction.


In the greenhouse that cactus plant continues to flower in profusion.

Also in the greenhouse you may have noticed many small plants pricked out and laid out in trays on the tables.  These plants will provide the Gardening Club with one of their secret floral displays for this year

The Gardening Club secret project

Last weekend during a working party our young naturalist was delighted with this find. The first one for the year

Our first Slow-worm record for 2012

Finally the Living Stones have just about finished  growing their new leaves and the old shrivelled ones can easily be seen on the edges of the plant.  Today they received their first drink since October last year. They must be kept dry during the winter months but a small "shower" of water was applied this afternoon to refresh the plants

The Living Stones with their new leaves