Horticultural

An update on the pigs

I heard back today from the council officer who deals with allotment business about the pigs. She said:

The Allotment Liaison Committee received a request to home 6-8 pigs on a section of the unused allotments at Steppingley Road. Members of the ALC considered this, and they met with the consortium running the project. The ALC have agreed that an 8 month trial period be undertaken to see how this works. Several rules and regulations have been stipulated i.e. no food to be kept on site (only to be brought in on a daily basis), water to be replenished daily etc. This project should have been undertaken earlier in the year but because of the hot weather conditions the consortium asked if this could be deferred until the weather turned cooler. The land is being rented for the period but on completion of the trial period this could be extended – we will just have to wait and see.

So the pigs will be there for the next few months at least. I wonder whether it will inspire other people to put in requests for livestock on the site - there wasn't even a chicken before the pigs. I know some allotments have everything from goats and ponies to guinea fowl and bees, which is great, provided the plot holders don't neglect their charges. You can, after all, leave a row of beetroot untended for a fortnight, but hens are a lot less forgiving of neglect.

Stop press: pigs on the allotment

I'd noticed there was a new fenced-off area of the rough ground to one side of my plot, but it was only today that I realised what it was for ... rare breed pigs!

There are four British saddlebacks and two Tamworth - by no means fully grown, probably about three/four months old I'd say. I guess they are being fattened up for the abbatoir. Typically, I forgot to take my camera to the plot so I don't have any pictures to show you, but will remedy that next time.

This is the first time any livestock whatsoever has appeared on my allotment site: I can't recall from the allotment agreement whether there are any specific rules on animals. 

I am delighted to have got some porcine neighbours: they are very cute and the land was otherwise completely unused.

The arrival of the pigs has followed close on the heels of the secure fencing of the plot by the town council a few weeks ago: I guess it may be that someone has simply requested permission to keep pigs on the land, or that it's a "special project" in the nature of the children's allotment project on the other side of the site. I am going to email the council officer who deals with allotments to find out.

A toad in the hand is a lot better off on the compost heap

I found this little chap - a common toad - nestling in the rotting kitchen waste on my active compost heap. He walked off when I removed the cardboard from the top so I could add the contents from my kitchen caddy without squishing him.

I decided to check out what was going on in my other heap - the one I've left alone to "mature" - because there were some potato plants growing on it that looked nearly ready. I lifted the cardboard and disturbed a common lizard, then dug around the potato plants and found myself grasping a toad. Not a pleasant experience for me, or the amphibian in question.

I couldn't decide if the toad I'd spotted on the active heap had made his way across to the other heap in record time, or if this was a similarly sized second toad.

I've seen toads and lizards on the heap before but it's good to know they're regular visitors.

I haven't seen a hedgehog yet this year on the allotment but Rick had a close encounter with one while picking blackcurrants a month or so ago (I am very jealous). It pottered out from the layer of dead leaves around the base of the cardoon plants, looked at him with a faintly bored expression then wandered off.

This is why it's important not to be too much of what my American friends would call a "neat freak" on your plot. Hedgehogs like nothing more than a pile of dead leaves in a corner to nestle into, and if you remove them all to leave bare soil, it's a far poorer environment for wildlife.

 

Cardoons and bumblebees

I had so many shots of bumblebees pottering about in the cardoon flowers that I have created a little album for them.

There are 25 species of bumblebee in Britain.

25! But there used to be 28. Three species have already died out and nine more are threatened.

If anyone can recommend a bumblebee identification guide, I'd love to have one.

Major improvements: allotment cat on the mend

The Major, the allotment cat Rick and I have been feeding, worming and flea-ing and generally trying to keep alive, is looking the best I've seen him for ages.

I guess it's a lot easier for him to find food during the summer months, so his fur is growing back and he's put on some weight. His tail is still a shadow of its former bushy self, but his eyes are clear at least.

Here he is enjoying the fading sunlight on my neighbour's plot. I've seen him a couple of times more recently - he always rushes over because he knows he'll be fed, then hangs about while we do the watering.

I am a dog person, but I like the Major because he acts like a dog. The temptation to put him in my gardening bag and take him home was only just resisted on my last trip to the plot ...

Introducing two 'common' visitors to the compost heap

One of my greatest  hopes when Rick built the double-bay composter on the allotment was the development of a "wildlife area" at the back - nothing planned, just a random stack of old sunflower stems, twigs and anything too sturdy to break down on the heap within a reasonable time frame.

I was hoping it'd be a nirvana for frogs, toads, lizards, hedgehogs, slow worms, ladybirds, lacewings and other insects beneficial to the plot and happy to gobble up pests. As the woody stuff built up it's developed into a hidey hole for frogs, but today I ticked two more off the list - this common lizard lounging around on the wood frame of the composter in the sunshine, and this rather camera-shy common toad, nestling in a fold in the cardboard that's topping the pile to keep things moist below. (The common toad boasts one of my favourite Latin names, Bufo bufo).

To give you a sense of scale, the lizard was about the length of my hand, tail included, and the toad was about the size of an egg. Not as cute as Duck Dinner Dash's current allotment fauna, but satisying to see nonetheless.

Now I am hoping for a hedgehog and a slow worm to turn up next weekend, or do you think that's asking too much?

First butterfly of 2006

I know I am supposed to be working on the book this morning, but something momentous has just happened: I just saw the first butterfly of the year! A brimstone, spotted fluttering around the Aucuba in my back garden.

Spring really is here. And the clocks go forward tonight: dark evenings, be gone!

Squirrel alert

As you can see if you peer closely at the pic, things have taken a new turn with the bird feeder.
 

Still no visitors of the feathered and clawed kind, but this squirrel was taking a definite interest this morning. It patrolled up and down the fence (it's visible in the pic on the right-hand fence) but couldn't get up the courage to make a leap for the feeder. Sorry about the fuzzy pic but it was taken with a grabbed camera from my study window, paparazzi-style.

I am hoping the peanut stash is far enough from the fence for things to stay that way. I had planned to move it further round so there was more tree cover, but now I am worried this will only encourage the squirrel.Most annoyingly of all, while this was going on, I could see a gang of tits in the tree visible in the top right hand corner of the picture, having a whale of a time, but utterly uninterested in the feeder.

Hedgehogs at risk

There's a wonderful piece in today's Guardian newspaper about the plight of the hedgehog. I'd urge you to read it, if you have time, as it encapsulates the dilemmas faced by anyone trying to encourage wildlife in their gardens. It includes the shocking statistic that "the hedgehogs of Britain are dying out at a rate of about a fifth of the population every four years. By 2025, they will be gone". Why? The reasons aren't fully known, but concreting over front gardens, garden makeovers and an increase in traffic haven't helped:

The policy of building on brownfield sites, and the general increase in the busyness of urban lives, has probably removed a great deal of hedgehog habitat and cut up what remains into small pieces that may not be enough to sustain a hedgehog population. Nigel Reeve says 'It is all a story of tidying up, fragmentation and poor connectivity. Hedgehogs love the interstices in cities, the rough brambly places, where they can hide up in the day time or in winter. We need to defragment the cities for these animals, leave more of the mess for them."

Although allotments aren't mentioned specifically in the article, it does occur to me that they must constitute an important hedgehog habitat, particularly in many urban areas, as there is usually no shortage of "rough brambly areas" on the average allotment site. I've occasionally spotted a "hedgie" when I've made an after-dark visit to my plot, snuffling around looking for food, and I hope there are many more that I don't see. When driving about after dark, particularly around dusk, I always keep an eye out for a small shape bimbling across the road: just by slowing down a bit I've been able to avoid hitting several.

I've also created a special hedgehog-friendly area at the back of my compost bins, next to the abandoned plot behind me, where there's a big, rarely disturbed stack of branches and leaves, deep enough to provide a dry place for hibernation. I hope there's a hedgehog in there, snoozing the winter away.

Bird feeder no-show

My garden never seems to attract many birds. I see the occasional blackbird on the lawn, and there are always sparrows around - some nested in the roof last summer - but my nestbox remains resolutely unoccupied, and I haven't seen a single avian customer on my brand new deluxe peanut feeder.

I don't know if it's because there isn't enough food or suitable cover for the birds: my garden is so small that it does lack trees, although the neighbouring gardens provide a lot of cover in the form of various mature shrubs, hedges and trees. Perhaps, what with a full time job and spending time at the allotment I simply don't spend enough time in the garden to see the birds that are there.

It's not as if I have trouble seeing birds when I am out in the countryside. I've always counted myself as being a rather observant birdwatcher, spotting a tiny flurry of wings on a tree trunk that heralds a nuthatch, or a bright flash of blue above a river that means a kingfisher is in residence. I was hoping the feeder would lure in some of the tits that I occasionally see flitting between my neighbours' pine trees, but so far, nothing.

Annette of Gardenopoly blog left some very useful hints on attracting birds at the bottom of one of my earlier posts, so I guess I am going to have to follow them now rather than staring forlornly at the feeder from my study window.

Oh, and while I am on the subject of birds, can I suggest that you go and look at the beautiful robin pictures on Mike's Allotment Diary? You can tell he's an ex-professional photographer.