Category: Nature

Must Do List for November

Betty James “must do” list for November

  1. Wash flower pots before storing them.
  2. Put fleece on everything that needs covering.
  3. Raise all containers and pots to avoid water logging.
  4. Dry begonia corms thoroughly before storing.
  5. Any weeding done now will cut down on established weeds in Spring.

Wenvoe over 90s ramblers club tips

  1. Put plants nearer the house so you can actually see them.
  2. Your relatives only take you out to garden centres, so learn to enjoy gardening.
  3. No water features as we only end up in them.
  4. Keep everything as flat as possible in the garden, we can’t afford a fall.
  5. Tell people what you want for Christmas, otherwise it’s socks and tea towels.

Leaf mould is one of gardening’s great composts, it’s so easy to make and improves soil structure. You can also use it for bringing on seedlings. The best use as far as I know is for growing bulbs. It doesn’t necessarily need a compost bin, just fill bin bags with leaves then damp down. put a few holes in the bags and place out of the way. A good way of looking after bare patches in the borders or allotments is to plant what’s known as green manure. This not only protects soil from erosion, it inhibits weed growth and can then be dug in come spring to add nutrients to the soil.

Even with shorter days and inclement weather there are still plenty of jobs to be done. On the rare dry days a bit of weeding is always needed. Bare root shrubs and trees are available to order. They are cheaper bought this way and have a very high success rate. Planted now, they will establish a good root system over the winter. Keep raking up the leaves, especially those on grass, otherwise the grass will take ages to recover. There is still time to plant some garlic cloves; they need a cold spell to form clusters.

Ash dieback is taking hold in the village with a number of trees already taken out. If any of your trees have lost their leaves prematurely then get them checked out. At present there is no way back for infected trees with this disease. The latest survey suggests that only 5% of ash trees have a resistance.

New rules on leaving the EU mean that imported plants from Europe will have stringent tests to deal with pests and disease. I would have thought that should have been in place already. The upshot of this is that garden centres say it will mean an increase at the checkout on already highly priced plants. As a country we have allowed some diseases to take a stronghold around the south of the country. It beggars belief that we cannot grow enough plants in this country. Surely, for the prices garden centres charge, we ought to be able to compete and most of all be safer from pest and disease. While we were in lockdown during the early spring, people found old packets of seed and, looking around our area, gardens flourished. Irene and Dave in Vennwood really showed what you can do with a packet of seeds.

Take care and happy gardening

 

 

Peregrine Falcon Recruited

Wildlife Group Activities

Our newest recruit is a Peregrine Falcon – plastic of course but don’t tell the crows! Benches and similar structures that we install in our sites can prove popular, not only with people, but also crows, rooks and starlings with all the associated deposits that come with them. Our Peregrine is intended to deter them. We shall see – but as crows are pretty intelligent it is possible that they will realise that although the Peregrine is the fastest bird, even fastest animal, on the planet, believed to achieve speeds of 200 mph when diving, ours is somewhat static, achieving just the odd wobble in high winds.

We had another good conservation day working on the Upper Orchid Field and re-opened a number of the paths which had become overgrown with brambles and Blackthorn. The challenge now is to keep the paths open so if you have occasion to walk there, consider taking a pair of secateurs and snipping away at the odd bit of undergrowth. Hopefully, the contractor will have been able to cut the field by the time you read this but access has proved a bit of a problem with the takeover of Cemex.

Waitrose have again come up with a donation to Wildlife Group funds, for which we are most grateful. Even before Covid, applying for grants was becoming harder as funding bodies increasingly favoured larger organisations and those living in deprived areas. For example the much-publicised Local Places for Nature capital grant starts at £10,000 and the Biffa landfill tax refund at £5,000. The Small Grants scheme is ‘currently closed to applicants’. Community Packages for Nature offered by the Welsh Government must be ‘located in areas of high physical environment deprivation with limited access to nature’.

We are doing particularly well for apples this year as our trees start to mature with the Welsh Orchard producing an abundance. An apple-tasting session found that Cissy came out top closely followed by Afal Wern. Equal third were Machen, St Cecilia and Pig Aderyn. Cissy dates back to the 18th century. It was raised by a Mr Tamplin from the Malpas area who called the apple after his sister. The Elizabethan Orchard has produced its first Walnuts and Figs. Work on the Bee Lod Glade is progressing with the planting of Escallonia, Eucryphia, Euonymous, Gipsywort, Evening Primrose and Purple Loosestrife. Planting containers have been constructed out of recycled timber. A 100+ tree hedgerow from the Woodland Trust is due for delivery during November.

 

 

September Improvements

Wildlife Group

September Improvements

Continuing with our theme of noticeboards we have erected another donated one, this time from the Community Council for which many thanks. The old noticeboard had been in storage but has been refurbished and installed at the Bee Loud Glade. We now have a total of 8 larger noticeboards, one small one and two information notices scattered throughout the parish. Plantings have included two Amelanchiers and a donated Bay at the Bee Loud Glade and during October we shall be adding Escallonia, Eucryphia and Euonymous – all particularly good for pollinators. Three Mahonias will follow towards the end of the month. Fruit, mainly apples but also a good crop of Medlars, are coming along nicely in the orchards. There is a lot of current interest in Quince (Cydonia) and whilst we have planted 4 they do take time to mature. Our oldest one (about 5 years) in the Community Orchard produced little fruit this year but seems healthy. This could be down to a lack of pollinators which is increasingly becoming a world-wide problem. Interestingly our most productive orchard is the one which has beehives.

Regular visitors to the Upper Orchid Field may have noticed that the meadow is shrinking! Just consider that the benches were all originally on the edge of the grass but several of them are now a few metres back as the brambles advance into the field. Ian Moody organised a start on the fight back with a mix of Environment Group and Wildlife Group members and several of the benches are now accessible again. We hope that the annual cut of the field will also involve further removal of bramble. If visitors to the field could take a pair of secateurs and snip the odd bramble, every little helps. We were also delighted to receive an offer of two teak benches in response to our appeal in the last What’s On and these will be installed down in the Bee Loud Glade.

Top Tips for October

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Top Tips for October

Top horticultural show judge Mr Gwyn Williams’s tips for October.

  1. Ripen green tomatoes by cutting off along with the vine, place on cardboard and put on windowsill.
  2. Sow winter lettuce and meteor peas.
  3. Use the mower on a high setting to pick up the leaves off the lawn.
  4. Dig up dahlia tubers and store frost free.
  5. Be sure to mark the ground where perennials die right back as you may not remember where they are.

Actor, author, poet and politician Mr Noel Williams has some thoughts on gardening.

  1. Get most of the gardening done in the morning, then relax in the afternoon.
  2. You can never have enough green bags.
  3. Look as if you know what you’re doing.
  4. Raised beds will help you garden for longer.
  5. Use a walking stick on uneven ground, as three points of contact with terra firma are better than two.

Six months ago we struggled to get seeds and plants from online retailers and garden centres as they had not got a delivery mechanism in place. At present there are plenty of options to purchase plants. Come March who knows where we will be. Order seeds, summer bulbs and corms now as they are in stock. Quite a few gardeners used potatoes left over from grocery shopping, with some quite remarkable results. Most people will now hopefully save seed for next year. Wenvoe gardens have been great this year, with people sharing their spare plants. The term golfing gardens came about when golfers in Wenvoe turned to the soil and improved their gardens while the courses were closed. When the courses reopened some of them found their mowers wouldn’t start…..

October is, as usual, a busy time on the veg plot planning next year’s harvest. Broad beans as well as certain varieties of peas can be sown now. Salad mixes grown under cover will soon provide fresh produce. Cauliflower variety Snowball can be sown in cold frames now and will be ready to plant out in early spring.

Look after canna lilies by lifting, then drying and store in a cool dark place. Make sure you finish planting your spring flowering bulbs. If you’re planning to sow some wildflowers next year, clear a patch as a lot of these plants cannot compete with grass. Also do not add any nutrients, the poorer the soil the better they like it. Cowslips will grow in a lawn; you need to sow the seed now as they need a cold spell before they will germinate. Winter flowering pansies must be one of the best value plants. They will, with dead heading, flower from now until next May.

Trying to keep tender plants safe, by giving them shelter in the months ahead, can take up a lot of room. It is false economy to try and cram them in, they need space and should not be touching, otherwise infection will spread.

If by any chance you see a hedgehog in your garden, then look after it by feeding it with dog or cat food. You will not make it dependent on you as they will only use the food put out for them as a supplement. Provide shelter for them and you will have one of nature’s best garden pest predators

The library not working at full capacity has curtailed the gardening advice available from the staff. The horticulturists have been busy with their own plots. Joyce is redesigning her back garden. Heulwen has taken wildlife gardening to another level and Gordon is growing deadly plants – can’t say more

 

Take care and happy gardening.

 

 

Community Orchards Resurgence

NATURE NOTES

Community Orchards Resurgence

With 5 Community Orchards in the parish we are starting to reclaim some of the ground lost through the wholesale removal of orchards over the last hundred years. In this and future articles we shall consider the origin of orchards, the history of their rise and fall and why they are important for wildlife.

To begin at the beginning – the ‘sweet’ apple that we eat originated in the Tien Shan mountains of Kirghizia on the border between western China and the former Soviet Union. A Russian plant geneticist writing in the 1920s commented that it was like a Garden of Paradise with apple groves, mountain turkeys, porcupines and a host of other wildlife. Alma Ata, capital of Kazakhstan, means ‘Father of Apples’. Over time these apples travelled locally in the intestine of bears and other animals or were carried along the silk roads, eventually reaching Europe and Britain. A couple of thousand years BC the remains of apples have been found in Mesopotamia. The Persian word Pairadaeza was a walled garden enclosing fruit trees and canals and this translated to the Latin word Paradisus and our word Paradise.

Now, take an apple and plant a dozen or so pips from it and you will get 12 different apple trees of which 11 may be useless and just one palatable. Because apples from seeds do not grow true to the original, grafting is necessary where a bit of branch/twig from the original is attached to a rootstock. So if you find a particularly tasty apple you can produce more of those trees by grafting. The Romans understood the principles of grafting as specialist tools have been found in excavations. Pliny referred to over 20 varieties of apple in his Natural History and he was writing in the first century AD. Subsequently fruit growing was maintained by the monasteries but really took off in Tudor times with Henry Vlll’s fruiterer, Richard Harris, establishing what was England’s first large fruit collection. The 18th and 19th centuries was a high point in the development of apple varieties with thousands of varieties being grown, many of which have now been lost.

There have, of course, been apples in Britain for thousands of years but these were Crab Apples, small, sour and often sporting spines on the branches. There are many still growing in the hedgerows around Wenvoe. References to apples in old Celtic traditions and myths would have been about Crabs which were cooked or fermented. But most commentators suggest that Crab Apples had little or no impact on the origins of the sweet apple and that they do not generally hybridise.

The image in the painting shown may be a little idealised but it is one that it would be nice to replicate and we are getting there slowly. Next month we shall discuss the decline of orchards and apple-growing in Britain and why it is important to bring them back.

 

 

Your Jobs For September

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Your Jobs For September

Environment team tips.

  1. Make sure your stored produce is mouse proof.
  2. Clean out the bird feeders.
  3. Leave the ivy if it’s not bothering you as the birds will love the berries over winter.
  4. Save seed, don’t get caught out next year.
  5. Clear the windowsills ready for pelargonium cuttings.

Pauline Harringtons tips

  1. Neat and tidy will make things easier for you.
  2. Try not to grow as many dandelions as last year
  3. Look after your nails, never go in the garden without gloves.
  4. Grow veg among your flowers to add interest.
  5. If you get fed up with a plant, just throw it out. You will feel better.

September is another busy month in the garden. With shorter days on the horizon, a bit of time management will be needed to complete all the jobs. Making a list is a proven way of getting things done. Start by sowing some sweet peas in a cold frame. Keep them cool so they don’t get leggy and only cover if there’s a chance of frost. These can then be planted out in the spring. Plant any perennials that you grew from seed earlier in the summer. With the soil still warm and moist the plants will soon establish and be ready for next year. Shrubs would also benefit from being planted now. Divide established perennials and use these to fill in any spaces around the garden.

This month is a good time to sow a new lawn or make good some bare patches. Like most jobs, working on the lawn is all about the preparation. Groundsmen always use new seed as germination decreases the older it is. Plus the birds will want their share. The autumn always produces a lot of garden waste which, with a bit of work, will make good compost. We will still have to purchase compost, unless you have a huge operation going on. It is so easy to pick up a couple of bags when you visit diy stores and garden centres. When you consider that the plants come in plastic along with the compost and some fertilizers it is not very eco friendly. Stores and gardeners want convenience, but what would be so hard in taking your own bag for compost and returning those plastic pots, as most stores will take returns. If we all returned plastic pots you can be sure they would find a better solution to plastic.

A must do job over the autumn / winter months is keeping the drains and soakaways clear of leaves and debris. The callout fee alone from a drain cleaning company should be enough for us to do this task regularly. Some fine wire mesh over the drain will make this task less of a chore.

One of the standout plants around the village is in Joyce’s front garden on Grange avenue. The plant is Dierama Pulcherrimum or Angel’s fishing rod. It is a majestic plant well worth a snoop. Growing this plant from seed can take years but they really are worth waiting for.

There has been a change at the Walled garden where Victoria has taken up the position of gardener in residence. Victoria will have exacting standards to uphold at one of the best kept secluded gardens in the vale. Mr & Mrs Crump and Mr & Mrs Williams of Rectory close have again excelled this year. With a scarcity of materials they have produced two great gardens again. Hats off to Angela, Janet and Mr & Mrs French of Larchwood, who have shown what a love of gardening can produce. Of course, I can’t mention Larchwood without referring to Ray Darlington’s lovely garden and a lawn you could play snooker on – but he wouldn’t let you.

Take care and happy gardening.

 

 

Noticeboard Recycled

Noticeboard Recycled

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A noticeboard is now up in the Goldsland Orchard. It may look vaguely familiar to some as it was the old Village Hall noticeboard. Our thanks to the Village Hall Committee for passing it on when they replaced it. It will be repainted our standard Sage colour and will then have notices on it which will describe the background to and history of cider apple and perry pear orchards. Many of these are wonderful old varieties such as Gwehelog and Blakeney Red (perry pear), Gabalva and Twyn y Sheriff (Cider or dual purpose) along with a mix of other fruit including Medlar, Quince, Plum and Damson. The group have been planting daffodils donated by Dyffryn Gardens, treating timber structures with preservative, strimming, brush-cutting, weeding and pruning.

A leaflet describing the orchards and their locations will be appearing on the Wenvoe Village website ( http://wenvoe.org.uk/?p=8128 )  and copies of the leaflet will be available around the village shortly. We have received donations of old gardening tools, a small pond and some damson suckers. We can always use spare tree stakes and if you have a surplus bench do get in touch as we are always being asked to provide more seating by visitors to our sites. For up to date information about the group and any events we organise, check our Facebook page – Wenvoe Wildlife Group

 

 

Commentaries On Nature

Nature Notes

Commentaries on Nature will always be something of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

So let’s start at the grimmer end of the spectrum. Neonicotinoids are a form of insecticide widely used in the 1990s but when evidence became clear that they were killing bees they were banned in the European Union in 2018. What does history tell us? It took 30 years to ban DDT before it was proved that what was believed to be safe just wasn’t. It took 24 years to ban neonicotinoids and 50 to ban chlorothalonil. But the salmon-farming industry in Scotland are now seeking to have approved a new pesticide, Ectosan, which includes imidacloprid, one of the banned neonicotinoids. One teaspoon of imidacloprid could kill one and a quarter billion bees. You can read more about this topic in British Wildlife, August issue.

On a happier note, our Gabalva apple tree in the Goldsland Orchard is bearing fruit – see photo. This local apple, introduced by no less than the Treseder family in 1901 was until a few years ago thought to be extinct. In 2006 the National History Museum at St Fagans considered it ‘lost’. But it must have been rediscovered as a number of fruit suppliers now have it on offer. Described as having yellowish flesh and being somewhat dry and spicy, the apples are quite large as are many of the older varieties. Gabalva is believed to derive from the Welsh Ceubalfa or ‘place of the boat’ as it was once the site of a ferry crossing across the Taff. We shall return to the topic of apples and their history in future issues

 

 

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