after posting last week about the rabbit stripping the hebe cuttings, at the end of the week I discovered they had had my pinks too, I cut one pink back a lot last spring because it was full of grass and it had become very difficult to pick it out, I planted some of the prunings and most took and were growing well until a week or 2 ago now they are gone and the parent plant which had grown so well has been cut/eaten back again,
so I made a decision that when the weather is good enough to garden instead of doing the things I want to do I have got to do rabbit protection and also start putting that chicken wire around the fence,
today was beautiful, while other parts of the UK have snow we had sun and a balmy 6 degrees above freezing, there were so many things I want to get on with in the garden but rabbit protection I did, once I got started it wasn’t so bad, I weeded the few weeds out of the pink and fed it then put a mulch around it and finally put the cages back over it, I remembered there were 2 Escallonia cuttings growing (rabbits love escallonia) and so weeded around them fed them but didn’t have anything left to mulch with, then put cages over them, I also put up 2 sections of chicken wire,
I had been meaning to show these plants, nothing to do with rabbits, they are pyrethrums, they are in the same garden bed the centre one in my front garden, either side of the Olearia, this one is on the side where it got hit by the 90 mph winds in the storm a few weeks ago,
this one is on the other side, incredible the wind didn’t touch it, I have a privit hedge around most of the front garden but I find it only protects things close to it,
saving the best till last, the crocus are coming along,
and to my utter amazement these 2 snowdrops have appeared where I never planted any, where snowdrops are planted nothing is growing, did they pack their little bags and move, I am so chuffed and hope they stick around as they are growing in their place of choice,
another hellebore in flower, I have been watching the buds fatten for a few weeks now, it’s turned it’s back and is facing away from the house but it’s there, kinda made up for rotten rabbit,
it’s interesting how little things can brighten our day,
©Copyright 2011 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.
Little things make the heart skip, Frances:-)
they certainly do KC, Frances
You really are on the way to Spring, Frances. The crocus always make me smile and are a plant I so look forward to in Spring.
thanks Donna, Frances
Hi, just before retiring I opened your latest addition to your interesting blog. Your reference to snowdrops made me think of my own snowdrops which have been blooming since the middle of January. I was simply astonished to see them. As you might know, New Hampshire, USA is a very cold place during the winter months. Unusually this year we have had only one snowstorm which took place extremely early, on Oct. 30. Many times the snowdrops come up beneath the snow so I have not know exactly when they bloom but I think this year is the earliest I have known. No snow at all on the ground. And today as I walked the field behind my house it was a balmy 47 degrees F. 15 degrees above freezing. A week or so ago it was 59 degrees F. … 27 degrees above freezing. So crazy. MCH
wow MCH your winter is warmer than our summer was last year and we never get any where near 27 degrees C, Frances
Had to laugh Frances, at the thought of your snowdrops packing their bags and moving across your garden! Hope they like it there and multiply for you. If you go onto the RHS website they will give you a list of rabbit proof plants, but I’m a bit late telling you that after you have put all your barricades up!!
ah so someone else is up early surf the blogs :o)
yes I know about the rabbit proof plant list but I had the pinks long before the rabbits arrived and I love this particular one as it has a beautiful perfume if the rabbits let it flower and the weather get warm enough, last year they flowered but due to the cool summer the perfume wasn’t so strong,
the current problem and my own anger at myself is due to not seeing the rabbits last year and suffering no damage I had allowed myself (and my neighbours had too) into thinking they had moved on from this area,
then whosh it’s like a herd of locust rabbits crossed the garden in January I hope it’s not a statement for the rest of the year!
Frances
ps I think the final insult is they eat my plants but haven’t even stayed long enough to fertalize the garden!!!
First the weather and now the rabbits. Your effort and hard work are appreciated though. The crocus, snowdrop and hellbore are pretty good rewards.
thanks Bom, at least I don’t have deer or as some one in Australia told me kangaroos! these little flowers are wonderful rewards, Frances
How wonderful to see the crocus and snowdrops..I find critters move my small bulbs around….they even make nests out of them…
thanks Donna, I remeber talking with you last year about the bunnies and how yours nest in a hollow where as ours dig burrows, Frances
Those blasted bunnies are a pain. Here the hawks, foxes and coyotes have reduced their numbers. The last one I saw had a fox right on his cotton tail.My pinks spend their time in a cage for its own protection. I love your header. I assume it is your art work. How did you do it and do you blog about that?
one of the problems here Becky is the bunnies don’t really have any preditors, they are not native to the Outer Hebridean islands (off west coast of Scotland) so there are no preditors except for the few birds of prey out on the moor, they are native to mainland Britain and there there are preditors,
thank you so much for your nice words about my header, yes it is my work, I started blogging with my textile work years ago in 2005 like you when I started I was on dial up, a couple of years ago I was doing less and less stitching for some reason and now gardening has taken over the blog, it could change in the furture who knows,
the header is a small strip of a larger piece of work, handfelted wool the old way with water not the machines, then layered with wadding/battening and a backing, quilted on the sewing machine, the stones are glass shards for embellishment, there is probably a photo of the whole thing somewhere on the blog, there isn’t I just checked, I just looked in my Themed Threads list if you click felt there are 2 posts one show the felt being made, as it’s 2005 it was on my original blogger blog, deleted 2006, I started to up load early posts here but haven’t finished, another job I want to do,
thanks for stopping by, Frances
You have blooms on your snowdrops and I just have the green again this year. Frances, I really admire your tenacity with wind and bunnies – a true pioneer gardener. That’s what makes your small pleasures so intense and your posts so interesting
thanks Laura, I wonder why yours don’t bloom such a shame, your support of my efforts means a lot, Frances x
Very happy that you have snowdrops even if not where you planted them. And hellebores always brighten my day. What would we do without winter flowers?
thanks Carolyn, without you the hellebores would not be there, thank you so much for your wonderful and detailed posts, Frances