Marsh Marigolds in flower

The Marsh Marigolds have been in full flower for a couple of weeks now. Today in some early spring sunshine the first bumblebees were buzzing around them. I also saw the bees high in the Goat Willow branches where there are some large catkins. I did not know that catkins had any nectar as I thought that they were wind pollinated. Will have to look this up and report back.

The Marsh Marigolds are very easy to propagate - just cut up the root ball with a spade after flowering. I usually split each into about 3 pieces, and put each part into the mud. All seem to grow very well.
I think that there are a small number of plants that have seeded, but they do not seem to set seed easily, so the physical division is much better. This will not give any genetic diversity so I guess that an import every 10 years or so would be a good idea.

Butterfly trees in bud

Back at the end of January I planted 10 Alder Buckthorn trees, which are now in bud. This is the food plant for the caterpillars of the Brimstone butterfly, and I have planted them in a sheltered south facing place, which I hope will be ideal.

I haven't seen Brimstones in the local area, but I saw a sighting on a notice board in a National Forest area about 2 miles away last summer. So another interesting experiment - my experience so far is that if you create the right environment nature will just move in.

Wildflower plugs to plant

The meadow is nicely stabilised as it is now 10 years old, but I am still gradually increasing the diversity of flowers - and am trying to work out the best planting schedule for different species.

I saw some Great Burnet growing wild in a nearby field last summer, which spurred me on to buy some plants. Today have planted out some plug plants (bought from the Trust for Conservation Volunteers, who have just closed their online shop) into pots. These will be planted into the meadow and surrounds in a few weeks time. I will be spraying small areas with Roundup to give somewhere for them to grow - but as  it is windy and there are showers coming through will have to wait for a dry and still day to do the spraying. Plantings have been:

To go in the boggy areas of long grass at the bottom of the meadow.

Hemp Agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum) - 

To go in the wood:

Wild Primrose (Primula vulgaris)

Wood Avens (Geum urban)

To go in the field:

Wild Carrot (Daucus carota)

Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)

Great Burnet (Sanguisorba officials)
Meadow Clary (Salvia pratensis)

To go on the edges of a stony area:

Red Valerian (Centrranthus ruber)

The ground is too waterlogged to plant these out a present so I will grow them on a bit in pots (the mesh on top is to stop the chickens digging them up).

Planted in the green

Planted bluebells in the green today, bought from the TCV shop, but I see that this closed for business on 7th March - so will have to find an alternative supplier next time.

Also planted Lesser Celandine in the green, but then felt very daft for buying them as there is a profusion of lesser celandine growing along the stream. Will also try transplanting some of them into a damp area of the new woodland next weekend.

Planted rhizomes of wood anemone fairly far apart (about a foot or so, as I think that these spread quite well).

There is good evidence of fresh Muntjac deer hoof prints, so around all of this new planting and the area that has the wild garlic I put a chicken wire fence, using some old wire from the orchard. This is less than a metre high and so will not stop a determined deer, and is also not dug in at the bottom so will not stop a badger. However it might just be some deterrent, so was worth a bit of time erecting.

Meadow Cranesbill Comparison

Last September I planted Meadow Cranesbill seeds in plug trays (the secret of getting good germination is to rub the seeds between sandpaper to slightly break the hard protective coating). I planted some of the plugs in bare areas in the field in the first week of November with plastic tube protectors:

About half have survived the winter, but are all pretty small:

The rest were kept in pots in an unheated greenhouse over the winter, about 80% survived and they look like good healthy plants: 

This has seemed to work well in the past, when I planted them in January. This year they have only just gone into the ground - so it will be interesting to see the best strategy.

Wild Garlic was showing leaves 6 weeks after planting

The wild garlic has the first few leaves showing. I have put some chicken wire around one of the clumps to see if there is any difference in survival (we have Muntjac deer around). It looks as if there has been good growth of the wild garlic, so late winter may be a good time for planting.