Matron's Tits!
I spent a good deal of my afternoon sweltering inside my greenhouse in order to get you some photos of my Great Tits.
These parents are working so hard to bring back mouthfulls of food for their growing brood.
The babies are getting larger now and from time to time they poke their little heads out of the hole to see what the big wide world is all about.
The adults are almost oblivious to my presence, flying over my head from time to time to go in and out of the nest box. I seem to remember a while ago one of the Australian bloggers expressed a wish to see my tits... well here you are!
Elsewhere in the sunny garden today I noticed the heart of a globe artichoke appearing. On closer inspection of this photograph I notice the dreaded blackfly already staking their claim. Most years my artichokes are inedible because of blackfly. How can I stop them??
I got all my squash and pumpkins planted out today, the weather has been too hot to leave them in pots any more. The varieties growing this year are:Rouge Vif D'Etamps
Bush Delicata
Yellow Straightneck
Bush Table Queen Acorn
Black Forest Climbing Courgette
Defender Courgette
Here is an early tomato, my first one set this year. These are a bush tomato - can't think of the name right now.. will get back to you.Finally a plea to anyone who might be willing to do a bean swap with me?? My other passion besides growing veggies is dog training.. can anyone provide me with a few of a variety called something like DOG BEAN beans? I can offer you either some Vermont Cranberry beans (liberated from Mount Vernon, VA) or some Royalty (liberated from Heligan). Anyone who can assist, please comment and I will email you.
posted by Matron @ 6:38 PM
13 Comments:
LOL Matron
Great title for a post...it's good to see your garden 'springing' to life while over hear we are tucking ours up for winter!!
That's funny Matron:). Great shots, of the birds and garden!
Fabulous set of tits! thank you for sharing them with us. :-)
I could make a comment but I'm biting my tongue.
I've also got what I believe is a tit in a nest box at the allotment, I've only had a quick glance inside but may be a coal tit. Never seen any enter or leave but the bird feeder next to it needs refilled every week compared to the one at home every 6 weeks.
I might get more activity when the eggs hatch.
Try a sacrificial crop of nasturtiums next to your artichokes. The black fly seem to prefer them to anything else and they've kept them off my beans for the last couple of years.
Liz, that's an excellent idea! Thank you.
LOL! I'll bet this post is going to get a lot of page views :) Thanks so much for sharing those photos of the lovely tits!
Great tip about nasturtiums in the other comment above. I'll have to remember to add some to my veggie garden once it's set up.
Matron, thank you for your comment.The tits are sweet; just tell them it's all in the mind! The Artichoke(s) look great. I didn'd get many to eat as I love their flowers. The purple podded pea flower is beautiful, sholdn't grow into a pod! You have a healthy looking and productive allotment. My vegetable gardener has the slug problem and he has engaged a few toads; as it goes into winter they hibernate so the strawberries are under slug attack! The roos are fine if kept out of the veggie garden.
Thanks for your patience to get the photos. I love great tits. How big does the hole have to be in the box? x
Hi Matron, I thought you'd gone all x-rated for a minute, I was just about to start blushing! How did you get on with the tomato cuttings that you took the other week? I'm not really sure what you can do with the black fly, we don't seem to have any black fly, just white ones which are a darn pest as well. Bob.
Patrick at Bifurcated Carrots offers dog beans through Seed Savers Exchange. He may be able to help you out. Good luck!
Patch - I use a standard Sony cyber-shot camera. The tit-hole is supposed to be one inch and one eighth for tits (don't do metric!)
Bob - I took about a dozen cuttings from an expensive F1 hybrid beefsteak. After 10 days they are sitting up nicely which might indicate they have rooted! Now to find the space to plant them!
Christina - Thank you for that, I might look for a dog-bean swap.
Thanks for your comment and your tits look just like mine. Looks like we both have Great Tits!
Even with the beer traps for the slugs my peas are still being decimated, maybe beer is too common for the snails- a g&t or dry white wine for them?
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