Category: Wildlife

Wildlife – mainly creatures rather than plants

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Wildlife11 Comments

Six from a frosty allotment

Reclaiming Paradise

I nipped along to the allotment today to see if Storm Arwen had done any damage (it hadn’t). So here are #SixOnSaturday from the allotment. This year’s very impressive runner beans were still standing, if looking a little the worse for wear, so I cut down all the bean tendrils for the compost bin: The sweet peas are still hanging on in there, so I left the wigwam up to provide them with a bit of support. Didn’t manage to get an in focus photo though (I blame my frozen fingers). I found a desiccated bean and brought it home … Continue reading Six from a frosty allotment

Uncategorized, Wildlife5 Comments

Pedalling for a greener future

Reclaiming Paradise

Today was not a gardening day but it was a day to be out on my bike with several hundred cyclists on the Edinburgh route to the demonstration in Glasgow for COP26. We knew we would not make it the whole way to Glasgow as we had other family commitments in Edinburgh. I was pleased to have a family group of three bikes at the start in Edinburgh’s Meadows We cycled through the Edinburgh streets and along the main roads out of the city with about 300 other cyclists and felt we were doing our tiny bit to argue for … Continue reading Pedalling for a greener future

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden, Wildlife4 Comments

July garden: foxes and thunderstorms

Reclaiming Paradise

Falling behind with blogging again but here’s some of what’s been going on in the garden: Lots of flowers all coming out just now. Strawberries and raspberries at their best – and good enough to make some rather yummy strawberry scones to share with my sons who managed to be here at the same time for the first time in many months. Vegetables coming along slowly. Here are some of the peas and the first cucumber: We had an impressive thunderstorm and extensive flooding at the weekend. All fine in my garden but the roads round about turned into rivers. … Continue reading July garden: foxes and thunderstorms

Wildlife2 Comments

A wild month

Reclaiming Paradise

And so we come to the end of June and the end of the #30DaysWild Challenge. Some people set out to do something wild every day, taking them on all sorts of adventures. My wildness has been rather urban and rather garden based. I just look for something wild every day. Here’s a summary of what I’ve seen in June. That wasn’t everything but there were a lot of bees, a lot of wildflowers and quite a lot of the cygnets and herons on Inverleith Pond. I’ve been watching these swan fluffballs since they were tiny. They’re quite big now … Continue reading A wild month

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden, Wildlife7 Comments

Halfway through 30 Days Wild

Reclaiming Paradise

I’m a bit behind with blogging this week but I thought I’d catch up by celebrating the wonder of June and the tiny joys of #30DaysWild. This campaign encourages people to get outside and enjoy the wildness around them. For some, that means getting out into the countryside or down to the beach and exploring the wildness. For me it is nearly always urban and this year, like last year, it has been largely confined to wildness in my garden and the streets round about. But there is no shortage of wild joys to be found even in quite a … Continue reading Halfway through 30 Days Wild

Books I like, Wildlife1 Comment

Very Hungry Caterpillars – in memory of Eric Carle

Reclaiming Paradise

So sad to hear today of the death of Eric Carle, author and illustrator of one of the world’s most favourite children’s books ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. It was also a favourite in our house and I’ve blogged about it before, along with some of our other favourite children’s books involving gardening or wildlife. As I wrote, back in 2014, one of the things about this book is that it makes you much more sympathetic to the more destructive creatures in the garden: they have to eat after all. So RIP Eric Carle and thank you for bringing us such … Continue reading Very Hungry Caterpillars – in memory of Eric Carle

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Recycling and reusing, Wildlife7 Comments

Dreich

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s dreich, a word chosen as the most popular Scottish word in a poll a few years ago – link here. Anyway, it’s usually reserved by me for November which is month which is nearly always dreich. Not May. But here we are, experiencing a dreich May and trying to make the most of it. Despite the incessant rain, there have been some moments of sunshine and I did manage to get into the garden to look for ‘wildflowers’ for ‘International Biodiversity Day‘ on Saturday. I found this little collection, all growing in the lawn and tweeted it for #SixonSaturday … Continue reading Dreich

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden, Wildlife7 Comments

Six on Tuesday

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s all go in the garden just now and somehow I’ve forgotten to blog about it. I missed SixonSaturday so here’s a wee update of sixish on Tuesday. These gorgeous self-seeded wallflowers are flowering in funny little corners of the front garden: 2. I got along to the allotment last week and used some spare bits of wood to create a sort of terrace for one of the beds which was threatening to overflow down the hill. Here it is in all its glory. Please excuse the weeds and note the almost complete lack of broad beans in this bed, … Continue reading Six on Tuesday

Why I garden, Wildlife11 Comments

Christmas Eve

Reclaiming Paradise

So we come to the end of the #wildandwonderful #advent calendar with a trip to the allotment to harvest the sprouts. It was a sharp, frosty day this morning and the allotment was looking lovely: The leeks are looking good, there’s some kale looking impressive in the frost, marigolds hanging on into the winter, sprouts ready to harvest, a tiny onion shoot giving us hope for next year and the sweet peas still flowering even after last night’s frost. On the 22nd I noticed more evidence of the fox in the garden. It had left prints on the cardboard in … Continue reading Christmas Eve

Why I garden, Wildlife9 Comments

Teasels

Reclaiming Paradise

Teasels have been growing in my gardens for over twenty years. We bought the first one as a small plant from a wildlife stall at a garden show when my boys were tiny. We loved the name, we loved the way they grow and we hoped the plants would attract goldfinches. That one plant grew strong and tall and scattered its seed around. I haven’t planted a teasel since but they’ve always been there, popping up in surprising places and looking magnificent. I love these plants but I’ve never seen a goldfinch eating the seeds, until today. So here’s today’s … Continue reading Teasels