Wild About Gardens

Grasshoppers in summer and a change in the world of wasps

Miranda Hodgson — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:17:00 GMT

One of the loveliest experiences of high summer is to stand in the vegetable garden, listening to the chirping of grasshoppers. Just now, at any time of the day, the air is soft and warm, so you never need think about shivering or covering up – that’s all months away - you can just stand there for as long as you want, wallowing in the luxury of standing still outdoors in the UK and not feeling cold, whilst you listen to the grasshoppers. It’s one of those timeless, perfect moments of summer, one that humans must have been enjoying since time began.

The grasshoppers I’ve been hearing are mainly common field grasshoppers (Chorthippus brunneus) and they live amongst the long grass that we leave to grow around the edge of the garden and come to jump amongst the vegetables. They first appeared in the garden in June and we’ll be hearing them for the rest of summer as the males chirp their rivalry songs at one another. Common field grasshoppers eat mostly grass, unlike crickets which will eat almost anything, so we’re not concerned about them and can simply enjoy them.

Ladybird larvae come to the rescue

Miranda Hodgson — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:35:00 GMT

Thousands of aphids have suddenly appeared in Oxfordshire. I can squish them, blast them with a jet of water from the hose or spray them. I don’t like spraying because it harms the beneficial insects as well as the pests, so generally squish or blast. As luck would have it, this year the predators have arrived at roughly the same time as the aphids and are saving me having to do much myself. They have come in the form of ladybird larvae. These are about 1cm long, though smaller when young, and have dark grey, segmented bodies with some orange spots down each side. They don’t look like ladybirds at all and can be seen in such large numbers that they could easily be mistaken for a pest themselves.

Along with ladybird larvae, the larvae of hoverflies and lacewings will also eat aphids. During a ladybird’s year of life, it can eat up to 5,000 aphids which makes them a welcome guest. Several parasitic wasps kill aphids, too, by laying their eggs in the aphids themselves. Looking at the underside of leaves affected by aphids, you may see a tiny, bloated, slightly metallic insect which never moves. This unfortunate creature has had an egg laid in its body by a parasitic wasp. Get a magnifying glass and keep an eye on it; in a couple of weeks, the new wasp will chew its way out, in a similar way to the monsters in the film ‘Alien’. I’ve wondered if that’s where they got the idea for that film, actually.

Apples for blackbirds and an update on the wasps

Miranda Hodgson — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:01:00 GMT

I keep bits of food in my gardening bag – apples, cereal bars, biscuits – and they mingle with the tools. Accidents happen; one of the apples got speared on the little gardening fork, a fork covered in soil. It had also been bruised and didn’t look very appetising anymore, so I cut it in half and put it out for the blackbirds (Turdus merula).

Watching wasps build a nest

Miranda Hodgson — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:18:00 GMT

I’ve been watching wasps building a nest. I first noticed them when I saw them buzzing in and out of a hole in the shed by the vegetable garden. Looking inside, I saw the nest being built and reckoned they had already been building it for some days. This is how it looked on the 5th of June. The wasp on the right was busy adding new material, chewed up wood mixed with saliva, and you can see that the mixture is still wet.

Five days later it had grown, with new layers having been added, and there were more wasps to be seen.

The grass snakes are back!

Miranda Hodgson — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:52:00 GMT

We came across grass snakes (Natrix natrix) regularly up at the vegetable garden this time last year and have been looking out for them again. We first knew that there were grass snakes about when I found one curled up in a compost bin a couple of years ago and then, last year, we found a discarded skin in one of the big compost heaps. We also saw them lounging in the sunshine on top of the compost, or at the doorways to their nests. Like lords of the manor, they were, spending their time sunbathing whilst we sweated in the garden.

An empty pheasant nest and looking at lily beetle larvae

Miranda Hodgson — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:12:00 GMT

When I last wrote, the pheasant was still on the nest and we were eagerly awaiting the first sight of the chicks. That weekend, there was a big wedding celebration in the field next to the vegetable garden and we decided to stay away. Typically, when we went to the garden again, only a day later, the nest was empty with no pheasant and no chicks to be seen.

It’s difficult to say if all the chicks hatched and some of the shells were trampled in the process, or if some were predated but, as there were only a few broken shells left in the nest, it seems clear that most of them got away. A neighbour said she had spotted a pheasant with chicks in a nearby lane, so maybe that was them.

Back in the ornamental garden and the lily beetles (Lilioceris lilii) are doing their work. Both the adults and the larvae eat the foliage of lily plants, as well as Cardiocrinum and fritillaries, and can chew through the lot in a short time. The bright red adults are easy to spot, though not easy to catch because they drop off the leaf as soon as you touch the plant. I’ve found it easiest to hold a trowel under the leaf and catch them in that. Then I squash them or, depending on how squeamish I feel, put them in the green composting bin and shut the lid.

Nearly time for the pheasant eggs to hatch

Miranda Hodgson — Sat, 22 May 2010 09:29:00 GMT

The pheasant at the vegetable garden is now completely hidden by nettles which have grown up around her nest. Every so often I’ll have a quick peek to make sure she’s still on the nest, but the dappled colouring of her feathers is barely visible under the surrounding foliage and it’s only because I know what to look for that I can make out the dark spots of her plumage.

Sometimes she gets up for a walk and we see her head poking out from behind the compost bays before she makes a dash for the cover of an apple tree, and from there to the raspberries, before stealthily working her way over to the pond. After she’s had a drink and something to eat, we might spot her in the long grass of a wild part of the garden as she makes her way back to the nest.

Surely the day is approaching when the eggs will hatch. We first spotted the eggs on the 23rd of April, when we counted nine. A few days later there were 13 of them and as the incubation period is between 23 and 27 days we should soon start to hear the young birds. I’m looking forward to it because I’ve never seen a newly hatched pheasant before and my friend John Davison tells me that they look rather like big bumblebees. Thirteen big bumblebees in a nest sounds like a fine sight.

In the meantime, I was working in a garden the other day and came across another quite different type of egg. Scrabbling at the base of an Iris foetidissima, I found a metallic green egg left over from an Easter egg hunt, back at the start of April. It suddenly occurred to me that I’d never been on an Easter egg hunt before, so finding this foil-wrapped treasure was a first.

We have newts!

Miranda Hodgson — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:31:00 GMT

Yesterday we got up to the vegetable garden for a couple of hours, intending to move the big pile of compost that had been shovelled onto a big sheet of plastic when we emptied the compost bay. As we find so many creatures in that garden, before moving the plastic, we pulled it back to see what was underneath. I expected worms, woodlice, slugs, snails and maybe a toad or a frog, so it was a real delight to see a teeny, tiny little newt.

It was so small, 5cm (2 inches) at the longest, that it would have been very easy to miss and it was only the elegant curve of its tail which gave it away. As it was so very little, it was difficult to say what type it was, but I’m guessing that it was a smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris). I’m also guessing that it may have over wintered in its larval state and only left the water this spring. This one appeared to be shedding its skin, which it will do about once a week whilst it is growing.

Young birds are out and about in the garden

Miranda Hodgson — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:24:00 GMT

The vegetable garden is filled with the calls of young birds. Around the edges of the garden, the shrubs and hedgerow plants became first nesting sites and then nurseries for blackbirds, robins, tits, finches and a single pheasant, currently tucked up amongst some nettles, next to the boundary wall. The pheasant is very close to the compost bays and we often pass by, but we pretend we don’t see one another and she stays put.

The pheasant, pretending I'm not there

Finding toads in the vegetable beds

Miranda Hodgson — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:33:00 GMT

Before saying anything about the toad, I was interested to note that several people have told me that they’ve seen bee flies about since I wrote about them last week and some said that they’d thought, at first, that they were seeing actual bees, rather than a mimic. I’ve been looking out for them and have seen another half a dozen or so.

Is that a bee?

Miranda Hodgson — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:20:00 GMT

The sound of buzzing is more noticeable every day, as increasing numbers of flying insects take to the air, going about their business of finding food, mating and building nests. Up at the garden I saw what at first sight looked very much like a small bee. Only it wasn’t a bee at all, but a fly that pretends it’s a bee – the bee fly, Bombylius major.

Bumblebees are nesting in the wall

Miranda Hodgson — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:51:00 GMT

Climbing through the window into the garden the other day, I was struck by the sound of buzzing and stopped to listen. Much of it was coming from bees crawling over the rosemary flowers, whilst other bees were visiting the (unfortunately) Spanish bluebells which are popping up all around the greenhouse. The bees were a mix of wild honey bees and various types of bumblebee.

I think this is a male Early bumblebee, Bombus pratorum

Spring is really here and the birds are nesting

Miranda Hodgson — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:04:00 GMT

Spring is a dream come true - a dream of warmth, new growth, and flowers. How fortunate I am that something so longed for becomes reality each year. I love this season so much and every year the anticipation of the land coming back to life is met by the intense pleasure of seeing it truly happening, first so slowly that you hardly notice and then ramping up speed until the land quivers with new life.

In the garden, the first empty egg shell was dropped onto the lawn by a pigeon. Birds do this to draw attention of predators away from the location of their nestlings and you’ll see the empty shells in many places. Look out for the pale blue shells of blackbird eggs – blackbirds are nesting now and the young will be hatching during the coming weeks. Once the young birds leave the nest, you’ll see them crouching in shrubs, tailless and petulant-looking, waiting for a parent to bring them food. Once their tails have grown, they’ll be able to fly properly and can then fend for themselves.

Long-tailed tits tapping at windows

Miranda Hodgson — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 11:32:00 GMT

I had an interesting email from my father the other day. He said, ‘For the past few days flocks of long-tailed tits have been coming to the fat balls (more primly known as ‘suet treats’) hanging in our garden. From time to time one or two will leave the group and start tapping on the windows, upsetting the cat no end. Why do you think they do this? My theory is that they catch sight of their reflection in the glass and think it's another tit, but it's never happened in past years. But then again, there are far more LTTs this year than before, perhaps because we've never had fat balls (or suet treats) before.’

Beware of the mouse – if you’re sowing peas and beans, that is

Miranda Hodgson — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:31:00 GMT

Packets of peas and beans generally come with instructions to sow them in the ground where they are to grow. It sounds good enough, but it puzzles me because the instructions don’t take into account a certain small mammal, the mouse - Apodemus sylvaticus.

Field mouse, wood mouse, call them what you will, but they love peas and beans and can sniff them out as fast as you sow them. They love sweet corn, too, and will neatly lift every carefully sown kernel, leaving barely a trace of their foraging. For this reason, I prefer to sow into trays and then keep them on metal racks that mice can’t climb up, until they have put out at least one set of leaves and can be safely put outside. I could, of course, trap and kill them, and many gardeners do, but I choose not to.

Mice are mostly nocturnal, so you don’t often see them, but they leave signs of their presence. If you have seed or berry producing trees nearby, like cherry or holly, it’s likely that a mouse will gather the seed and store it somewhere, to be eaten later; the corner of a dry garage is a favourite spot. The inside of a wood pile is a good storage area too – in ours we find many cherry stones. Once, I even found a disused bird’s nest piled high with holly berries.