There's snow even in Devon!

It took a long time for the snow to reach Devon from Russia, but reach it it finally did.





Unfortunately I was in a meeting when most of the snow fell (typical - the only meeting I've had this year) and by the time we got home the light was fading. Still, we managed to go out in the garden, play with William, give the birds and squirrels some fresh water and then watch a squirrel jump around in the snow. Fantastic!







William ventures out onto the pond

Animal homes

The search for land has taken me on a journey of discovery over the last few months. Although we've spent only a few hours actually looking at land I've spent days thinking and planning for the future.

Most of my thoughts have been about trees and plants and what we could grow to attract wildlife. I've also decided that the (first?) book I shall attempt to write will be a sort of diary / account of the creation of a nature reserve from scratch. Not that the land we'll buy at this stage is likely to be turned into a nature reserve, but we shall use it as a sort of trial to see what does and doesn't work - particularly regarding habitat creation.

Recently I've been thinking about artificial habitats - homes for animals that can be erected immediately and don't require time for trees or undergrowth to establish. Obviously bird boxes spring to mind, but there are all sorts of others out there on the internet and in garden centres. Ian is keen on the idea of making them - a fun hobby and also a response to how much they cost.

dormouse box



hedgehog house



bat box



There's an enormous range of specialised bird boxes these days:

tawny owl box



Treecreeper box



barn owl box



duck box



and a floating duck house.

Cold frames

At the weekend we assembled 3 cold frames for our vegetables. Unfortunately 24 hours later we had some very strong gales which lifted one on top of another and pulled 2 of them apart. It appears that the lids catch the wind very easily. Having removed the lids they haven't moved at all. Any suggestions for easy ways to hold the lids down in bad weather?

Cones

Over Christmas Ian and I visited Formby pine woods, Grizedale Forest and Tarn Howes, primarily with the aim of collecting cones so that we could plant the seeds. We managed to find a number of different species. They're currently drying out, but I'm looking forward to extracting and planting the seeds. Not that I'll be going through the entire process undertaken by the Canadian Forest Service, but hopefully some of the seeds will germinate nonetheless.

Assorted pines

Western hemlock
Larch
Sitka spruce
Norway spruce

Douglas fir

A name!

We named the house frog end soon after we moved in, but until now hadn't managed to find a good sign. Ian bought me this for Christmas. Can't wait to go home and put it up.

Hazelnuts

I love the big packs of nuts that you find in supermarkets at this time of year. Hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts... they all look so appealing with their shells still on. Whilst it does take much much longer to eat them when you have to crack them open it's all great fun.

I wonder what happens to the nuts between the time they come off the tree and the time they are to be found on the supermarket shells. I ask this because I'm wondering what the chances of me getting them to grow are. Presumably the worst condition that they could have been exposed to is cold, but simulating a natural winter is often necessary to get tree seeds to grow in this country anyway. Unless anyone suggests a reason why I shouldn't I think I shall plant some as an experiment.

An appeal

One of my life goals is to turn a piece of land into a nature reserve, including planting a large area of woodland. Ian also aims to grow and sell topiary to fund the opening of topiary gardens, similar to those in Maryland...

and tamborine mountain in Queensland (unfortunately I can't find a picture on the internet).

Although we've started planting tree seeds and boxwood cuttings we've only managed to do this on a small scale in the garden and greenhouse. Buying a piece of land now would enable us to get started growing box and privet for topiary on a large scale as well as trying out some other commercial enterprises, including growing trees and plants for sale on ebay, trees for the future nature reserve, pumpkins for halloween, christmas trees etc.


As some of you will know we put an offer in on a lovely piece of land near Okehampton a couple of months ago, but sadly our offer was rejected and it has been taken off the market. Today we looked at another piece of land for sale only a couple of miles from our house. It had massive potential as both a nature reserve and a place to grow all we could ever need. Of course it has a couple of ponds and I'm already wondering how many species of dragonflies and damselflies we could attract ;-). Anyway, whatever happens with this piece of land we do aim to buy some in the very near future and we would really appreciate your help in getting started with the growing...


We're going to be growing as many native trees as we can so if you have any seeds or happen to pass an oak, beech, hazel etc next autumn please please could you collect and save them for us. Similarly if you have hollies, hawthorns, rowans etc sprouting all over your garden then rather than digging them up and discarding them could you please pop them into a pot and we'll come and collect them from you. Obviously I'm not asking you to start digging up seedlings in your local park, but if you do know anyone with seeds or seedlings that they don't want please rescue them for us and allow them to be part of a future nature reserve.


Thank you. You will all be most welcome to visit our land when we buy.