The Bee Garden

This is the bottom end of the Allotments where we keep the bee hives or Apiary, its disused allotments that have been used as a scrap yard in the past as a result it can no longer be used to grow veg being contaminated with heavy metals mainly cadmium also oil, plastics, bonfire ash, bricks, plaster and general rubbish by the skip load.

Manchester Uni have been testing the soil and plants,they have a student doing a PhD growing veg in different soil treatments

We have been working clearing a patch of land to create a flower garden, mainly perennials and wild flowers the pics are how the garden look in late summer,the plants not yet all established but with more work and plants we should finish up with a beautiful botanic garden, slow going.

The aim of the garden is to help the honeybees bumblebees and other pollinating and beneficial insects which were in real trouble this summer with the wet cold weather,there is also a large patch of fodder plants for the larvae of Butterflies and Moths,so hopefully you will see more of the colourful ones next year.

Plants and seeds from the garden will be propagated for sale in the Society greenhouse and poly tunnel.

Ring-necked Parakeet

A Ring-necked Parakeet visited the Allotments today,it came down to feed on Bobs feeder's they have been    
spotted in Abbey Hey a few times over the last few months.

They are now on the list of  naturalised British birds the first pair recorded breeding wild in 1969

They are well adapted to cold weather and do not appear to suffer in hard winters

Feeding on buds fruit grains seeds and berries they will come down to bird feeders for peanuts and sunflower seeds.

Heron's Hunting

Heron on a shed roof.

  Two herons have been hunting round the allotments taking fish and frogs from allotment ponds.

 I hear they have been taking fish from garden ponds over a wide area.

Heron taking off.

Early Bird

This Fox seems to be around early in the morning or maybe he's up late.

Allotment Foxes

These are some of the foxes that roam the allotments at night. You will see their foot prints in the soil on your plot or holes where they have been digging for food, worms or beetles, or burying food to collect at a later date. Sometimes i find Goose eggs when digging my plot that have been buried by foxes.

There are three different individuals hear, we have seen them all before earlier in the year.One with a damaged or missing right ear,and another with only one eye.

Brock's Back

Brock's becoming a frequent visitor to the Allotments it comes for treats i leave out for him/her,its very cautious and flees when it spots the camera.

Curiosity got the better of it and it came back later to check out the camera coming so close you can see its breath in the night air.

Wood Mouse

This is on the edge of a small woods just outside the Allotment fence. Wood mice eat seeds and nuts in summer and autumn when available which they store, and small Snails Beetles and Moth larvae in spring they live in underground tunnels.

 

There is a pair of eyes in the bushes watching this mouse just to the top left of the video.

Allotment Duck

The Allotment duck turned up in the car park today with nine ducklings this is her second lot this year.(she lost the first)She builds her nest on a shed roof but she now has to get them to Debdale reservoir about half a mile away.

she took them to the pond behind the stores but will soon leave walking through the streets with them to the reservoir.

I last saw her walking down the Allotment path with her ducklings with a Heron circling over head.

Butterfly Larvae

It has been a bad year for Butterflies and Honey Bees i have only seen a few Butterflies this year i spotted this on the Allotments on Nettles.

Nettles are the food plant of a lot of Butterfly larvae, this web is made by the larvae of the Small Tortoiseshell, these webs extend over patches of nettles, with the larvae resting communally or feeding on the leaves.

On emerging from their eggs, the larvae build a communal web, usually at the top of the nettle, from which they emerge to bask and feed. As the larvae grow, they move to new plants, building new webs along the way. This leaves a trail of webs, decorated with shed larval skins and droppings, that show the passing of time, and allows the patient observer to trace the larvae all the way back to the plant where the eggs were laid

Larvae have several techniques to avoid predation. When disturbed, a group of larvae will often jerk their bodies from side to side in unison, which must be a formidable sight to any predator. The larvae will also regurgitate green fluid and will, if necessary, curl up in a ball and drop to the ground. Larvae feed by both day and night and there are 4 moults in total.

Supper Time

A young fox finds a dead chicken, hope she shares it with her brothers. The reason we leave any dead chickens for the foxes to find is they still find them if we bury them and make a mess of the plot digging them up.

Back 30 min later looking for more hopefully it will be a while before any more chickens die.

Surprise Visitor

I was shocked and delighted when i played back this video from a remote camera on the Allotments. These animals eat slugs so maybe time to stop using slug pellets or use organic ones. This one got the smell of a dead chicken and turned tail.the next night a young Fox found the chicken.

Wild Flower or Weed

Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) starting to flower on the Allotments in a few places where it has not been pulled out as weeds the leaves are similar to nettles but dont sting.

No Butterflys about this year but i saw a large Dragonfly at the Bottom End last week near the pond

Wild Flowers or Weeds

Herb Robert is a geranium - Geranium Robertianum, it grows as a weed or wild flower all over the allotments its on every plot except those that are kept weed or wild flower free,  although tasteless it can be used as a salad leaf or tea with honey and lemon and contains the powerful antioxidant vitamins A and C, as well as vitamin B. It is full of minerals such as iron, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, calcium and even the wonder trace mineral germanium. Germanium itself functions as a powerful free-radical scavenger (so it is a powerful anti-oxidant in its own right), as well as activating and catalyzing the use of oxygen within the body creating an oxygen rich super nourishing environment that is anti-viral and anti-biotic for the pathogenic (disease producing) organisms. Germanium improves electrical conductivity at a cellular level and is an important part of the DNA chain itself - therefore it is a very regenerating element to receive in our diet. Herb Robert also contains the powerful phyto-nutrient 'ellagic acid' which has powerful anti-tumor qualities being an anti-oxidant and anti-proliferative, helping to neutralise the effects of all of those harmful carcinogens that we take in on a daily basis just through ordinary living. Herb Robert is an adaptogen, meaning that it has a wonderful way of modulating the immune system by boosting it again when overly stressed.

Wild garlic

This is a picture of true wild garlic Allium ursinum also known as Ramsons there is none growing wild round the allotments but some has been planted by plot holders on their plots, all this plant is edible leaves flowers and bulbs.

Jack by the hedge

Alliaria petiolata, Garlic Mustard, Jack-by-the-hedge, this wild flower is growing as a weed all over the allotments this year and every where else, its a biennial  smelling of garlic the leaves are edible with a mild garlic taste it can be used in salads its rich in vitamins A and C.it is also the food plant of the Orange tip Butterfly.

Ponds and puddles

There are plenty of ponds on the Allotments large and small but all will attract wildlife,I have two ponds on my plot made from the bottoms of plastic barrels about 12ins deep. I am doing some work round this one at the moment it will have new plants around and the soil will be level with the top of the pond, the plants will be non invasive and low growing maybe a taller one at the back,In the pond i have oxygenators with Duckweed floating on top for shade this stops the water going green.

There are four Newts in this pond two male and two female they are hard to spot and even harder to get a photo with the reflection off the surface,This pic shows a male and female together. 

I filmed this in the rain you can see the rain drops rippling on the surface of the pond, its a male Newt hunting midge larvae.

The swallows arrived on the allotments this week the first was seen last Sunday i saw my first on Monday but had to wait till Friday before i got a picture.

Who's digging up my spuds

 

Something has been digging holes in the beds that i planted spuds so i set up a camera to find out what goes on after dark.
 the second fox only seems to have one eye i think it's the smell from the Rooster chicken pellets that i put round the spuds that attracts them.

A nice close up of a vixen it seems very healthy,  the chicken run is only about 25 yards from this spot so good job they are well protected.

     

Big Yellow Taxi

Joni Mitchell,  Big Yellow Taxi,  this was home.

To this Violet Ground Beetle, adult and larvae eat slugs and snails.

Colts-foot (Tussilago farfara) coming into flower the scaly flower-stalks appear before the leaves,extracts of the plant are tried and tested medicine for coughs and hoarse throats.

Honey bee gathering pollen from peach blossom and pollinating the flower at the same time.

I hope to have plenty of Peaches this year if the bees do their job and i can protect the blossom from frost.

The bees have had a good start this year with plenty of spring flowers and trees full of pollen this tree is one of the tallest Pussy Willows (Salix Capera) i have seen. It`s on site 3 and full of pollen.

The trees that are in blossom around the allotment at the moment are Blackthorn wild plum (prunus spinosa) also known as Sloe.

Some of the plants in flower at the moment. Primula vulgaris sibthorpii.

Primula wanda.

March on the allotment.

The first Frog spawn  laid on Feb29th plenty more to come this is in the pond down the Bottom End.

Its been a warm day lots of insects out Honey bees on the Celandine and Snowdrops.

plus Ladybirds and Bumble bees, not seen any Butterflies yet.

Newts on the Allotment.

Newts are on the move making their way back to ponds, spotted this one at the Bottom End and moved it to safety near to the pond.

It looks like a male common newt or Smooth newt they are nocturnal and spend the day under logs large stones and in compost heaps, they stay in the ponds till late July adult newts shed their skin once a week.

February on the Allotment

Crocus  in flower on Bobs plot we need more plot holders planting early flowers for insects coming out on warm winter days to feed on pollen and nectar.

 Snowdrops another good pollen plant

Something more unusual a winter flowering honeysuckle Lonicera fragrantissima very fragrant a good bee plant also on Bobs plot.