The Beauty of Nature

Here I am transplanting strawberries from the plot to home. I want to put them into some hanging baskets to provide an alternative to flowers this year.

I expect I will be surprised at how they deliver fruit. I’m hoping for a good crop. It will be nice, if a little indulgent to be able to lean out of the window and pluck a fresh strawberry to eat.

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Welcome to 2011. I know it’s early this year, but I have decided to focus on my garden a little more this year so need to get things in the grow house early.

So, I’ve begun the gardening year today with the sowing of my sweet peas. They are a free-flowering variety so should give lots of lovely blooms and as I have sown them early, they should start to flower early as well.

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I’ve not been doing much on the plot of late, it’s too cold and there is nothing up there. I didn’t grow sprouts this year, I’ve gone off them a bit.

I did do the compost last week. That was odd as I found a spoon and food wrappers and other rubbish in it. It seems someone up there is using my composter as a dustbin! That’s not very nice.

This rather pretty bush was seen on the heath. I was rather taken with the flowers, like trumpets. I realise it’s not a plant you would want in your garden, but here it looked fine, giving colour to an otherwise bland scene.

I saw this small bird singing up on the heath. It looks quite plump but I expect it will need it this year as they say the winter will be as harsh as the last one.

I?m not looking forward to the snow again as I have left some plants out this year and covered them with fleece. Normally that does the trick, but not always. Some may not survive, but if I only have my garden to focus on next year, then that may spur me on to plant more.

Some more pictures of the cows on the heath. They weren?t too bothered about me being there, though the horns did worry me for a while.

While up on the heath recently I was these poor badgers. There wasn?t much left of them, the bugs had seen to that. It made me wonder how many insects they had saved from starvation? The circle of life is wonderful, though I?m not sure I want to be bug food.

I went up on the heath a couple of weeks ago and saw these cows grazing. They looked so happy and relaxed.

My strawberries seem to not realise it is getting on towards winter. They were still flowering last week. I expect the frost this week will have put paid to them by now, but it is still nice to see a flower in this cold weather.

I am going to try and grow some in pots next year as I may not have enough time for the plot.

I have been saving these beans for seed, though I?m not sure I will be able to grow them next year due to work commitments. But, you never know, I might not be able to refuse the urge to get to the plot.