2010 diary has begun

The January 2010 diary has been started on the website. Although I've used much of the information already posted on the blog there is a new video of the birds feeding in the snow click here to view

Drinking Hole

The latest visitor to our garden drinking hole was this fieldfare. Not a brilliant photo as it was taken full zoom from a bedroom window. It does show how desperate birds are to find drinking water though. It is a bird we don't often see in our garden.

Fieldfare

It was followed by a close relative the redwing. Both are related to the song thrush as are the blackbird, robin and dunnock. The only member of the thrush family that hasn't visited us so far is the mistle thrush.

Redwing

It's as near to gardening as we get at the moment!

Posting on the blog is as near to gardening as we can manage at the moment. I have even managed to give the website a 'spring clean'.

Despite the poor weather seed orders are starting to arrive.

Our order from Plants of Distinction arrived yesterday. We have ordered seeds that are less commonly available from them. This year we ordered:

Beetroot - Sunset Mixed which produces red, yellow, white and bi-coloured roots

Cauliflower - Kaleidoscope Mixed which produces green, purple and orange heads

Tuscany and Provence Baby Salad Leaves

Melon - Noir des Carmes - which is supposedly one of the easiest melons to grow. I hope this is true as we haven't had a lot of success with melons.

Peppers - Jimmy Nardello's & Tequila Sunrise both are carrot shaped sweet peppers. Jimmy is reported to be the best sweet pepper I will ever taste and Tequila is a golden orange colour.

Squash - Potimarron & Crown Prince - we know Crown Prince is a good choice having grown it for a couple of years now but Potimarron is new to us

Tomato - Amish Gold which is said to produce huge solid yellow tomatoes.

We have also ordered a few flowers to give some extra colour and attract the beneficial insects as well as provide cut flowers.

Cosmos - Versailles Palace - which is great for cutting. We always have a patch of cosmos. It usually self seeds and produces some interesting colours but I guess this may not happen this year.

Papaver - Ladybird & Cherry Glow, - we already have some poppies that come up every year around the plot even though we haven't actually planted any before. We have quite a variety of colour as they must cross pollinate. (Shown in photo) If they come up in an inconvenient spot they are removed but otherwise they are left to do their thing. Maybe we will have even more cross pollination when we add these varieties.

We were also sent a couple of complementary packets of seed:

Sicilian Rocket Salad Mixed - which contain seven varieties of rocket - I didn't know there were seven varieties

Achillea - Flowerburst - we have several achillea on the plot again for cut flowers and to attract the insects and they are really good 'doers' as well as being really attractive so this variety will add to our colour palette and some may even end up in the garden.

Each year we carefully choose our seeds bearing in mind what we have room for and every year we end up with extra freebies either from seed companies or from magazines. Most freebies are welcome but the couple of packs of chilli seeds that have come via magazines will be given away. After last year's chilli experience we won't be growing any this year! We also got a couple of varieties of Sweet Pepper - California Wonder & Romano Mixed. Last year everyone was giving away tomato seeds, this year it looks as if peppers are flavour of 2010

Even the birds are talking about the weather!

There seems to only one thing to occupy us at the moment and that is keeping the birds supplied with food and water as the snow continues to keep on coming.

People are reporting record numbers of blackbirds in their gardens squabbling over any food being put out for them. Someone counted 15 of them at one time.

We ordered some new raspberry canes this year which were due to arrive this week. On Monday we had an email from Keepers saying because of the very cold weather and frozen ground they were unable to lift and dispatch them at present. They promise to resume deliveries as soon as weather permits. This was followed yesterday by a newsletter from Alan Roman saying our seed potato order will not be dispatched until the weather improves.

We're happy as this means we won't have to worry about what to do with plants etc arriving in freezing conditions.

All our seeds are now ordered and so it's just a case of holding tight for conditions to improve and parcels to arrive. (And hoping we don't run out of bird seed - I wonder whether they would eat old vegetable seeds - maybe not!)

An old friend returns

It's always good to see an old friend after a long absence. Several years ago thrushes were regular visitors to our garden and then they just seemed to disappear. Then last year we would occasionally spot one in the garden or at the allotment. Even without actually seeing them you could guess they were about as small piles of broken snail shell were spotted near to large flat stones. Whenever I weeded or dug I made sure the stones were put back in place. The thrushes use the stones as anvils to smash the snail shells. We also found broken snail shells in the garden and suspected a thrush was at work there too. During this latest cold spell a thrush (or it may be more than one) has been a constant visitor to our ground feeding stations.

It especially enjoys Golden Chorus and Mealworm Crumble (sounds delicious doesn't it?). They are more expensive than standard bird food bird as they say in the shampoo advert - "it's because they're worth it!"

The RSPB birdwatch is at the end of January so I bet it goes into hiding when we decide to carry out our count!

A Christmas bathe in the garden in freezing temperatures

It was every bird for itself as these sparrows searched for enough water to bathe in. Keeping the bird bath ice free was an impossible task but we at least managed to maintain some sort of water supply. The blackbirds resorted to walking on the frozen pond and drinking from the running water flowing from the filter.

Click on the video for a larger view.

It's a girl!

Just had another message from the animal sanctuary. Our little hog is a female and is doing well but they are keeping an eye on her leg.
She has now been popped in the baby pen and will stay there all winter.

STOP PRESS - Hedgehog Update

I've just had a very welcome message from The Crystal Sanctuary regarding 'our' little hedgehog's progress as follows:

"The little hog you brought in is doing well now, and since being wormed and had a course of antibiotics is now putting on weight and should begin to thrive.

We have had 13 brought in over the last three days so it has been a bit hectic".

So it was all worth it.

Hedgehog Ambulance

Inactivity on the plot has been made up for elsewhere this week.




At the beginning of the week our car became a hedgehog ambulance. Our September diary featured a video of two baby hedgehogs spotted in our garden. As these were obviously late babies I have been keeping watch for them. I was worried that they wouldn’t make the weight - 600g - needed for successful hibernation. One was spotted in our garden last week and ended up having an unexpected journey to a new home.

To read more visit last week's entry in our October diary

The October photo shoot of our allotment has also been added.

Whitefly in my coffee

It just doesn't seem to be possible at the moment to do anything on the plot without whitefly getting in on the act.

Yesterday one decided to take a bath in my coffee. When weeding it is advisable to keep your mouth firmly shut and only breathe when absolutely necessary.

As soon as any type of plant is gently touched clouds of these tiny moth like insects rise into the air. It seems this is very much the pest of the moment but what do you know about these tiny invaders? Click here to read what I have managed to find out. There seems to be lots of ideas for how we may try to control if not eliminate these pests but do any of them work? If you have any tried and tested methods for control on food crops then please share.

Feed the birds day

You may be like us and feed the birds every day but the official RSPB Feed the Birds Day is this Saturday 24 October. The RSPB web site gives advice on feeding birds and helping other wildlife.

The RSPB are running events linked to this on 24 & 25 October. If you don't usually feed the birds why not start this weekend?

For instructions on how to make a fat cake click here

Haiths and Garden Birds are two online supplier of a wide range of bird and wild life food. Haiths also offer advice on their web site click here

Don't forget that birds need water for drinking and bathing too!

 

Email conversation with the CRD

This week I received a response to the email that I sent to the CRD in which I raised some concerns regarding the reinstatement of the licence for aminopyralid.

The full email 'conversation' may be of interest and is reproduced here

MPs table EDMs

Two MPs Paul Burstow Lib-Dem Member for Sutton and Cheam and Tom Watson Labour MP for West Bromwich East have both tabled early Day Motions asking for a debate in the House of Commons regarding the above.

Click on the name of the MP to view their EDM and the list of MPs supporting them. In order to achieve a debate sufficient MPs have to offer support so if you think the issue should be debated then contact your MP and ask them to sign up. If you don't know the email address of your MP then you can use the WritetoThem website to contact them.

The petition closes on 23 October next week so if you wish to add your name then time is running out. Click here

Enquiry to the CRD

The following information from the CRD has been received by one of our visitors. It contains information that will be of interest to all gardeners. It was in response to the following question:

One point has come up in discussion with affected growers which concerns us as revealing a loophole in Dow's stewardship campaign. We are worried about the not inconsiderable quantities of this product still in the possession of people such as stable owners and others. It is likely that its use will be resumed for spot removal of weeds in paddocks etc with the result that manure supplied to allotments and gardens will continue to suffer contamination. Has consideration been given to these residual stocks and a way of ensuring that they are not used?

The response was:

Thank you for your email.

The only aminopyralid products which may now legally be used are the two products for which approval has recently been granted; these are Forefront with approval number 14701 and Mileway with approval number 14702. Any aminopyralid product with any other approval number may now only be stored for disposal and may not be used; anyone using these 'old' products will be doing so illegally and will be subject to appropriate enforcement should they be discovered to be doing so.

I understand that Dow have taken steps through their distributors to identify and recover unused stock and that they believe that only small amounts of the products now still remain in the hands of users.

It is certainly possible that stocks of manure containing aminopyralid residues from use in 2007 and 2008 might still be available so you will, I'm sure, accept that, even with Dow's stewardship programme, anyone now obtaining manure for their garden or allotment will need to assure themselves that the manure is suitable for their needs, and not only in respect of herbicide residues such as aminopyralid, but also any other 'contaminants' such as veterinary medicine residues that they would not want.

We will, of course, continue to monitor this issue so if you do come across evidence that things are not working as anticipated - whether this is stocks of manure containing aminopyralid reaching allotments and gardens, or the incorrect or illegal use of aminopyralid products - do please let both us and Dow know.

I hope this answers your questions but if you would like clarification or further information on any point, please let us know.

***END ***

Please also let me know too so I can include your information on my website.
Additional information from the poser of the question:
I could also add a warning that straw mixed with manure could also contain residues of disinfectant - apparently I am told that some allotment holders used to get straw-based manure from a slaughterhouse until it started to distort crops. That followed new disinfecting regulations on slaughterhouses following the BSE scare.

Reasoning behind reinstatement of AP licence

The ACP have the following information on their website here

Stewardship Campaign
Following suspension of the use of the products, Dow AgroSciences initiated a major awareness campaign, reminding all those involved in distributing and using the product to follow the label instructions and only to use manure on-farm and on certain crops. At the same time, through published articles, advertisements and contact with trade associations and allotment societies, attempts were made to alert all those who use manure to the issues and how to minimise the chances of any problems. A website was established which included a simple bioassay for gardeners to help determine if manure had any herbicide residues. If manure was suspected to contain herbicide residues and the owner agreed, Dow AgroSciences arranged for its removal.
These actions have had a positive impact. Despite awareness of these issues being far higher this year, the number of reported incidents where aminopyralid is implicated has fallen.

New Information
The Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP), at its May and July meetings, considered a range of further information on the reported incidents and the properties of aminopyralid. Major changes to the way the herbicide is to be sold and used were proposed. The ACP advised Ministers that these changes reduced the risks involved and approval could be recommended.
The minutes of the ACP meetings have been published. The information considered by the ACP is in the process of being drawn together and will be published on the CRD website in due course. Ministers have accepted this advice and new approvals have been issued.

The Major Differences between the Modified and New Approvals
Two products containing aminopyralid are approved. One is for use only on grassland to be grazed, not where silage or hay is to be harvested, to control a range of common weeds. The key changes from the previous approval are as follows:
Use only on grassland for grazing will mean that the majority of manure will fall back onto the treated grassland. Small accumulations, for example with dairy herds in milking parlours, are to remain on-farm and be spread only on grassland.

• There will not be use on grassland for producing fodder, much of which is fed to cattle housed through the winter months that results in major accumulations of manure.
• The product is to be used only by those with cattle or sheep, not those with horses. A high proportion of incidents arose from horse manure where fodder was brought in and there was no or limited scope to spread the resulting manure on the premises.
• These changes are designed to prevent sale of manure from treated grassland being supplied to gardeners and allotment holders, eliminating the risks involved.

Prior to sale of the product, potential purchasers are required to receive training from qualified advisors (British Agrochemicals Standards Inspection Scheme certified) so that the risks and how to prevent these are fully understood. Checks will also be made on the proposed use and ability to meet the warnings and restrictions. Only when all these checks have been satisfied will the product be sold.

The second product is for use against invasive and pernicious weeds in amenity situations (e.g. ragwort and Japanese knotweed on roadside verges, railway embankments or industrial areas) which are rarely grazed and where there is no fodder or manure collection.

Comments are welcome

NEWS FLASH Lost Cause?

New! Information on the lifting of the suspension of aminopyralid approvals
It would appear governement ministers have accepted the ACP recommendation that aminopyralid have its licence reinstated

More information on the Manure Matters website here

I suppose all we can do now is hope that the stewardship works but manure will be off our shopping list for the foreseeable future!

So what do you think? Comments are welcome.

Letter from Soil Association

Patrick Holden - the director of the Soil Assocation recently sent a letter to Hilary Benn expressing concern regarding the reinstallation of the licence for aminopyralid. Extracts from this letter have been published in the media. If you wish to read the full letter it is available here

For the Soil Association website click here

It's September! How did that happen so quickly?

September has continued the theme of strong winds and rain. Yet another cardoon has been battered to the ground. Work on the plot has been frequently interrupted by sudden heavy rain but despite that we have managed to spend some time on the plot.

A couple of young hedgehogs were spotted browsing under the bird feeders. I just hope these will grow to a size that will survive hibernation.

To read the first entry of the September diary and view a film of cute baby hedgehogs click here.

So whose baby is it?

Jack a young visitor to our site asked if we got robins in winter so this post is for him! We see robins all year round. The top photograph was taken in my garden last year and shows a young robin. Young robins don't have the red breast but are spotty. This camouflages them when they are young. Robins are very nosy birds and also can become very tame. The adult bird above was trying to decide whether we had any titbits for him/her. Another photo of this robin can be seen here.

The robin below was photographed having a good bath in our garden.

RSPB Nature Count

This week is the RSPB Nature Count so no doubt the birds will disappear for a week.

Why not take part? You don't need to leave the house just count the birds landing in your garden. The RSPB want information about other wildlife including cats too!

Click here for details.