We’re waking up

Midgefarm is stirring.

The mice are on the move. A new run under the compost bin keeps Old Podge sternly focused on the upper tier.

Meanwhile the mouse has decamped to the roots of the rowan tree two tiers below and sits happily stuffing its cheeks with bird seed.

The blackbird has been singing his heart out all week in the sycamore. Winter still lives in the shade of the woods behind the house

but even there Spring has crept in.

Spring, an exhausting time for some.

Poor Patty Bee

Garden and blog have been neglected for what seems like months and it shows. My poor patch is suffering from the combined effects of a harsh winter and an inattentive gardener. It’s a midden but I console myself with the thought that the birds and bugs don’t care and may even benefit from the mess.

I saw the first bumble bee today (although she may have been around before, I just haven’t been out in the garden to see her.)

There are very few flowers out, just a few brave primroses which I’m not even sure bumbles feed on. Is she a queen? She was paying a lot of attention to the ground and I wondered if she was looking for a nesting site.

And no I haven’t named her Patty Bee, though come to think of it I may do so. The Patty Bee in the title is my poor dwarf rhodie which I don’t think will survive. A winter of repeated freeze/thaws has left a sad, wizened little plant. This time last year she was a riot of pale yellow buds.

But amidst the loss and chaos there are some small triumphs. I planted this globe flower last year. It seemed to take one look at my garden and collapse in a wilted, slimy heap (a not uncommon occurrence among plants and people faced with my midge farm for the first time) but here it is apparently back in strength and making me very happy.

Geranium splish splash (grown from seed last year) is looking robust in among the weeds.

Camellia donation is almost out, many of the buds are frosted but I think there will be enough for a show.and Mum’s teasels are looking good.

I’ve been travelling a lot recently hence the Garden of Neglect. This week I was out on the Uists, a network of tiny islands linked by causeways.

At first glance the landscape appears very brown and barren, splashes of colour stand out because they are so unusual.

But then your eye adapts and you realise how beautiful a landscape without trees can be. There are greylag geese grazing everywhere, like rabbits, and the mudflats all around are covered in an amazing variety of wading birds.

It was frustrating that I was working and couldn’t stop but just from the car I think I saw a corncrake and watched a buzzard dive down by the side of the road to take a wriggling vole up in it’s claws.

I had a couple of hours at the end of the visit while waiting for the Loch Maddy ferry. But the tide was relatively high and the terminal didn’t support the population of waders I saw elsewhere

Looking closely however I could see some oystercatchers roosting in the kelp.

And it was peaceful watching the calmac ferry slowly appear on the horizon coming to take me home.

This post approved for publication by my expert advisor:

Wishing you all a magical Christmas from the midgefarm crystal garden

Thank you for your visits, comments, reactions and advice this year and for sharing your own gorgeous gardens.

Yan and Smudge.

New toys

A camera for me and a box for Smudge.


Just practicing on a dramatic sunrise.

Collared doves, wondering when their seed waitress is going to stop clicking and start serving breakfast.


I know he's not in focus but I like this chaffinich posing on my otter. (Nasturtiums are still blooming!)


I have tried for ages to get a good pic of a dunnock but I'm going to have to make do with this dunnock's bottom.


Anything still flowering? Well yes the hydrangea is looking gorgeous,


the fuschias are still dancing,



and the Mum is in her prime.

A short day, 3:30pm and the sun goes down in moody blues as rain rolls up the loch.

The Mum from Mum

Mum and Dad visited at the weekend. Mum brought this beautiful Mum:

and a box of teasels. I'm going to plant these on the wildflower bank at the top of the garden. "Wildflower/Wildlife area" is the posh way I now refer to any untidy/unkempt parts of the garden.

Dad brought:

If I wasn't such a grateful daughter, I might suggest there was a small glut gloat going on. The artichokes were yum with roast duck and I have enough left to make soup today.

Wildflowers

Still camera-less so thought I would catch up on some of the things I meant to post this summer but never got round to. I know I'll be stating the blindingly obvious when I say that the midgefarm is not a manicured garden. The bonus of the untidiness is all the wonderful wildflowers that pop up.

Spring starts with banks of primroses on the first tier before even the azaleas are out.

Just as these start to fade, the bluebells in the grass above are reaching their prime. Of course this means I don't cut the grass (yippee) and there are daisies in abundance.

Then as the bluebells die back the foxgloves start waving for attention.

I have two grassy banks on the third tier. I have planted a blue ceanthus, a periwinkle and a pale yellow potentilla on the first bank. I had visions of the blue and pale yellow growing in a mix together. But nature put together a much prettier mix. This bank was covered in cuckoo flowers in spring which the orange tip butterflies loved. This slowly gave way to hawkweed, selfheal and clover. The bank was constantly buzzing with bumble bees and hoverflies and all sorts of grasshoppers singing. I think I may have to move my plants and let nature have her way.

There are other more secretive plants hiding in little clumps. This sweet forget-me-not lives on the second bank.

I didn't tidy the grass round this old tree stump as there was a speedwell looking very pretty growing through it.

And those are just the few photos I could find (my files are as tidy as my garden). There's so much more, several types of St John's wort, creeping Jenny, ferns, willows, hazels all unplanned but all very welcome.