Nature notes – February/March

Janet Parrish writes from her garden on Exmouth Road:

This month often sees the most changes in weather patterns of the entire year. This February started fairly promisingly with mild days and crisp frosty sunny days. This was soon to change however as the forecasters promised, with snow and ice. In all the years we have lived in Devon we have hardly had a frost let alone snow.

This year my hopes of getting the garden sorted early in time to start sowing the spring crops were severely dashed. The camellias that usually flower at Christmas, kept their heads down and buds clamped tightly shut against the ravages of winter. They knew a thing or two. It was so cold one day that the pond did not unfreeze and at the beginning of February when I came to empty the rain gauge the tube was full of ice. Four and a half inches – using proper money – of rain that had fallen in January, was solid all the way through. It had to come inside and be dismantled. No bad thing as it was beginning to go green and gungy. So far this month there has been one and a half inches of rain and we are not quite half way through. Above: Pink and white heathers

At about this time of the year I look out for frogspawn in the pond. I think the frogs are going to be late this year too, as it is not yet consistently mild enough for them to venture out. Would you like to break the ice on your bath before wooing your chosen one in it?
Left: Red flowers of Chaenomeles japonica

There are however many signs of spring despite the cold. Many plants prefer to flower in the cooler months. Last week the snowdrops were doing what they do best; pushing up through the snow. Not very much snow I agree, but the ground was hard and inhospitable. There they were, the brave little things, barely two inches high already showing their white flower buds. This week they have come on a treat. Now at their best with several more clumps than last year. I did divide them up and spread them around a bit but it has rejuvenated the bulbs wonderfully. From now on it is the right time to divide and move these bulbs around – ‘in the green’ as they say. Do not let them dry out or they will take a long time to establish again. Above: Snowdrops

There were at least 12 species of plants flowering in the garden at the beginning of this month, from various hellebores to primroses. The Mahonia and Hamamelis were pumping out the most heady scents as I walked past, while the Prunus subhirtella autumnalis, which has been in flower sporadically all winter, is now beginning to put on a real burst of spring colour. Yes I think we can say that spring, at least in our part of the world, has really sprung at last!

Left: Hellebore

There will be a lot of casualties I fear. The risky stuff like Dicksonia Antarctica (Tree fern) will probably lose its outer leaves. I just hope the fronds tightly furled inside the crown and mulched each year by the bay tree that shelters it, will shoot into life in a month’s time. This is a very precious addition to the plot, bought at the Gardener’s World Show about six years ago and now about four feet high. The man in my life bought it for me and nobly carried this unpromising looking log through the crowds on his shoulder, to the plant crèche. It weighed about half a cwt then! Apart from that, the Echium that was the only survivor from a bunch of seedlings given by a friend on a really hot day in May last year, is looking decidedly sorry for itself. We can only hope! Right: Scented flowers of Mahonia

Tuesday 17 February.

So it is true then! Birds do pair up on St Valentine’s Day. They must have done because this morning there was the unmistakable sound of the dawn chorus. The blackbird started it all shortly followed by the robins. They have been vying for territory ever since the middle of January. There have been many odd scraps ‘over the scraps’ on the bird table. These are sure to be the males; the females fly off to sit in a tree and watch the affray! There were rooks sleepily joining in, in the background and a ‘jangle of keys’, denoted the presence of Dunnocks (Hedge sparrows), adding their line.

Since my last blog, the birds have been arriving in the garden thick and fast. All the ones I expected to see, turned up – too late to be counted – to thumb their….beaks at me – now that it was no longer important to be there for the survey. First in, to try out the fat-filled coconut half, was the Great Spotted Woodpecker, so striking in his black and white livery with brilliant red splash on the back of his head. Then came the Green Woodpecker probing for hibernating ants in the grass beside the path. He was having great success and stayed for a good ten minutes. Then, oh joy, the tree creeper appeared, characteristically flying to the bottom of a tree and working his way up the trunk to the canopy, picking off the over-wintering insects and grubs, before flitting off to do the same with the next tree. Numbers of Goldfinches have visited the niger seed feeder, while small flocks of Long-Tailed Tits have been gorging on the peanuts. Up in the tall Acer, a flock of passing Redwings rested for a time before setting off on their migration to the Baltic or Scandinavia. I am really pleased to see that there are at least two Song Thrushes, pottering about on the grass most mornings. I do hope they are male and female; difficult to tell, as they are alike in plumage.

Text and photos © Janet Parrish