Robins

Sorry it has been a while (evil mock exams), i thought i would talk about robins, i love them they always come up to me when i am gardening, there great! 
Robins are European birds and their scientific name according to the internet are called Erithacus rubecula and as you will probably know, or not they are insectivorous or in other words they eat insects. One reason i love them is because when i am digging around in my garden they always come and stand right next to me, they only do this because they know they will get food (worms), not out of any form of friendship (as far as i know :) ). Still robins are incredibly clever and come up to you because from the disturbed soil they can get some juicy worms yum yum (typing this sarcastically and cringing)! 

They also lay blue eggs and have a life span of apparently 1.1 years which is quite sad because before i found this out i thought they lived a lot longer than this. Well that's it from me for now but i will get my thinking cap on for another interesting post on nature in the garden. Just to finish off with a very cute photo of a robin. :)

     

Quick post

hello, this is only a short post but if you have yellow flag iris (i dont know about others) collect the seed pods before they disperse if you want to grow them your self like i am going to do :) over and out ;)

Composting

Hello! Today i will talk about composting this is some of my own knowledge and research....

As you know most trees shed their leaves in autumn, you can leave this out for the wild life to make bedding for nests, or composting is a great way of recycling your leaf litter, rather than throwing it away. Composting has many benefits, one... when it is decomposed you can re-use it in your garden rather than buying bags of it, it can be used as mulch in the winter. Two.. if you put it in a compost heap it provides a great place for nature, worms, insects, and the more you put on, the more warm it will be, so decomposition will be quicker and hazar you have some lovely compost :) :) :)

 

Dahlias

 Dahlias are wonderful flowers when they are flowering, so i thought about telling you about how to dead head them, i know its not really about nature but its good to know. When the flower has died the bud should look like this.....

   this is what it should look like when you dead head it, the bud before it flowers should look like this...

 To maximize the flowering time of your plant you must deadhead so the flower can put its energy into producing flowers not dispersing seeds. 

Then you should end up with a long lasting flowering plant. :)

Birds

Hello sorry i haven't posted anything for a while (school :( ... ), anyway i thought about posting some stuff on how we should care for birds during the upcoming months of winder.

Firstly if you have been feeding birds over the summer and year they will be coming back because they know that they can get food in your garden, so keep it up, i know its hard to go out into the freezing weather (i know from xp) but we need to continue feeding them.

Secondly putting up bird boxes and other animal boxes is great but if you have a cat then put them up high! :) This means in the future you may get birds nesting in them and that is cool!!

Thirdly if you have a bird bath make sure it is full of water and not frozen so the birds can still drink!

Fourthly keep some parts of your garden un-raked so birds can collect materials for nesting.

That's all from me today, I'll be back tomorrow (hopefully) with another nature post :)

Bye :)

Mushrooms!!!!!!!!!!

Mushrooms or toadstools are some of the cool things that appearer in our gardens (well they do in mine) and they loooooove the shade, here are some cool facts about them that i have researched....

1. Did you know that mushrooms are fungus and do not need sunlight to make energy for themselves.
2. Mushrooms are made up of around 90% water (i did not know this, amazing!)
3. The Jack o'lantern mushroom is a toxic mushroom and can give you diarrhea and sever cramps (i would not put that one on your pizza)
4. Mushrooms are not only used for cooking but is used in medicine.
5. And a single Portabella mushroom can contain more potassium than a banana.
6. I love mushrooms ;)

Some of many mushrooms in the garden :)

Hope you liked this post, i will be back soon with some more interesting stuff :)
   

Amazing Ivy

I have been thinking about posting this one for a bit so hope you enjoy.

What i love in the garden is ivy, not to much because that is annoying after a while, but on the fence (preferably your own :) ) or on a wall, or on a tree. What i found is in my garden we have a great clump of ivy and clematis Montana on a wall, and birds build their nests in it, we have had blue tits and blackbirds in two separate places and they love it, because it is sheltered, off the ground and well out of reach of predictors like foxes and cats. Also the structure of the ivy means it is easier for them to build a nest.

Here is ours...