My garden is squelching underfoot too Nik but a heavy, clay soil is supposed to be good for roses. I had a huge bird swoop down and grab a baby bird this year. It was distressing to see but It's nature. The other birds around didn't half kick off and the noise was incredible. They didn't return for several days even though I put the usual mealworms out for them.
We seem to be on the regular patrol route for this sparrowhawk. It knows that small birds are drawn here by the food we put out. It's a difficult choice - put out food to enjoy seeing the birds and help them to survive and produce new generations but lose some to sparrowhawks, or not put out food, not see the birds and make their lives more difficult as regards finding food.
Sparrow Hawk looked like it was diving for something? Be interesting to see how your sweet honey get on with 3 of them together? Mine by the potting shed sadly has to move (so I’ve been told:() and the one in the front bed also has to move. No idea where they will go but mine defo gone much taller and wider than the 3ft.
The trouble with buying bargain-price roses is that it is too tempting to overbuy - and as the line goes, I can resist anything except temptation! The result is the garden equivalent of trying to cram a quart into a pint pot. I think I'll split the Honeys up to have more than one spot where they can brighten up the garden - they are so dense with foliage and so generous with their flowers that they don't benefit from being together as much as less leafy/flower-laden roses do - in fact their growth may be held back by being too close together. Where to put them is the question - I am already suffering palpitations of nervous anxiety when I look at the 4 new roses I am overwintering in the greenhouse, and that's before JParkers deliver 8 more next month. Incidentally, I have buds and am hopeful of getting a couple of flowers on the new Rosemary Harkness in the greenhouse, which I didn't expect. As if an excess of roses is not enough, being of the waste not, want not school, I have just potted up 4 healthy-looking self-seeded hibiscus seedlings which I definitely don't have room for, except to keep in pots. Which reminds me - I was thinking of potting some late rose cuttings again this year - it's quite exciting to see if they take - but perhaps I shouldn't? Does the pleasure of growing them outweigh the anxiety about where they will go? I didn't see what the sparrowhawk was after this time but didn't see the usual pile of feathers, so whatever it was probably escaped.
My garden is squelching underfoot too Nik but a heavy, clay soil is supposed to be good for roses. I had a huge bird swoop down and grab a baby bird this year. It was distressing to see but It's nature. The other birds around didn't half kick off and the noise was incredible. They didn't return for several days even though I put the usual mealworms out for them.
We seem to be on the regular patrol route for this sparrowhawk. It knows that small birds are drawn here by the food we put out. It's a difficult choice - put out food to enjoy seeing the birds and help them to survive and produce new generations but lose some to sparrowhawks, or not put out food, not see the birds and make their lives more difficult as regards finding food.
Sparrow Hawk looked like it was diving for something? Be interesting to see how your sweet honey get on with 3 of them together? Mine by the potting shed sadly has to move (so I’ve been told:() and the one in the front bed also has to move. No idea where they will go but mine defo gone much taller and wider than the 3ft.
The trouble with buying bargain-price roses is that it is too tempting to overbuy - and as the line goes, I can resist anything except temptation! The result is the garden equivalent of trying to cram a quart into a pint pot. I think I'll split the Honeys up to have more than one spot where they can brighten up the garden - they are so dense with foliage and so generous with their flowers that they don't benefit from being together as much as less leafy/flower-laden roses do - in fact their growth may be held back by being too close together. Where to put them is the question - I am already suffering palpitations of nervous anxiety when I look at the 4 new roses I am overwintering in the greenhouse, and that's before JParkers deliver 8 more next month. Incidentally, I have buds and am hopeful of getting a couple of flowers on the new Rosemary Harkness in the greenhouse, which I didn't expect. As if an excess of roses is not enough, being of the waste not, want not school, I have just potted up 4 healthy-looking self-seeded hibiscus seedlings which I definitely don't have room for, except to keep in pots. Which reminds me - I was thinking of potting some late rose cuttings again this year - it's quite exciting to see if they take - but perhaps I shouldn't? Does the pleasure of growing them outweigh the anxiety about where they will go?
I didn't see what the sparrowhawk was after this time but didn't see the usual pile of feathers, so whatever it was probably escaped.