In this video you can see how a ladybird goes from egg, to larvae, to adult, and will learn to recognise the different stages of their development.
The fascinating life cycle of ladybirds ❤
Posted in General Gardening, Wildlife Guides
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Hyperphagia: what is it? – Hedgehog Street
Overeating!
In a word, hyperphagia means overeating. As the summer draws to a close and the cold winter months approach, hedgehogs are preparing for hibernation by eating as much as they can find.
Hibernating hedgehogs
Contrary to popular belief, hibernation is not technically sleep. It’s a state known as torpor, where an animal reduces its metabolic activity. This means its temperature, breathing and other bodily processes are reduced, and it doesn’t move around like usual. The purpose of this is to conserve energy while food is in short supply. Hedgehogs can’t find enough slugs, worms and beetles during the winter to keep them going. Hibernation therefore allows a hedgehog to hit the pause button until the spring, when the weather is warmer and their food sources increase again.
This period of reduced activity means that hedgehogs burn energy a lot more slowly, but they still need plenty of it to last through the whole winter. Hedgehogs will rouse during milder weather in the winter to forage for food, but the most important time for feeding is now. Hedgehogs overeat during the autumn in order to increase their energy stores and build up fat reserves.
How can I help?
If you have any hedgehogs in your local area, now is a perfect time to help them out by putting some food in the garden, if you haven’t already. Hedgehogs can be fed any combination of meat-based wet dog or cat foods, as well as specially made food.
More information on what to feed your local hedgehogs can be found HERE.
Linking up gardens via hedgehog highways will allow our prickly friends to forage far and wide, as well as find a good spot for hibernating.
Putting a hedgehog house in your garden will give a hedgehog a safe place to hibernate.
This information is taken from https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/hyperphagia-what-is-it/
Posted in General Gardening, Wildlife Guides
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Some things to look out for with our spikey friends
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Restrictions on the use of metaldehyde to protect wildlife – GOV.UK
The Government have banned the sale of slug pellets as of June 2019, and any products containing metaldehyde must not be used after December 2020.
Read more below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/restrictions-on-the-use-of-metaldehyde-to-protect-wildlife
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It’s hedgehog awareness week!
Check out this article on creating holes in fences to help your friendly neighborhood slug eater
Posted in General Gardening, Information, Wildlife Guides
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Su’s Allotment in March
EDIT: after accidentally deleting this, I am reinstating it!
It’s that time of year again where the ground is bare, but warming up and we all start thinking about sowing our seeds for this year’s crops.
Of course, some seeds are more suited to germinating in the lower light levels and temperatures of early spring than others but generally March can be a good time to sow many things such as onions, beetroot, brassicas and early peas if you have a sheltered spot such as a greenhouse or polytunnel. It is even possible to get a head start on warmth loving crops such as tomatoes and peppers if you have a heated propagator.
I prefer to start most of my seeds off in module trays, and to transplant the young seedlings out as a plug plant when the ground has warmed. This gets you a head start on the growing season, particularly if you have access to fleece material (available in the shop) to cover the newly planted plugs which can trap some warmer air and hold off all but a harsh frost.
The only seeds I don’t do this for are carrots and parsnips, because both are prone to forking if their roots are damaged, and I have enough trouble getting carrots beyond one inches anyway, with the dreaded carrot fly!
I’ve also potted up some bulbs in the greenhouse at home in order to give me some summer colour at home. This year I will hopefully have a good display of gladioli, peonies, lilys, sunflowers and delphiniums, amongst other things. I’m keeping my fingers crossed though, because my soil at home is extremely sticky heavy clay and it waterlogs easily as the rain flows towards the hollow that is my garden.
Frank, my only hen that lays eggs (who is kept at home, along with her roost-mate, Dee) has gone from being almost entirely bald as she lost her feathers during winter for the annual moult, and is now looking like her normal self again. Hopefully, now that she is almost completely feathered up she’ll start laying eggs again, but as she’s an ageing chicken there’s no guarantee of that and she might just be joining Dee in having a pampered retirement after a lifetime of giving one egg almost every day of her adult life.Honeybees enjoying the winter sunshine
My bees, which are also kept at home, are showing signs of good health following winter where they have been cooped up inside their hives. March and April can be a trying time for honeybees as the weather can be horrendous. Last year we had a very late winter storm, “the Beast from the East” which worried gardeners and beekeepers alike, and the bad weather keeps them inside the hive and just like children they get very antsy if they can’t get outside to play! Happily though, I can see a lot of activity at the hive entrance, and lots of pollen coming in, which is a good sign that there are baby bees inside!
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