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| Scruffy hart's tongues ferns in wall. June 1st 2020. |
Do you remember this picture?
It's of bedraggled Hart's Tongue ferns in the wall outside my house on 1st June 2020.
Something apparently unconnected; do any of you read Karen Gimson's blog? (Recommended!) Well, at the beginning of March, Karen was giving away a Hozelock Bokashi Composter and I 'won' it by leaving a comment and my name came out of the hat.
This kind of composter lives indoors. There are no worms but a sort of magical sawdust that you sprinkle onto food you put in the large-bucket sized, grey and yellow plastic box. Incredibly, it can be cooked as well as uncooked food, animal as well as vegetable. (Even bones.) I haven't been very adventurous with it. I find I am conservative about what I think 'ought' to go into a compost bin and these conventions are hard to overcome. However, feeling rather brave, adventurous and reckless even I have included pasta from time to time. It's now got to the point where I must get someone to dig a hole in the ground at my allotment and bury the contents. (Perhaps I will ask them to sing mystical chants while they do it!) But in between then and now, twice a week, I have opened a tap at the bottom and let a slightly yellow, slightly cabbagy smelling liquid flow out. I've diluted it with water and poured it over the hart's tongue ferns using a little red watering can with a long, thin spout - rather like an old fashioned oil can.
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| The same hart's tongue ferns on 1st August 2020/ |
And this is the result!
All previous hart's tongue ferns I have come across have been growing on woodland slopes or at the edge of county ditches where there would always be some kind of decaying vegetation. These must have been hungry as well as thirsty. Just look at them now! Not only have the original ones revived, more have appeared - presumably encouraged by the dribble of water and nutrients through the channels of old mortar. I've just counted forty. FORTY!
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| Petty spurge. 1st August 2020 |
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| Small foxglove plant. 1st August 2020 |
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| Aquilegia. 5th June 2020 |
Remember this picture? It is of some rather exotic looking aquilegia growing nearby. I've collected seeds from them and sprinkled them on the earth. Hopefully, they will grow and I will have exotic flowers outside my house too next June. (I've kept some in an envelope and can start them in pots in spring if I need a fall back.)
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| Small, self-sown cyclamen now put in pots. 1st August 2020. |
The trouble with cats is that they like sitting on things and my remaining cat is an enthusiastic window-box-plant-squasher. Last year I planted cyclamen in the window boxes. Squashed! Dead! Breaking my arm didn't help. I couldn't water things as much as they needed. But eight baby cyclamen have sprung up in their place. Two I've left in the boxes. The other six I am now nurturing in separate pots. Of their own accord they are perpetuating the line. They are welcome!
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| Lobelia flowering in stripey Yucca pot. 1st August 2020 |
This pot came with me from Dorset. It contains a stripy Yucca plant and a foxglove seedling. Also some lobelia. The lobelia came from Dorset - at least, its ancestors did. I bought a few plants several years ago and they have been self-seeding ever since.
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| Geranium in pot. Grown on from plug. 1st August 2020. |
And last, but not least, geraniums. I have not been into a shop for months but Diana at Elephant's Eye on False Bay pointed out that the large windows in my house might have been intended with a weaver in mind and that weavers traditionally had geraniums in their window boxes. How could I resist? I looked online but geraniums seemed very expensive so I asked my neighbour to keep an eye out for me in the local shops and she came across a wonderful bargain - eighteen plug plants for £1:77! Enough for her to have some on her windowsills too. I've potted them up and when they get round to flowering we will have a right gaudy and joyous display at our end of the street.
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| More hart's tongue ferns in the same brick wall. 1st August 2020. |
Nature, in the form of lack of water, of slugs and snails can be destructive. But there can be hardly anywhere in this country where absolutely nothing will grow. I will not necessarily be able to have the plants I first thought of but nature (and my neighbour!) are filling the gaps. What grows is welcome. Plants which choose to be here of their own accord or are from the immediate environs are those most likely to survive - and that, so far, with a little bit of nudging, is what they are doing!
23 comments:
What a heart-warming post! It is these pioneer species which attempt to survive where nothing else would grow which gives me hope for Nature post-humans. With less mowing this year, we have been amazed with the things which have sprung up in the garden. Geraniums are a big part of windowsill life here too, perhaps some trait inherited from my wife's Lancashire ancestors?
Sorry to har you haven't been able to get to your Allotment. The Hart's-Tongue Ferns look wonderful...
That composter sounds rather magical and it’s not something I’d read about. Of course there are naughty people who already put potato and orange peelings, carrot tops plus other supposedly nasty bits in their green bins, even though it’s verboten. Let’s face it, there aren’t many ways to fight back nowadays. I’m such a rebel.
I know of a place with lots of foxgloves but never thought to collect the seeds. Unlike a local on the Facebook Car Boot who has several tiny specimens for sale at £5. Now there’s an idea for an honesty box at your street display, proceeds to a worthy cause.
Lovely post and pictures. It's wonderful to see how you're still managing to garden as you have.
Take care, and happy gardening. xx
The Hart's-Tongue Ferns look fabulous. They really like what you did. Years ago we used to have a worm bin and it was great. Didn't smell at all and produced some great compost.
Miraculous transformation of the ferns. Now we just need you to invent something that gives immunity to slugs.
I remember reading that comment about weaver's windows, but, it was someone probably local to you in England, not me.
Ferns in the wall are a happy delight. Sorry you lost one cat.
Thomas chooses, either he sits, just there where something cherished was growing, or he chooses a fresh little tree for his Here Be Dragons warning. We enjoy gardening together ;~)
It's amazing how plants will grow in the most inhospitable conditions but that plant food you're using is certainly keeping them conditioned. What a great win, the composter sounds fabulous. So sorry to hear such sad news about your cat, our pets very quickly become one of the family and they leave a big hole when we lose them.
What an amazing feat with the hart’s tongue ferns. Your composter sounds intriguing. I love the idea of your colourful cul-de-sac and the “weavers’ windows” geraniums.
So sorry to hear about the loss of your cat.
Keep up the good work.
Chuffed. I like that word, Not one used here in the US but it is certainly descriptive. And Hurrah for the ferns--what pleasure to see them revive. As always, your post made me feel calm and hopeful. Thank you, Lucy.
Your ferns are thriving! Such a heart-sing sight. Despite all the difficulties, they are doing more than just clinging on to life. I’m always fascinated when just a little bit of help brings results. I’m delighted you are enjoying using the composter and it’s been so useful. A lovely post, Lucy. Made me smile. Enjoy your gardening. Karen x
So very behind with replying to your comments. Many apologies. If you need consolation, be assured I'm behind with EVERYTHING!
Hello Imperfect and Tense. Given the rate of extinctions it sometimes seems as if if it's a race to see how many living things we can extinguish before we ourselves are done for! I'm particularly worried at the moment about the urge towards electric vehicles. They are meant to be 'good for the planet' but will apparently involve dredging the sea floor for cobolt which is needed in their batteries. It seems as if, having worked our way through fossil fuels we'll now attack the ocean.
Oh dear! You were saying 'what a heart warming post' and I start talking about destructions!
Hope you are well.
Hello Mike.
I'm am torn in deciding when it will be safe to go back to my allotment. I will probably stop the immunosuppressant medicine I am on next July (2021) so that should be the time but I am wondering whether is would be safe to go back earlier. The danger is in breathing bacteria churned up from the soil when digging but during the winter, when the soil is damp, there won't be so much dust. We'll see!
Hello Phil. Foxglove seeds from three plants have sprung up in their pots. They are very tiny but multitudinous. I really wanted some white ones and am hoping at least one pot will have white ones by chance. Otherwise I will have to make note of where white foxgloves are next year and go earlier to collect seed. Not that I necessarily like white ones better than pink ones. It's just that they are less common.
Hello Flighty. It's hard to stop growing things even when you have only a tiny space. I find it hard to stop growing ridiculous things too. My single groundsel has flowered in its pot and one of the flowers is now producing seeds. It's such a common plant it's odd to have one in a pot but . . . I do!
Hello Bill. I've never had an indoor worm bin but the worms in the big black compost bin moved with me from Dorset - at least, their ancestors did.
Hello Sue. I've popped some pieces of maidenhair spleenwort in between other cracks in the wall and am hoping their spores grow into another kind of fern for next year!
Hello Diana. I will have to look back through comments and see who it was who said about the weavers windows.
Unfortunately my other cat vanished and was found run over last week so I am now cat-less - for the first time in seventeen years. No more squashed plants and broken stems. No more having to re-wash things because grubby paws have found a cosy place to be on a pile of clean bedding . . . feeling a bit bleak!
Hello Jo. I have now bought a second Bokashi composter so I can have one 'brewing' while filling the other. This means a constant (though not vast) supply of plant food - and I am pleased to be able to be able to prepare food waste through them to dig directly into the soil and add nutrition to my allotment.
Hello Liz. As I mentioned to Diana, my other cat has been run over by a car so I am no cat-less. I am feeling very bereft and strange. They shape all our movements . . . should we leave the door open? . . . who will look after them when we are on holiday? . . . why are they so keen to sit in seed trays?
On a positive note - the geraniums are flowering!
Hello Granny Sue. I must try to retrieve more of the calm and hopeful.
I've bought a bundle of annual flower seeds that can be grown through the winter. They come with a warning that they might not work - might get eaten by slugs or whatever - but if they do they have a head start on any sown in the spring. It will be fun to sow them and see what happens.
Hello Karen. I've now bought a second Bokashi composter so there can be a constant flow in the process. The geraniums are now benefiting from some of the liquid feed they make. Not sure if I have space for the geraniums to be preserved through the winter though. I did try to get some through one winter in the cross between a greenhouse and a shed that I have at the allotment but the stems froze and that was the end of them. There are rather a lot to store in the house!
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