New Year, New Plans, Same Old Weather

I should start this post with a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I would love to have already posted my first post of the new year, but due to the weather, not much has changed from last time. I have therefore decided that this post will try and outline my plans for increasing wildlife in garden in the next year and in particular the next three months of so. 

Future Plans for 2013
Since my last post, I have started to try and increase the number of birds that we get into the garden. In order to achieve this, I have bought a variety of bird feeders to offer a variety of seeds and nuts, including peanuts, nyjer seed and sunflower hearts. Since doing this, the number of birds visiting has increased dramatically and I now receive dozens of different birds each day. These include robins, blue tits, great tits, coal tits as well as a variety of finches. We have also received regular daily visits from a Great Spotted Woodpecker (picture below). 

In addition to supplying seeds and nuts, I would like to increase the amount of berries that are available to birds in the garden. I currently have dogwoods, hollys and a number of other plants that were here before I started.  

To increase the berries and fruit, I would like to add a crabapple tree and some hawthorns. If you have any other suggestions then I would love to hear them.

Recipe Idea
Purple Sprouting Broccoli is one of the underrated vegetables in the UK, mainly because of the time it takes to produce the spears. However, if you have grown it yourself, you will know how good it is when just lightly steamed and mixed with butter and a little pepper. 


I shall leave it here this time and hope that I will have had chance to actually do some gardening and have something other than plans to talk about. Until next time, take care and happy gardening.

CG