Slow Slowworm

This morning I came across what I thought was a casualty, laying in the heavy dewed grass the body of a Slowworm (Anguis fragilis).

It's eyes were closed and it seemed fairly rigid when I picked it up. But I think the warmth from my hands made an immediate difference as a slight movement came from the wiry body. The tail was blunt at the end and looked as if it had lost it from an attack.

The wound seemed to be fairly fresh. So it would seem that something had tried to make a meal of it and ended with just the end of the tail. In Slowworms this is their one defensive action they can take, to shed the end of the tail, allowing escape from the attacker.

I think in this case somehow it had got itself in the cold dewy grass and had chilled. So I held it for some minutes hoping the heat from my hands would help it become more lively.

The cold rigidity slowly gave way until it felt like a bronze bracelet that had life. I love the feeling of them in my hands, they seem to emanate such intense life in a small body.

I took it over to the place where it would be at it's safest, the compost heap.

   Quietly with a lovely grace to the movement it slid from my hand and pushed it's way into the heap and safety once more.

There is some kind of fragile beauty to these small legless lizards that makes me feel great affection for them. They do no harm but much good, eating many of the dreaded small white slugs that do so much damage in the garden.

Their favourite place is within compost heaps, so whenever you break a heap open don't use a spade to slice down that they cannot escape from, use a fork as there is very little chance of spearing the body of a Slowworm.

There's more info on Slowworms here at Wikipedia

Autumn Colours

Around the garden we have quite a collection of Sedum's (Sedum spectabile), gradually the are coming out in flower and as they do they attract masses of insect life to them.

Bees of all types busily wander over the flowers, while Butterflies flit from head to head gently sipping the nectar.

Dahlia's are still blooming quite vigorously, giving loads of colour in the garden. Regularly dead heading is needed to keep them going right up into October or until the first frost touches them.

  The taller dark leaved variety is one of the Bishops children and is fronted by a single flowered and double flowered dwarf dahlia. All are easily started from seed around March. They are terrific for Bumble bees giving them a really good source of food well into Autumn to keep them going over winter.

No garden should be without some kind of berry bearing shrub to supply birds with free food that will help them fatten up for Winter.

Pyracantha or Firethorn can be easily trained against a wall to make an eye catching display. Earlier in the year it is covered with masses of pure white flowers, then the berries create a marvelous display. Birds love the berries and will strip them in a few weeks as they ripen.

Another shrub to grow is Leycesteria formosa or Himalayan honeysuckle, Pheasant berry, flowering nutmeg. It grows to just over 6 feet in height and has lovely hanging purple racemes that end in small white flowers. Eventually the pollinated flower forms a purple-black berry.

The berry itself is loved by numerous birds especially the Blackbird and as the name suggests  Pheasants. The berries are fairly sweet in themselves and taste a little bit like sickly toffee, some say like treacle. If you don't believe me try a taste, myself I'm not too keen on the flavour.

  Leycesteria formosa

Soft succulent berries forming under the purple bracts.

Where are the Blackberries?

Between our hedges the Blackberries are hopeless, they just seem to be shrivelling into dried mummies before they even form. Even at the top of the garden a large Blackberry we have growing has gone the same.

So we walked around the field and found much to our relief, blackberries growing in the hedge where the sun really hits it. So can only come to the conclusion that it is the poor weather we have had during August that has stopped many from developing properly.

Just out from the hedges a few Blackberries have ripened, but are outweighed by small undeveloped ones along with withered specimens. The smaller will ripen eventually, but much later and will not have the rich flavour.

   The difference can be seen where they are growing in the sunny part of the hedge.

We was not alone while in the field.

We finally ended with a nice few succulent berries to have that evening.

A surprise has grown into the trees of the bottom hedge to the garden, we knew we had  planted it some years ago, but it had never before flowered.

This is an old Hop variety (Humulus lupulus) that I found growing in a hedge between two gardens and I dug up a few roots to grow in our garden. The house below the garden I was in where the hop grew, was once an old inn. Traditionally before the advent of large breweries, Inn keepers grew their own Hops to flavour their own beers brewed on the premises. That is why very often hop plants can be found growing within hedgerows around Britain.

A Hop plant may travel quite a long way through a hedge over the years, far away from the original position that it first grew in. But if the hedge is followed either way, the site of an old inn or pub may be found where the hop was originally grown.

Another good giveaway that it was grown for brewing is if there is only a female plant present, only females produce the hop or cones. For brewing purposes male plants are not bothered with as they would fertilise the female and seeds would be produced which is not desirable in brewing.

The female hop will easily reproduce vegetatively, travelling in good soil for long distances underground by way of long white roots. They make lovely twining climbers that effectively cover fences, trellis or pergolas. Each year they will die right down to ground level, then in Spring shoot up at a fantastic rate to twine over whatever they are positioned by.

If the plain green varieties are too ordinary the golden form Aurea makes a gorgeous plant with bright gold leaves and golden hops!