Hedgehogs are suffering crippling bone disease because of a common treat we leave out for them in gardens.

Britain's national hedgehog charity has now asked people not to feed the animals mealworms.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5014573/Hedgehog-charity-urges-people-not-leave-treats.html

A couple of the "everlasting" Sweet pea seeds i saved from this year have now poked through.

I love the third, cracking photo that one

A nice crisp morning here so did some tidying up on the allotment. Dug a bucket of red spuds, some carrots and parsnips. I didn't manage to dig all the garlic during the summer and the bulbs left in the ground have sprouted and look like shallots, with a rosette of six inch high shoots. Will collect some for use as fresh garlic during the winter and leave the rest to separate into individual plants and plant out six inches apart in the spring.
The Pitmaston Pineapple apples were easy to separate from the spurs, so collected them all even though they need more time to ripen. These will be good eating around Christmas time.
Finally brought in the runner bean pods with the seeds for next year. Will dry them off in the shed for a few days before shelling them.
Have a sore back now but no doubt serves me right.

You're welcome, Delta.

Excellent work, Smarty, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle will be pleased. Let us know if one moves in.

I did put a fastening on the lid, well two screws and a bit of wire wrapped around them, so i can easily have a look inside sometime.

I hate not being able to find my tools, anyone not hanging them back up in my man-cave gets a real ear bashing

Gave the lawn its final cut on Sunday. Always important to get the grass level as late as possible, so if it does actually snow, you don't get any green tufts poking through. That way you can pretend that even an inch of the stuff is a proper snowfall.

The Qualcast Panther is back in the shed now, cleaned and oiled. Just some carrots and potatoes left in the ground, protected by the lawn clippings.

My lawn looks a right mess at the minute. I have this years young Squirrels ( 3 of them ) burying nuts all over it, and then i have the Magpies digging them out   I would say most of my large tubs around the garden have been raided and most if not all of the Bulbs taken by the Squirrels

I don't blame the Squirrels, they are doing exactly what they should be doing. Next door has a different attitude though, he has told me he is going to trap the Squirrels and "get rid of them".

You always see one or two red admirals around on milder days, right into winter. They're the lazy ones who for some reason haven't bothered to migrate. I don't know whether any of them actually survive into the spring though. You can't really ring them to find out.

Just had a look, and I've currently got a dozen or so flowers on the aubrieta on the drystone wall outside the living room window. It just seems to be an incredibly hardy plant, which I suppose wallflowers have to be by nature.

I have lost all but two of this years Leeks to the Allium Moth and or Leaf Miner   

Leaf miners are a serious problem for gardeners here in the West Midlands. Commercial growers can spray but the only solution for us is to protect with enviromesh or fleece during the egg-laying period. I can't be bothered with that and the only allium I grow these days is garlic where they are not of concern to me. The grubs bore down the leaves but do not damage the cloves and I find tiny orange brown pupae in between them which can be crushed.

Carolina Reaper and Trindad Scorpion chilli seeds bought a few ago now sprouting in bedroom window sill ...........

Think i might have something in the Hedghog House !  Well i can't be sure but i think the gret fat ginger cat that has been sitting on top of it staring at the entrance for the past hour might be a clue 

I have seen both in my garden this year, but not lately. I have one of those Trail cameras, i really should get around to setting it up in that area.

B loody mice - Living as we do in the middle of the Sussex countryside, mice in the roof-space are a regular occurrence in winter.  No matter of course, several Little Nipper traps baited with Peanut Butter does the trick. 

Until this year, all traps unsprung, mice still shuffling about all hours of the night. I put this down to a significant deterioration in the quality of Peanut Butter.  I have today baited four traps with Carrot (newly dug), Cheese(newly unwrapped), Chocolate (ditto) plus a fresh loading of Peanut Butter (Control sample!)  More news tomorrow.

Delta - At the beginning of the season, I would have agreed with you.  Two factors to consider, Peanut Butter has not worked thus far, over three weeks of the season. The Carrots are my own out of the garden (I dug them this morning!). Said carrot was carefully poached in salted water with a little black pepper, then carefully drained, drenched with a little butter and placed carefully on said Little Nipper.

Anyone required details of the cheese or chocolate is welcome to post. Our usual mouse variety is (almost invariably) the Long Tailed Fieldmouse.

I will have a fiver on Carrot, with a £2 saver on chocolate.  You can rely on me to be scrupulously?? (and totally) honest with any results.

33's was raw carrot blackbarn, didnt realise you had heston blumenthaled it!

hurry up ...

420 pictures to look at, here is just one of them. Date and time are correct.

Took a minute to spot it

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