Early April. The time of year when there’s something new to see in the garden practically every day. I step outside with a sense of anticipation and wander round with a cup of coffee in hand to look at the blossom and emerging tulips.
Amelanchier tree
The Amelanchier tree was one of the first things I planted when we moved here 25 years ago. I look forward to seeing its delicate white blossom each spring and its stunning autumn foliage. It’s now about 5m high and when I look out of my bedroom window I can watch the birds close up that use it as a perch. I often see a family of Long tailed tits passing through its branches or a Blackbird feasting on its berries later in the year. But, over the past five years or so, there have been some big birds weighing down its branches and wreaking havoc. Wood pigeons! They descend in March and start to eat the buds. To such an extent that the blossom and leaves have been thinned out.
Depleted Amelanchier blossom.
Wood pigeons used to be birds of farmland but have become birds about town in recent years. Well, more suburban than inner city perhaps? They can’t land on bird feeders but hoover up the scraps underneath as they fall and this seems to be the attraction in our area. The Wood pigeons are here to stay it seems. There are only so many the neighbourhood Sparrow hawk can eat.
Last autumn I planted some new tulips in my garden. I already have lily flowered ‘Burgundy’ and orange ‘Ballerina’ in my front garden and deep burgundy ‘Black Parrot’ and ‘China Pink’ in the back garden. These are all long-lived tulips for me, planted deep in November and I just top up with a few more every other year. I had decided to add some earlier flowering types and was taken with a Greigii tulip called ‘Tottori’ in a pretty shade of salmon-rose. It was about to emerge two weeks ago and I suddenly realised that the group I had been waiting for in anticipation had gone. The flowers had been cleanly nipped off and left on the ground. The next day I spotted a squirrel with a tulip flower in its mouth. To add insult to injury, it was sitting on my bench nibbling it like it was part of a taster menu.
Grey Squirrels are the number one pest in my garden as far as I’m concerned. Eggs and young birds also form part of their diet. My youngest son can’t believe that I call them bushy tailed rats and thinks they’re far more amusing to watch than the birds. They are known to eat tulip bulbs, raiding pots in particular, but I thought they disliked the flowers once they emerged? Eating the flowers is a new one on me.
As tender young leaves emerge, especially those of delphiniums and lupins, watch out for slugs and snails. As the plants’ foliage matures, the problem resolves itself I find. Especially if I’ve been out at dusk and dispatched them quickly by chopping slugs in half and crushing snails underfoot. Brutal I know, but much quicker than drowning them in beer, putting salt on them or poisoning them with pellets. I don’t really like doing it, but there’s only so many pests a gardener can put up with.
Left: a decapitated tulip. Right: rescued flowers brighten the kitchen window sill.
I picked my remaining tulips and have enjoyed them on my kitchen windowsill. The squirrel sits and watches me. I’m sure he’s thinking, there’s sure to be something else I can acquire a taste for in this garden. Well, I’m watching you, Mr Bushy tailed rat!
