Three's a crowd

Mid-January, and, although February is still ahead with its risk of freezing weather, there's always a sense around this time of year that spring is not so far away.  The robins have started singing properly, a sure sign that they're sorting out breeding territory.  I'm not sure how many we have in the garden - possibly four - but the one we see most often on the fat-ball feeder has entered into a slightly uneasy relationship with a mate.  They've been feeding together for at least a couple of days now, a little warily and with the occasional fractious moment, but they are definitely an item.  And when a third robin turned up today, it was seen off in no uncertain terms by the pair of them!  The dunnocks, who are a promiscuous lot anyway, don't seem to have a problem with threesomes; there have been three of them feeding on the patio from time to time for some weeks but without much sign of pairing.  The front-garden robin has lately been spending more time singing than begging for food, but he does like it when I leave the lid of the green-waste wheelie bin open so that he can forage for buglife in the weeds dumped in there.  I've started clearing ivy from the corner where he sits, so that he's not tempted to nest in there; it needs to be cut back and that needs to be done before nesting starts.

Other bird visitors have been two gorgeous male bullfinches, and a lively family of long-tailed tits who enthusiastically congregated on the fat-ball feeder for a few minutes the other day.  It would be nice if they turned up for the Big Garden Birdwatch later this month!  And we had a red kite flying low over the garden at the weekend.  What we haven't had this winter yet has been any red-legged partridges; there were ten of them in the field beyond the bottom fence a few days ago but none has wandered in as far as I've seen.

Osteospermum posy

The weather has mostly been on the dull and mild side, apart from one snowy day (barely a centimetre in depth, and so wet that it melted quickly, although the roads were icy in the morning).  A couple of days were very windy too, and we had a foggy spell; but apart from that winter hasn't been too hard so far.  The windowbox hasn't been cleared out for the winter, and there are still two osteospermums in there; I noticed today that, far from freezing to death, one of them has thrown up a flower bud!  (The other osteospermums are overwintering in the greenhouse; one of them produced a few flowers that made a nice little posy for indoors.)  The first snowdrops (G. elwesii) are in flower and even a couple of the doubles, which are usually late-flowerers, are showing some colour; the big hellebores have also started to open their buds.

First snowdrops

Not much activity in the veg plot yet, although the garlic is beginning to show and the broad beans - so far - are looking good.  In the greenhouse, the old growbags have salad seedlings coming up in them, but it would be fair to say that they're still barely at the microgreens stage - I haven't the heart to cut any yet!  I've started potting up the dahlia tubers; it's very early still, but I'm hoping to get some cuttings from them as I'm told that cuttings make better plants.  Only three varieties survived last year, so a few more purchases wouldn't go amiss .....

Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn'

I can see clearly now the leaves have gone

Good wildlife gardening practice is to leave dead plant-growth over winter to provide cover for insects, but there's no shortage of suitable cover in this garden so a bit of clearing-up won't go amiss.  Now that leaves have fallen and top-growth died back, it's much easier to see what needs to be done.  Down at the entrance to the Dump, the honeysuckle, which hadn't been taken in hand for some years, has had a thorough going-over and cutting back, liberating the poor old chaenomeles that has been smothered by it in recent seasons.  The white Clematis viticella (I forget the variety name) has also been pruned; its growth until this last summer had been modest, but this year it discovered an overhanging hazel branch and made a bid for the skies - pretty, but it needs cutting back if it's not to become leggy.  Mild and dry weather today was a good opportunity to tackle some of the shrub roses, and do some rather random clearing of moss, grass and other unwanted growth in the pond area.  This was noted with approval by various birds, who came to inspect and search for the aforementioned insect life.

Buds on the big hellebore

Weather has been mixed - some rain, a little wind, some dry and frosty days bringing the birds to the patio in search of food and water - but is now turning more settled and cold.  There's no sign yet of birds starting to pair up - still a lot of territorial activity - although some dried grass and similar debris started to shower down gently the other day, suggesting that someone was spring-cleaning a nest site.  The mistle thrushes (there are two) still rule the roost in the apple tree, although the fieldfares, blackbirds and occasionally the greater spotted woodpecker also have a go; the usual birds are around the feeders, and yesterday a willow tit turned up on the fat ball feeder, the first we've seen for many  months.  A pied wagtail also wandered in today; usually they come in really cold weather.  Our front-garden robin is still very friendly (or cheeky depending on your point of view); I've taken to leaving some crumbs for him in one particular place near the kitchen windowsill, and he often goes there when he knows he has attracted my attention, as a little hint.  I could probably train him to take food from my hand, but why would I want to do that?  he's a wild bird and doesn't need taming.

Cyclamen coum

Despite the wintry feel, close inspection of the garden shows that new growth is underway.  Besides the buds on the plants being pruned, there are already some catkins on the hazels, snowdrops (Galanthus elwesii) are starting to show colour, crocuses are nosing up in the pots and the big hellebores will soon be opening their flowers.  I've had to start marking off the patch of daffodils in the lawn so that I don't crunch their shoots underfoot while taking shortcuts.  Down under the winter honeysuckle (Lonicera purpusii - which hasn't yet begun flowering though there are plenty of buds) there are a couple of Cyclamen coum flowers.  And a sure sign that spring isn't too far away: lots of weed seedlings coming up!  Time to start getting on top of those.