Re-potting Again - 14 weeks on

Growing reeds has become a bit like "Day of the Triffids" as the growth rate per day has really ramped up and one of Nath's invaders has begun to overtake the reeds in growth! 

We decided to re-pot AGAIN this afternoon as we are going away for a week and didn't want there to be any chance of them becoming pot bound. As it was, it was more tricky getting them out of their current pots this time.

Nath's reeds now stand at 62cm tall which means they've grown about 2cm per day since last week and as you can see they are now almost waist height. The invader has developed these thick white roots and when we were at the park earlier in the week we spotted this plant below and we are convinced it's a match as they both have a very similar bud appearing...it's exciting to see what it's going to look like!

Connor's reeds now stand at 32cm tall and his marsh marigold has been looking very healthy this week.

Nath's reeds have started to block out the light in my bedroom so we picked a sunny area of the garden for them to stay outside. We have a friend staying in our house while we are on holiday and one of her jobs will be watering the reeds!

Hawk Eyes

Thought I'd do a post to collate all our findings out and about. Nath in particular has hawk eyes and I expect most of the sightings will be down to him!

A curled up caterpillar just about to be attacked by a kitten
Naumburg, Germany June 2015

White Plume Moth that looks like a ghost
Naumburg, Germany, July 2015

2 spot ladybug maybe?!
Naumburg, Germany, July 2015

Another moth. Large Emerald Moth?
Naumburg, Germany, July 2015

Along the Downs Link in June 2015
Spider eating a fly on Tansy

Nath spotted on our trampoline June 2015

Nath spotted on our trampoline June 2015

Hedgerow May 2015

Hedgerow May 2015

Hedgerow May 2015

Hedgerow May 2015

Hedgerow May 2015

2 for 1 ! - Hedgerow May 2015

Hazel Bugs in Hazel
Hedgerow May 2015

Ecological Random Sampling

Another session at the WWT this afternoon on a very warm and sunny day. My brother and family who are visiting from Oz tagged along and spent a couple of hours wandering the reserve while the boys worked.

After the boys had shown their homework - this time graphs recording reed growth - they took part in weeding around the new hedglings they had planted a couple of months ago. We focused on getting rid of the willow herb and dock as without gloves no one was going to tackle the nettles! The idea being that as the willow fence deteriorates the hedglings grow and form their own fence. We measured their growth and identified what hedglings we could; so far there is definitely sloe, hawthorn  and privet.

Then they did some ecological random sampling; a summary of what that is and how it's done can be read here countrysideinfo.co.uk and here, saps.org.uk.

The kids "randomly" threw their quadrats - not as easy as it looks, a couple acted as boomerangs and flew off - and recorded the various species within its area. Some species they could identify but others were a little more difficult and remained unidentified, but it was more about counting the number of species and the percentage area they took up in the square.

A lost gosling delayed us starting as we ushered it back in the direction it came from

A very overgrown wild garden

Our new hedge plantings by the willow fence. Lots of teasel, thistles and docks in the way 

Monica explaining why we leave weeding until the weed has established more

Everyone in shorts trying to avoid the thistles and nettles.

Connor threw the first quadrat into a sunny spot

Samples of the first quadrat

Samples of the first quadrat

Samples of the first quadrat
English Plantain

Samples of the first quadrat
Oxeye daisy and bramble

Samples of the first quadrat
Bindweed, mint and grass

Samples of the first quadrat

Our observations from the first quadrat
Oxeye not oxide!

Nath threw the second quadrat into a shady spot

Samples of the second quadrat
4 unidentified species

Our observations of the second quadrat with possibly a tansy leaf sample

Quadrat observations by others

Quadrat observations by others

The take home task was to analyse everyone's findings today and carry out further random samplings in our own areas. Also to write a paragraph about a section of the wildlife garden the boys selected as potentially being successful for a nature reserve.

As for the boys reeds, they now stand at 19cm and 48cm. Connor's reeds have been growing at a rate of 1cm per day since Friday and the unidentified plants in Nath's reeds have caught up in height.

Soon going to be too big for the windowsill!

Re-Potting Again - 12 weeks on

We've not noticed so much growth this week so the boys agreed to re-pot into larger pots.

Nath stopped to inspect the root patterns which sure enough had reached the bottom of their pot.

Louis watched over Connor as he fetched his compost.

Connor had to be very careful when re-potting as he needed to put the marsh marigold roots under compost instead of leaving them exposed, it wasn't 100% successful but hopefully over the next few days they may start to strengthen. He was very interested in the roots structure too,

The Other Side of our Hedge

We wandered down to our hedge this morning to see what was on the other side. We took our house guest Louis, who needed a bit of exercise with the tennis ball before letting us survey the area! It was a bit of a juggling act with the dog on the lead, taking notes and photos (the camera ran out of battery) and for some reason the area was particularly busy with cars and cyclists etc today.

We recorded the bird song in the hedge which was difficult to hear over said traffic but then it didn't matter because I cleverly deleted it when trying to play it back!

Today's view of the hedge from the road side.

The view from the other side. We spotted the addition of oak and more bramble this side.

Our observations, a few of which are in photos before the camera died.

Lots more roses on the dog rose bushes.

Big clumps of seeds on the ash trees.

We're thinking one of the unidentified plants is blackthorn. This photo shows a fly (not very clear).

The spindle had more sprays of white flower.

A bee pollinating the spindle flowers.

We took a large white tray to inspect some insects and gently shook each different species of shrub. Lots of aphids in varying colours landed and jumpted about in the tray including this little fellow, but we forgot to record the shrub it came from.

But the spiders definitely seem to like the dog rose as 2 landed in the tray from that.

Our other observations were:-

1.  Maybe our hedge is too deep to actually be a hedge! There were a couple of areas you could walk through and it's possibly deeper than 5m which we read is one of the factors that classifies a hedge.

2.  In the middle of "our hedge" are a few coppiced hazel trees.

3.  The horse chestnut is very young and only stands at about 3m tall.

4.  There are young green berries appearing in the holly (camera had died by this point).