Have harvested some single-bulb garlic and potatoes, and a mountain of different herbs: winter savoury and English mace are worth a try!

Peas have set, runners climbing well, and the garden is full of bees, hoverflies and (around the pond) damselflies.

Bought metres of false lawn for daughter's quirky bedroom fad ('the garden bedroom'); she rejected it and I can't refund it as I cut it to size. Free to good home (collect!)

Elderflower cordial - we picked elderflowers at the weekend and cordial manufacture is underway. If you do this, don't forget that diluted cordial makes unbelievably good ice lollies! I see the other half has the moulds out, ready to fill.

A recipe
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/531660/homemade-elderflower-cordial

Roger

p.s. we have an elderflower tree in the garden - or to be exact a branch from the neighbour - so this is NOT off topic!!!

We've got a small orchard (about a third of an acre) which we have managed as perennial meadow for the last 10 years. When we came here 14 years ago, it had only recently been abandoned as a vegetable garden and so the soil is very fertile. As a result, for much of the past decade, it's been dominated by thick grasses, hogweed, creeping buttercup, etc.

We debated stripping the topsoil off but instead decided to manage it traditionally - cutting it as hay late in the summer then doing a close cut once in the autumn and once early in the spring.

Three years ago, we saw that three bee orchids were growing. Last year, there were four. This year, there are more than 50 flowering. I will post pictures later but it really is quite something. 

That is really excellent, Justin. It is amazing what will start growing if you get the management right. The trick is to lower the fertility - which is easier to say than do in your situation.

Are you using Yellow Rattle to counteract the vigorous grasses? Worth looking into. One chap I've met swears the way to deal with hogweed is to scythe it, leaving the hollow stem to gather water and rot out the root.

Roger

We have Yellow Rattle seed and may sow it on disturbed soil in the orchard at the end of the summer. To date, all we've done is just cut and remove the growth to reduce fertility (allowing a couple of days for the hay to lie to sow seed). It's been an interesting experiment in light touch meadow management. We were absolutely amazed when the orchids first flowered, wondering where they had come from and how they had been brought here.

Interesting approach on hogweed - of course we need rain to rot out the stem and root. And we have had precious little of that over the last three summers!

Why didn't you rewild your garden and then start running through it, a bit like Theresa May?

I'm thrilled to hear this Justin. I can't add to that! 

Harvest the hogweed early, chaps; makes a passable asparagus replacement that doesn't smell in your pee!

Oo-er! I know it's officially edible but I'm not sure I want to try with the photo-blisters the sap raises on my skin (No, I don't mean giant hogweed which is reputedly much worse)

Set up the trail camera last night hoping to confirm a hedghog visit and instead caught a fox tripping through the garden!
Not uncommon, I know, but a nice surprise. R

p.s. Got the hedgehog on camera this week - and its poo in the garden as additional evidence.

R

Does this supplement your source, Roger?

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0017935

It certainly does, DEW - many thanks for that. The video illustrated the key points rather well. See below...

Roger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCfVgwPvc-g&feature=youtu.be

Also, while ferreting around, found this on fly pollination.

http://urbanpollinators.blogspot.com/2014/03/flies-forgotten-pollinators.html

A good read, but watch out for the typos - crap apples anyone?

Thanks for that, DEW and NMA - from now on they will always be crap apples to me! No more than the truth.

Roger

Home grown strawberries topped the Macchiato  Ice Cream Yesterday. 

Evening all - some advice if possible on these 'shrooms that I found growing on an old tree stump in the garden today:

Small cap - about 1cm, with longish thin white stalk. Any ideas what type they are? Poisonous? Edible? Psychotropic? 

Ta!

Hi Arcus. Mushrooms growing crowded like this are referred to as "Trooping".

Identifying fungi from photos is seldom satisfactory, but here are a couple of links to look at for starters:

Coprinellus micaceus - the Mica cap

https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/coprinellus-micaceus.php

Coprinellus disseminatus - The Fairy Inkcap

https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/coprinellus-disseminatus.php

My advice based on 50+ years of mycology and 40+ species eaten is don't - unless you have a reliable identification and know what you are doing. Even then, reactions may occur when eating new species. Try a very small amount on first tasting just in case - before you gorge!

Roger Phillips' app might be worth considering. His books are very useful.

https://roger-phillips-mushrooms.soft112.com/

Roger

My strawberry patch has been decimated by slugs and snails this year which are around in huge numbers. Unsurprising given the weather.

That's really helpful & informative - thanks for that Roger. 

Looking at those links, I'd guess Fairy Inkcap given the close proliferation on the tree stumps and some of the pictures there. Main reason for asking was worrying about being poisonous given we have often have visitors with their kids playing in the garden, but looks like we're OK on that front!

You are more than welcome, Arcus. There is one common species in this family you may come across: The Common Ink Cap Coprinus atramentarius - now known as Coprinopsis atramentaria. They can cause you to react badly if you drink alcohol with it.

You can find a description of this in:

https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/coprinopsis-atramentaria.php

Roger

Woodlice and wood-pigeons our biggest strawberry offenders this year. They seem to work in partnership; the pigeons peck open the seedy skin then the woodlice infest the inside, making a juicy pink home there.