Does anyone know anything about gardening?

On the talk of garden birds, any suggestions on a window bird feeder and, more importantly, what to put in it. This kind of thing I guess:

I've got some fatball holder thing but it doesn't seem to have attracted any birds yet.

Can anyone ID this? Was in a friend’s garden but they didn’t know what it was.

1 Attachment

Bear's breeches:

https://www.gardens4you.co.uk/perennials/other/acanthus-hungaricus-white-lips-gb-en.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw3uboBRDCARIsAO2XcYD5sx290J-qz0mC4eWvFhel2JzIj1V1HSlNbIicmJXvP6NjJxJ1EK0aAnRvEALw_wcB

that poo ^

definately not mine

Denied it, supplied it.

Pull shoots daily. Leave no debris.

Repeat forever.

Glyphosate a waste of time?

Haven't used here, prefer to put the graft in over using chemicals tbh.

excellent, thanks!

Don't have a window feeder recommendation, but the RSPB sell a feeder mix which is great. Stuck it in the feeders in my parents back garden, and they are now routinely visited by goldfinches, bullfinches, black caps and also a sparrowhawk due to the increased bird population.

Just a quick one. If you are going down the seed mix route only buy stuff guaranteed "no grow".
We had a seed mix a couple of years ago and as a result I get some sort of wheat sprouting hither and thither, including the valley on our roof and gutters. Statistically, at my age, I shouldn't climb ladders but I had to for that.

My sister bought cheap bird seed off Norwich market and got cannabis plants growing under the bird feeder.

Good point, although I think it's only paving slabs under the window so shouldn't be an issue.

They are not careful eaters and drop seeds everywhere and they grow where they drop, as in on my roof.

The issue we've had isn't so much the plants growing, more the steady food supply for rats. Who've quickly sussed it out.

Which is the precise reason I have an air rifle propped up in the kitchen and an agreement with Mrs Bald that birds get fed only in winter when natural food is scarce.

What she got was Hemp.

Yes, they are the same plant but bird seed will usually only grow male plants or females with virtually no THC content.

Wildlife doing well at the moment, disturbed the stag beetle before strumming and found the slow worm under a pot (now replaced).

2 Attachments

A dragonfly which emerged from my friends pond there were six but only one stuck around for photos

1 Attachment

^ ace. We had a large reddy brown one visit on Saturday, it flew off before I could get a pic.

Stag beetle larvae are gnarly - found a few in a rotten tree root we dug up a few years back - carefully replaced I should add.

The picture of the stag beetle is lovely. Was it squaring up to you? :)

Used to find them a lot in my dad's Alotment, had no idea what they were for a year or two. They look properly alien

If he was he didn't need to - he'd been flying around the garden for about 5 minutes which is a little disconcerting as he's not small.

They're nocturnal so he should settle down. If not, they make great pets (seriously)!

I'm envious as we only have the lesser ones.