The Year of Living Differently

David and Jenny Cross

Feral pigeons casing the joint

Today two feral pigeons came down into the garden, you might think this unremarkable but in ten years this is the first visit the garden has had from these town birds who normally live over the fish and chip shop across the road. I have read about the subtle changes in the behaviour of wildlife in this time of lockdown and we wonder if this is a small manifestation of that change. Whatever, the resident wood-pigeons, outraged at the intrusion, mount a vigorous defence of their rights to the fallen seed beneath the bird feeders. The immigrants proved to be doughty and stood (or flew) their ground. Attrition followed, it remains to be seen whether the Wood-pigeons have an ongoing immigration problem.

Now that life has gone strange and dangerous and all normal restraints and responsibilities are replaced by new ones, the garden is the one remaining constant. The difference being that now we have all the time in the world to heap upon it. The difference also being that we must do it without all the usual frequent trips to various garden centres and nurseries.

Spring bank, forget-me-nots, calendula, love-in-the-mist,
and toadflax share space with alliums, peonies and lilies

We have our own immigrants to organise, a mild wet winter has been kind to the self seeding plants, some welcome, some not so and some positively not wanted. The policy has for years to treat all plants equally and dispose accordingly. If a toadflax cost you £8 in a six inch pot, you wouldn’t think of pulling it up, but maybe because it arrives free, it is often undervalued and labelled ‘weed’.

Yes if it’s set up home in the middle of a prize peony, then have it out but if it’s found it’s own space in between things, let it be.  So it is with columbine, moon daisy, love-in-the-mist, valerian and many more. Some may have been bought once as seed and now appear every year:  forget-me-nots and calendula (marigold) are two.

 




The hated wild geum (yellow avens) with a small
example of the shiny cranesbill to the right

There are some, it’s true, that are bullies, given half a chance they will hog the space available and smother anything around, there’s a wild geum that I’m battling at the moment and a pretty but greedy wild geranium, shiny cranesbill, that has no manners and is facing annihilation, whereas it’s cousin ragged robin is a gentleman of a plant, doesn’t ask too much, tucks itself into corners, draping itself elegantly up the side of a pot. It can stay.

The birds have now settled down to some kind of system, the feral pigeons come at 4pm and the wood-pigeons return to the garden around 5pm, an uneasy peace is observed.

Outside, things get more uneasy and we are more and more aware how unbelievably lucky we are with a garden fortress to keep out the world.