Our smallholder garden has a big grass plant that the birds enjoy the seeds from in the autumn. There is a delicate balance going on – the sparrows are quite heavy and bob about in the wind. This is a resident flock that live on our smallholding, but we also get migrant and seasonal birds that visit to eat from the range of berries, nuts, and seeds that are available naturally.
Image via Wikipedia
Meadowsweet is doing especially well in our wet meadow, its fuzzy white flowering heads standing out like blobs of shaving cream sprayed on to its dark green leaves. Meadow sweet has an especially proud history because it was used for relieving headaches and in 1897 its painkiller chemicals inspired the synthesis of aspirin – named after the plant’s old scientific name, Spiraea.
Image via Wikipedia
Check out this link http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/17/kew-native-seed-hub. Hope for our bees, moths, and butterflies. When I look round our smallholding I am heartened that all is not lost. We have a range of wild flowers, harebells, oxeye daisies, fox gloves, rosebay willow herbs.
Phytoremediation – what a wonderful word to say and a wonderful process. Plants cleaning up the industrial mess we leave behind.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoremediation
Yet another use for willows which are grown on our smallholding and can be purchased through our website www.fifesmallholder.co.uk
