Filling Up the Garden

Parakeet in my garden last week

The screeching of parakeets is horribly loud. They do  not belong in Britain but have made themselves very much at home here. They were originally introduced from Pakistan and northern India as pets. In the 1930s and again in the 1960s bird owners began to catch psittacosis which can lead to pneumonia and can jump from birds to people. The Ministry of Health banned the import of birds for 20 years and it is suspected that many pets were released by fearful owners or dodgy pet traders. 

Parakeet looking me in the eye

I am very lucky to have a family nursery that delivers to central London. I get my peat-free soil from them and after Covid  they began not to put unsold flowers to their wholesale buyers on the compost heap but to sell them at £5 per eight plants to their other buyers. I have bought several of these now and really recommend them. Everything has done well and I had wallflowers that flowered all winter and are still flowering now. Here are a few of the ones I received. Find them at Woodlark Nurseries Retail.  

Daffodils from Woodlark Plant Heroes: a very double one (new to me) and a single

                    

Tulip and  anemone from Woodlark 

My bird bath is a mixture of an old concrete base I found in the garden and a new bird bath with two concrete birds I found online. It is up the far end of the garden and doesn't hold much water but I fill it every day and in this dry weather it has been invaluable for the birds.