G is for Gardens and Greenfinches

 I grew up in a house with a big builders yard all round, there were a couple of bits of garden although my Mum hardly ventured into either as far as I remember. The vegetable garden for many years was accessed off a little lane that went to fields behind the house. It seemed a long way from the house when I was little but actually only about 30 yards. I vaguely remember Dad grew potatoes. Looking back with the experience of years the soil there was black and probably very good. The house dated from the C16 and I reckon had been used for growing for centuries.

Garden 2 was behind a new build - and Garden 3 the complete opposite being a long thin garden behind a Victorian terrace - lovely soil there and that's when I got interested in growing food.

 Garden 4 was at a 1970s terrace - that was where we had out first greenhouse and two small children - Colin made a sand-pit.

Garden 5 was ¼ acre, all of it at the front of the timber framed house that we stripped back and rebuilt while living in a caravan. The greenhouse moved here and was rebuilt after we'd finished the house and sold the static caravan. Here was also when we kept our first hens.

Garden 6 was a bit bigger than quarter acre behind a 1980s bungalow. The greenhouse moved again and we grew our own food again although there were huge trees all down one side that belonged to a neighbour and took all the moisture from the garden - the soil was shallow and poor.

Garden 7 doesn't count as it was all concrete around a house we rented for 6 months while looking for a smallholding. 

So after all those years of 'practising' we ended up at the smallholding and Garden number 8 with plenty of room for the three polytunnels that we eventually needed, greenhouse, vegetable beds, soft fruit cage and orchard.

I'm hardly counting garden 9 - that was a small square behind the the Very Small Bungalow in Ipswich. 

Then garden 10 at Clay Cottage with a nice garden and room for vegetables for us and a couple of apple trees and the half acre meadow too.

And finally garden number 11, here at the bungalow - one of the smallest I've ever had, but enough for me to  manage and grow a little to eat in my greenhouse, 3 vegetable beds and a few new fruit trees.

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And why Greenfinches?

Up until a few years ago they were common visitors to bird tables and feeders but then came this..........

How serious is Trichomonosis?

In Britain, the size of the greenfinch breeding population has declined markedly, from a peak of approximately 4.3 million in 2006 (just before the onset of the epidemic) to approximately 1.5 million individuals in 2016 (66%, or an average reduction of around 280 000 birds every year).

and I'd not seen any for several years until last week when there was a pair on the seed feeder.

It was thought the disease might have been cause by mouldy birdfeed left in feeders, which, if it's true, is sad.

Back Tomorrow

Sue