Christmas Day has arrived, so it is time to start the festive fun and frolics for the beginning of 12 Days Wild.
12 Days Wild is the festive nature challenge, encouraging us to do one wild thing a day from the 25th December to the 5th January each year.
Further details can be found below
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/12dayswild
Having thoroughly enjoyed the 30 Days Wild challenge in June, the 12 Days Wild in winter looked like more fun could be had.
In the days between Christmas and New Year, winter wildlife is just waiting to be explored, and explore it I shall. Some winter gardening will be on the cards too, naturally.
So, without further ado, let’s get some wildness under way.
12 Days Wild, Christmas Day
Christmas Day, and a festive day spent in the garden. Naturally, my friendly robin spent the day with me too. Robins have been associated with Christmas ever since Victorian times; appearing on Christmas cards, so it was lovely to have one as a companion on Christmas Day.
Also, joining the Christmas Party was a lovely bumble bee.
Since the 1990s, naturalists have noticed that, rather than hibernating, some bumblebees have been active all winter.
I understand that these are usually buff-tailed bumblebees, queens and workers which actively forage from October right through to March, collecting pollen as well as nectar.
Thankfully, I have a few flowers blooming for the pollinators. Currently, I have pansies, violas and polyanthus in flower, as part of my winter bedding displays.
Furthermore, due to the mild weather, I also have some hesperis, campion, honesty, achillea and some daisies in bloom as well. Astonishing, isn’t it, but great for that buff-tailed bumblebee.
Wildness on Boxing Day
Onto Boxing Day and a lovely mild and sunny day. So mild, that no fleece or woolly pully was needed, and my lovely rescue hens had a sunbathe.
To demonstrate the sunshine and warmth, the bumble bee appeared again for a good part of the day. However, I could not get a clear photo as they buzzed around constantly.
As mentioned above, the pansies were flowering well and giving me some beautiful rich purple colour in the garden.
Two red kites were seen over the garden, but they were too high up for a good photo.
I spent time taking photos of all the flowers blooming, and of my lovely chickens who were striking a pose or sixty throughout the day. Clearly, they were gearing up for another post, so Remus Nautilus, my beautiful black cat, will be clamouring to feature in a new post too.
Their most recent posts can be accessed below.
The beautiful black cat who gardens for England
Gardening with chickens, more fantastic fun
Ok, time to get back to the 12 Days Wild and some real wildness with the weather.
Day three of 12 Days Wild
Blimey, a massive change in the weather today. Storm Gerrit arrived in the UK as predicted and brought some jolly windy weather.
Three wood pigeons were in the horse chestnut tree. Mainly having a squabble, it seemed. Plenty of vigorous wing flapping and some noise, which could just about be heard over the roaring of the wind.
Although, I am not just a fair-weather gardener, the gusts were too ferocious at times, so I decided on a day in my greenhouse, Favolosa.
My lovely chickens joined me. They do hate wind ruffling their fluffy bottoms, and who can blame them for that! Remus Naut joined me too and snoozed on a tray of swiss chard seedlings.
I had a jolly good time sowing yet more seeds. One of my Christmas presents was a fresh supply of peat free compost. A fabulous present for me, taken straight into Favolosa, ready for seed sowing.
I decided to sow more sweet peas. Although, I have several pots of them, growing away merrily from a November sowing, I can never resist sowing a few more.
I chose to sow Blue Velvet, a fabulous deep blue, almost purple colour, with long stems and a lovely scent.
With Matucana, Purple Pimpernel, Just Julia, Midnight Blues and Black Knight already sown, I should have a fabulously colourful display next year.
Some options for sweet pea seeds below, if you would like to grow some too.
Thompson and Morgan sweet pea options
Fourth day of wildness
Next, came a fabulous catch up with my dear friend, the Cosmos Queen.
You may remember the Cosmos Queen, as she has featured in some earlier posts. Link below for the most recent post if you have not seen this one or need a recap.
The awesome power of the garden
Onto our two hour talk. Firstly, we thanked each other for our Christmas presents. All garden related of course. No surprise there then, as the Cosmos Queen has become a passionate gardener since we became friends.
Naturally, our long chats are mainly about gardening these days, as we both love our gardens, wildlife and the great outdoors. However, we also discussed the weather, joining in with what is often called a British obsession.
I had been noticing that many of my spring bulbs were starting to show some growth much earlier than usual. Clearly, the mild temperatures had given them a turbo boost to start sending up some shoots.
Evidence of the same growing spurts was seen in the Cosmos Queen’s garden. She pinged over some photos of her tulips, see one of the photos above.
No doubt our bulbs will become dormant again if the weather does become much colder.
I do not think the bulbs will suffer and as long as no flower buds appear, all should be well.
If you are concerned about emerging flower buds, cover them with a little mulch or soil to insulate them from any freezing weather.
I will keep an eye on mine and cover if needed too.
In the meantime, we get to enjoy some temperatures that are about five degrees higher than normal. A tremendous worry for global warming and climate change though, of course.
12 Days Wild, day five
Onto day five and some weeding with those jolly helpful rescue chickens of mine.
I wanted to remove the weeds from some raised beds and check on the progress of the poached egg plant seedlings.
Naturally, the girls were up for the challenge. Whilst I love gardening with my girls, I had to step in when too many poached egg seedlings were being nibbled with turbo charged beaks.
I would like the majority of the lovely plants with their yellow and white flowers to bloom in May onwards. Although, they do self seed freely into the lawn so I am sure there will be enough for some lovely blooms. And some plants for a moderate hen snack too.
Poached egg plants are fabulous for pollinators and especially loved by honey bees and hoverflies.
I shall direct sow more in March to top up the numbers. Any excuse to sow more seeds!
Whilst on the subject of pollinators, I was lucky enough to see a red admiral butterfly in the garden today, during a sunny period.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a clear photo but hopefully, this beautiful butterfly will return if the sun shines. I shall be on high alert to get some snaps to share.
Also sharing the garden today, one female blackbird and a couple of sparrows. Hoping to steal some mealworms off the robin I imagine.
Day six of wildness
Day six of 12 Days Wild and time for a delve into one of my wildlife ponds. After the blustery weather and gusty winds on day three, some work was needed in the top wildlife pond.
Clearly, the blustery wind had brought down the rest of the leaves from the nearby trees. Consequently, I needed to get all those leaves out of the pond.
Time for a workout with the rake and pond net. I do enjoy delving into my wildlife ponds, thankfully!
As fallen leaves give off noxious chemicals when they decay, they must not be left in the pond. So, I heaped the leaves up around the pond, and I checked them for water snails and other pond dwellers who needed to be plopped back into the water.
Then the heaps will stay in place overnight to allow any other creatures to slip, slide, crawl or hop back into the pond as well.
Next, the leaves will be added to some of the flower borders to rot down over the winter and provide some lovely nutrients to the soil.
I also have some piles of leaves under hedges for a cozy spot for overwintering wildlife. And the rest, gets stored for leaf mould, a fabulous soil improver for twelve month’s time.
So, I have plenty of uses for those fallen leaves that had to be raked and netted out of the wildlife pond. Ok, time for a sit down I think after all that pond activity.
Day seven to twelve of 12 Days Wild will form a second post, so that’s all the wildness for now.
Happy New Year
To finish this festive post, here is Remus Nautilus checking out one of my fabulous Christmas presents. A fantastic reusable pop up garden bag, which will be in regular use in my garden. Once Remus Naut has let me have it back of course!
Clearly, he had to feature somewhere in this 12 days Wild post. There is no end to his wildness!
I will continue with the 12 Days Wild challenge into the New Year and will publish the second post in early 2024.
I hope that you have enjoyed this first post of winter wildness and will join me for the final six wild days.
It remains for me to wish you all a jolly Happy New Year and a healthy and happy 2024.
Finally, do let me know if you took part in the first part of the 12 Days Wild challenge or have seen some winter wildlife too.
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3 responses to “12 Days Wild, some festive Christmas magic”
Lots of info in here that I didn’t know. I clearly need to save leaves that I rake up. I’m in a steep learning curve here. Love the purple Pansies and the Naut in your new garden bag🤭
Lots of info I didn’t know in this blog. Clearly I need to save all the leaves I rake up to repurpose them. I’m on a steep learning curve here. Love the purple pansies and the pic of the Naut in your new garden bag😃
Thank you. Glad the info was useful for you. Yes, keep those leaves, as they are so useful for wildlife, and for the garden. The Naught will be thrilled he has a lovely comment so thanks for that as well. 😁