Frugal Food From the Garden. (NB: We don't eat the quail, we eat and sell their eggs.)

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

Photo from the old corn mill, Port William

Aside from the fact that I am constantly being distracted by butterflies at the moment, I did, eventually, manage to get around to doing some work in the garden, mainly by way of tidying up the greenhouse and sorting out the tomato and cucumber bushes. The tomato plants were becoming so leafy that no light was getting to the dozens of little fruits that were hiding among the greenery. Hopefully, I haven't done the wrong thing in removing many of the lower leaves to allow the sunlight to get at the tomatoes. I was very late getting my tomato seeds planted this year, so they are well behind some of those I've seen elsewhere.

 

I literally had to thin the coiling tendrils of the cucumbers because they were taking over the entire greenhouse and there's little enough room in there at this time of year. The closer I look, the more cucumbers I can see!

 

 

 Down in the frugal poly-tunnel, I'm beginning to wonder if I've done the right thing is leaving the pumpkins - one each side supposed to be for each of my grand daughters in the hope of having pumpkins for Halloween. They are spreading at a terrifying rate and already have tiny pumpkins about the size of golf balls on them. The cucumbers will need to hurry up in there or they'll be swamped by 'the creature' that is a giant pumpkin plant!

Comfrey as green manure

 

A few weeks ago, some fellow frugalers and I were having a bit of a swapathon. I received some ginger mint, which is doing really well, and some small cuttings from comfrey, of which I had none in this garden. It's used as green manure and for speeding up the composting process, so I was hoping to be able to harvest it before the year ends. It's looking good! The above are the cuttings planted about a month ago. I'm delighted to say that the quail eggs I sent in exchange for the plants have, since, hatched - photo courtesy of Shaz.

Da- old Japanese Coturnix Quail, (fawn x tuxedo)

The herb gardens here are still growing at a an amazing rate, supplying herbs galore for friends and neighbours alike. The newest of the spiral gardens was constructed during the last week of May but it is already filled with herbs - and some unexpected 'guest' plants in the shape of sunflowers that have grown from seeds dropped by the birds. (Apologies for photo quality, the sun had set by the time I got around to taking these photos last night.)

Hands up all of you who have courgettes to spare! I know that several of out regular readers have, so we are now organising a courgette cake challenge. Chocolate and courgettes go well when baked together and I'd like to thank Gill for linking us to her carrot and courgette recipe in my previous post.

Yet another courgette trying to break free!

The Frugaldom potato patch is in full bloom and we have already had some of the potatoes. These were all grown from past their best potatoes left over from early in the year - left to sprout and then planted. We have a major slug and snail problem here, so things do tend to beat us to it in the veg-eating stakes, but there are enough potatoes here to last a few weeks at least.

We are still picking raspberries here but the rhubarb has now all gone and the bed being prepared for winter. I need to get a load of manure and straw to cover this over until next year. The next person past my door on a horse will be accosted and a request made for the contents of their stable. :) Next to be picked looks like being some blueberries and then there should be apples ready.

Blueberries

Well that takes care of the garden update for now - I'll pick and freeze the blueberries for ice-cream making, as there aren't many of them while the bushes are establishing themselves in my 'log-man' acidic (ericaceous) bed but here's hoping they start picking up for next year. That's them been in there for about a year, now.

 

Rounding up on the £4,000 budget challenge, I have £1,137.43 remaining to last me until the new year. That's after paying this month's telephone bill and purchasing the tickets for the frugal friends' fun day out to explore Carrick-a-Rede and the Giant's Causeway during our mini cruise to Northern Ireland later this week.

 

And just for good measure, here are this morning's photos. Yes, you got it... more butterflies!

 

Small Wall Brown Butterfly

Peacock Butterfly

Red Admiral Butterfly

 



I really tried my best not to include any butterflies in this post but they made me do it, I tell you, they made me do it! The above three photos were taken this morning while I was hanging out the washing.

I promise, no more butterflies unless I spot something really unusual.

Have a fun and frugal day,

NYK in Frugaldom.

Frugal Photo-fest! Permaculture, Wildlife Gardening and even more Butterflies!

Thank You Mother Nature! Providing Natural Inspiration for the Colour Schemes of Interior Design Projects.

 This post contains many photographs

Frugal living version of alliums - onions left to grow

 

How on earth am I supposed to get any work done when the sun shines and there's so much going on in the garden? Today was a glorious day, so I decided to tidy up the tomato and cucumber bushes in the little greenhouse, pick a few flowers, harvest more courgettes and weed the herb gardens. But then I spotted a Red Admiral butterfly on one of my 'frugal alliums'. From thereon in, the chase had begun!

 

 

Quite difficult to see in the bright sunlight, but there were numerous little white butterflies fluttering around the white Buddleia. I'm told these are female Orange Tips, but where are all the males?

 

Another Peacock butterfly arrived, followed by several more, all landing on the white Buddleia or else settling on the stone wall to sun themselves.

 

 

This is the trouble-maker in my garden and everyone else's garden, as far as the brassicas are concerned! This one was just taking off when I spotted it - the dreaded 'cabbage white' butterfly. But really, who could possibly kill something like this? Certainly not me! I just need to learn to net my cabbages better in future and leave a few out for the white flutter-by brigade.

 

Eggs of the Large White butterfly, hundreds of them have been laid on the undersides of the cabbage and cauliflower leaves and the eggs seem to hatch within days and then, almost overnight, it's caterpillar-fest and the leaves are stripped bare!

 

 

I decided to take a wander down to the wild garden, as that was where the Red Admiral had been heading and that was me - hooked for ages, just watching nature in all its colourful glory. Isn't it absolutely amazing that we can enjoy all of this for free? That's when I spotted it again - can you see the Red Admiral?

 

Then I spotted another and another, but tried to focus on one at a time. These really are quite stunning. In fact, I think I may do my bathroom in black and white with a splash of red/orange.

 

Close up of one of the Red Admiral butterflies. Now that it's in my sights there'll be no letting go until I've got the best photos I can with my little freebie 3 x zoom digital camera. The following is a selelction of the photos taken this afternoon when I should have been working!

 

Red Admiral heading for the purple Buddleia. The scarlet colour changes to a bright orange depending how the light hits the butterfly's wings.

 

Stunning! Red Admiral dancing in circles as it feeds on the nectar from the tiny clusters of flowers on the Buddleia.

 

I was transfixed! I spent so long photographing this butterfly that my coffee went cold and had to be microwaved!

 

On closer inspection, there were all sorts of buzzing flying things on the Buddleia. I think this is a Hoverfly feasting.

 

Isn't this just a magnificent specimen of a butterfly? The Red Admiral has to be one of my favourites, alongside the Peacocks and Blues.

 

 

Another buzzy thing that I'll call a Hoverfly despite the fact I can see what looks like a stinging part - perhaps it's an egg chute of some description! I'm praying my arch-enemy, Mrs giant wood wasp, doesn't appear, as I really don't like her.

 

 

Bumble bees aplenty in the Frugaldom garden but it isn't often that I spend any time trying to photograph them. I really should, as there are so many different types, colours and sizes.

 

What are all these little creatures? Normally I run when I hear anything buzzing near me but down here in the wild garden corner, they are all far too busy feasting to bother about a big scaredy like me, thank goodness!

 

Not sure what any of the insects are, nor am I sure what any of the flowers are, apart from the Buddleia. I'll call these huge yellow daisies.

 

Oh wow! The Red Admiral has settled on one of the giant yellow daisies right in front of my camera!

 

I can even see the little blue flecks at the base of the wings now, this really is a gorgeous butterfly! But I'm being called to go and get my coffee right now!

 

Another Peacock butterfly on the white Buddleia as I'm passing it on my way back to the patio where my reheated coffee is going cold again! I sat down to drink it and that's when we spotted the next target for my camera...



 

I have asked for a definite identification on this tiny butterfly but I think It's what's known as a 'Small Copper'. It landed on the wooden planters where I have the strawberries.

 

I was so engrossed in butterfly watching this afternoon that I forgot to photograph progress in the greenhouse and garden! I'll need to put them into a separate blog as I seem to have absolutely filled this one with butterflies again. Oops!

 

Until next time,

Frugaldom

Butterflies that Flutter by in Frugaldom

As Proud as Peacocks

 

 

Digital cameras are great inventions, aren't they? Frugal to a fault because we can snap willy-nilly without a care in the world when it comes to developing spools or waiting ten days to see what we managed to capture in our shots.

 

A lunchtime stroll down to the poly tunnel to check on the cucumbers soon became a frenzied run to the house to grab my camera when I spotted all the butterflies fluttering around the Buddleia. These are my favourite butterflies as they are so colourful.

 

 

 

It's the first year I've had this particular plant in the garden. so I didn't know what colour it was going to be. As you can see, it's a white one. I was secretly hoping it would be purple when I was give it, but frugal gifts are frugal gifts - it's now growing like wildfire after just a year in the ground and working its magic with the colourful butterflies!

 

 

 

There were about a dozen Peacocks fluttering around, three on this flower alone when I ran to grab my camera. They were wheeling around, landing on the ground, on the wall, on the hedge, in the borders and on the Buddleia, making for a beautiful display. This one danced in circles around its chosen flower for ages, while the one on the wall nearby was content to sun itself long enough for me to photograph it.

 

 

Such a beautiful display of colour and it's all here in the back garden waiting to be discovered and then captured in digital format to be enjoyed by anyone who cares to look. I got some super close-up shots that I am going to save, print and turn into artwork for my bedroom makeover project.

 

The following are a few photos from previous sightings when one of us has been able to grab a camera quickly enough to capture them on screen.

 

 

 

The small blue, which I still think is quite big, is a gorgeous specimen, with its furry body and silvery trimmed wings.

 

This Red Admiral was spotted on the purple Buddleia that appeared growing out of the wall along the side of the patio at the back door.

 

 

Wall Browns are abundant about here but they seem to prefer the duller grasses and open areas to the hedgerow and bright flowers.

 

 

One of the commonest of all about our garden is the small tortoiseshell. These seem to get in everywhere, including the house, shed and outbuilding.

This is the female 'Orange Tip', not to be confused with the big 'cabbage' white butterflies, the larvae of which have just completely demolished the leaves on my cauliflowers and ruined any chance of my growing cabbages this year. The male counterparts of these, as you may have guessed, have orange wing tips in place of the grey. The males have, so far, eluded being caught. (Story of my life!)

 

Perhaps not much to do with money saving and a shoestring household budget but these are the types of frugal occasions that provide inspiration for budget makeovers and artwork plus they make time spent in the garden much more worthwhile when trying to create a wild garden. Butterflies and bees prove that something, somewhere, is working out right.

 

Feel free to share your own garden wildlife photos at www.frugalforums.co.uk where we have a full section dedicated to frugal fun, hobbies and even permaculture.