From my window.

[Cidermaker]

I have my computer and desk right up against the window looking out onto the garden. I have a bird feeder directly infront of me as I sit and this is what I see every day.






















We have four feeding stations for the birds and we feed all year round. Over the years, we've put up loads of nest boxes and do the best we can to attract wildlife to our place. recently, we've dug a couple of small wildlife ponds and after watching the Sarah Ravens series 'Bees, Butterflies and Blooms' on TV, we've been growing and planting wildflowers as fast as we can.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating as they say and in the last six or seven years, our efforts have really been paying dividends. Its not unusual to have upwards of thirty goldfinches in our garden at a time and the wildflowers that we plant, attract a good array of butterflies and other insects.
We started to plant teees in our garden over twenty years ago on a bare grassed area and we still can't get over the change. We just planted the trees as small whips and left the the transformation to nature.

[veggiechicken]

I don't know how you ever find the time to look at your computer when those finches etc are right outside your window Thanks for sharing your photos.

[dogsbody]

Nice, very nice. Well done.

[scarey55]

How lovely At first, I thought the feeder was empty until I looked again and realised it was full of niger seed As you say, well worth the effort.

[Ananke]

Beautiful!

[Cidermaker]

Its the niger seed thats made all the difference, since we started feeding it all year around the numbers of birds visiting our garden has rocketed. The other thing that we do at this time of the year, is to put any reject apples from our cider and apple juice making out onto the lawn. The blackbirds and song thrushes love them.

In the spring of this year, we also dug this little patch as a wildflower garden.









Then we bought these really cheaply from Home Bargains and sprinkled them over the newly dug patch.









We also sent for individual packs of seeds off the internet and sowed them either in the greenhouse or out in the garden. We did really well with Ragged Robins and Foxgloves. Here's what we sent for:-

Marsh Marigold
Harebell
White Campion
Wild Garlic
Wild Carrot
Common Knapweed
Oxe Eye Daisy
Field Scabious
Ragged Robin

We've all had lousy weather this year and here, is a picture of the patch in early summer. Its none too impressive but it got to look quite a bit better in late summer. Infact, there are quite a lot of flowers blooming right now in october. I'll try and get a picture later on today. What you wont be able to see, is the thousands of insects that visited it, especially on the few warm sunny days that we had.

[yummersetter]

Its not a native, or an annual, but the most popular plant I have, for hoverflies, bees and all sorts of flying insects is solidago ( Goldenrod). I first grew it in Colorado where it was also used medicinally as a cold cure amongst other things.