September 2011

by Ken - 16:21 on 04 September 2011

                                       Ken’s Nature notes.

The hunt is now on to try and find fertile beech seeds, this may seem trivial to some but I always like to sow some beech nuts each year, I had a quick search today but any seed that I had found were empty. As any regular reader of my notes will know the best way of checking to see if the beech seeds that you find are going to be fertile is to squeeze then between your fingers, if they collapse they are empty and are of no use. I noticed a couple of years ago that pigeons were feeding near to a beech tree, this was a good sign that they had found the beech nuts which would be fertile, another sign of fertility if you could find a Beech tree near a road then broken seed from traffic crushing the seed would show the nuts as being of use if you could find some unbroken, the only trouble with finding these beech nuts would be the possibility of getting run over, so I would avoid this situation and keep on looking and squeezing.
Acorns are in abundance and I will be sowing as may of these as I can, these germinate quite well and it is very satisfying when you see a new oak tree appearing, I don’t think you can have enough oak trees growing near you and I will be trying my best to see that this happens.
I did collect some Elm seed today whilst I was out with the dog, never had any look so far getting them to germinate but if at first you don’t succeed try, try again. These have now been sown and it is now a waiting game till spring.
Since I started writing these notes I have found some beech nuts that have now been sown next to the pot with the Elms in, so lets hope they all germinate together.
It was disturbing to hear on the news that the hardy Horse Chestnut tree could be devastated by a moth that attacks the leaves and can eventually kill the tree, looks like we had better start planting conkers again to keep the population going.
Quite a lot of geese seem to be migrating at this time of the year, I noticed at least four groups flying in the usual V formation a few mornings ago honking away to each other as if they were controlling the leader by saying left a bit then right a bit, it is amazing the distance that these can fly and I was thinking where have the all been staying? Perhaps the wild fowl park at Washington and more interesting is where they are going too.
The days are suddenly getting shorter and the nights are getting longer,  it seems a sudden change rather that a gradual process. People are always commenting on the weather but from my knowledge I know I have been enjoying the odd glass of wine on our seats in the garden more this year than ever before.
It shouldn’t be long now for Blackberry week as I have noticed quite a lot of these delicious fruits just waiting to be picked, it was always one of my favourite treats, home made blackberry pie and custard.
So get the bags out and enjoy the fruits of nature.
Ken.
 

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