Today in the garden ... horse fluff

There isn't that much to look at in the garden in early spring, but I thought I would put up a few pictures to give an idea of what's growing on this year.

Wild birds are always a pleasure to have around and I've got two particularly friendly robins who flit around me while I work, gobbling up any wiggly creatures which I inadvertently expose in the soil. I don't put out food specifically for birds because my garden is ramshackle enough to have lots of natural forage for them, and besides, if I encourage them to congregate too much in one place then my cats think I've set it up as a take-away for their benefit. But I do have a couple of these wire frame feeders which have been hanging around unused for years so I've stuffed them with horse fluff. Hey presto, an instant fluff dispenser which nesting birds can help themselves to.

And they really do like it. I have to top it up regularly, which is fine because both my horses are shedding their winter coats. This is horse body hair, not manes and tails. (I did put out some strands of mane but the birds didn't like it as much ... I think it's too long and thick for them to work with.) This stuff is great, because it's very soft but just oily enough to hold together and repel the rain, which is exactly how it functions as weatherproofing for horses. A few bits of hay in there as well for good measure.

Talking of cats, I made a no-dig potato bed and am waiting for the first spuddy shoots to pop up, and my assistant here is keeping them warm to make them sprout quicker.

And here's t'other one, testing out some new yoga positions.

Growing away in the greenhouse border are a few different types of radishes. These are Zlata, a Polish variety with golden yellow skin. The idea is to grab a quick crop of these before I need the greenhouse border for chillies and tomatoes in a few weeks' time.

And here are the chillies, feeling a bit chilly and growing slowly. They will perk up when the weather does. Pretty much all of these were sown around the same time, in early February in a heated propagator on the windowsill. The radically different sizes are variety differences; some of them are even from different species. The large one top left is Zitava, a sweet paprika-type pepper which is supposed to have an exceptional flavour. The small hairy seedlings are Alberto's Locoto, of the less-commonly-grown species Capsicum pubescens. I only wanted one plant of each variety but I had a policy of sowing two seeds because peppers can be precious luvvies with germination. Some germinated both seeds, some only one, so I got a bit more than I wanted but I will try to fit them in.

Finally, osteospermum plants in the greenhouse waiting to be planted out when the weather gets a bit nicer. I can't take any credit for these, I bought them from a local nursery.