Bog Myrtle & Peat

Worth a very quick update on my crab apple project, which began in October with the grand harvesting of apples from suitable native stock. It was a slow, methodical process to extract the seed, and I was surprised by how variable the seed rate was in each fruit. Some of the apples contained four seeds, many had two and lots had none at all – perhaps this is a reflection of moderate year for blossom, but it confounds the idea that fruit = seed.

The harvested seeds were dropped in a tupperware tray full of soil over the winter, and it was fun to watch them freeze and thaw. This process helps the seed to germinate, and I was excited to find a dozen seedlings when I checked yesterday. These were carefully pulled out of the tupperware and placed in a seed tray, and now I have to keep them safe from mice, rabbits and chickens.

I’ve done plenty of work with trees before, but this is my first encounter with wild scottish crab apples. They seem surprisingly easy to cultivate, but there is still a wide margin for error and disaster.

It’s also worth recording that as I fished around for germinating seeds on a bench beside the house, a flight of five starlings soared past me at head height. The rush of their wings was extraordinary, and I turned to see them followed at close quarters by a sparrowhawk. I could almost have touched the hunting bird as he dropped over my shoulder, and the starlings were in the final stages of panic. They performed a last-ditch starburst over the chicken shed, motoring up and fanning out like red arrows. The hawk already had lock-on, and as the highest starling banked sharply up into the air, it was gripped neatly from behind with surgical precision. The two birds fell down in a quick somersault, and I abandoned my seeds for a closer look.

It has been possible to stand back and watch hawks eating when they have killed pigeons or thrushes in the yard over the winter, but this was too close. The hawk flared away when she saw me and carried the screaming starling over the dyke and away onto the moss. There are a few big granite boulders out there which raptors use to pluck their prey. I often see merlins and peregrines standing on the highest stone, and the grey slab is lashed with white paint and shiny black pellets.