Micro magic around the Obs

Here's a few pics from around the Beddington Farmlands Obs from last couple of days.

 Garden Midget Phyllonorycter messaniella- a first for the farmlands 

 Adult male Sparrowhawk and European Starling 

 Cranefly sp- late September/October is Cranefly time. There are over 350 species in Britain- not sure what this one is, not even sure how many species have been recorded at the farmlands (another job to do). Adult craneflies emerge en masse from lawns and grasslands after spending months undergrown as leatherjackets. 

 Sedum (Ice Plant) in Gillian's Wildlife Garden- a classic late flowering wildlife garden plant, providing food for late autumn insects

 The obs harvest this year comprised of kale, asparagus, tomatoes, sun flower seeds, apples, strawberries (over now), chillies and mixed herbs (Sage, Mint, Lemon Balm and Rosemary). Stolen a permaculture idea here growing tomatoes up the stalk of sunflowers and using kale as ground cover- this multi-layer food production is an example of a guild. In theory these techniques can produce as much production intensity as nature killing chemical dependent agriculture as they utilise vertical space, companion planting and self regulating systems which can be scaled up to Forest Garden scale to create highly productive and biodiverse rich farming systems (More on this on my brothers project HERE ).  

Harvest Time- so much for my plans of being self sustainable by utilising space in the communal garden and using window farming- need about an acre of land to produce enough food to be completely self-sustainable