Plant Gardens 101

For many bird lovers cats can be seen as a major pest and are one of the reasons cited for the decline of garden birds in theUK. It is estimated that cats kill up to 55 million birds a year of which the most commonly caught are house sparrows, bluetits and black birds.

However, there is no evidence that cats are affecting the bird populations as many more millions die naturally each year through starvation or disease or are killed by other predators. As cats tend to prey on weak birds it is likely that the birds they kill would have died before the next breeding season anyway.

Each breeding pair of birds only needs to bring up two chicks to maturity for the species to remain constant and millions of baby birds die each year; again this is quite natural. (more…)

A term used to describe a plant that flowers and fruits once and then dies. Annuals, for example, are monocarpic. More unusual are the so-called century plant, other agaves, and most bamboos, which can grow for years or decades before they suddenly flower and die.

Loosely, the stem of any organ. When used accurately, the term “stalk” has several specialized meanings: a leafstalk is properly a petiole; a flower stalk may be a peduncle, a pedicel, or a scape; the stalk of an anther is properly called a filament; the stalk of a fern frond is usually called a stipe.