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What is on your patio?

(81 Posts)
Beechnut Tue 01-Jul-25 15:10:19

My guest today 😃

AuntieE Wed 02-Jul-25 14:25:56

I don't have a patio, but I do have a hare, and I think I still have a hedgehog, as there are very few snails in my garden, and everyone else is complaining bitterly about the huge number of snails they have in their gardens.

Plus a magpie that has abused Trubel so thoroughly that she being the kind of cat who puts up with no nonsense has told him quite frankly what his ultmate fate will be. Quite a number of sparrows and bullfinches leading suicidal lives under the noses of both cats, and by now they know that Tigger catches birds!

I have not seen the toads for a while, but I know where they will be - under the wood-pile that is not ready to be used for the stove until next year. Must go and put out a bowl of water for them.

suelld Wed 02-Jul-25 14:27:53

Grannybags

Reminds me of my brothers bringing slow worms into our garden when I was little to see how slow they were…needless to say they slithered off very quickly! 😂

What Patio? Why do you assume we all have one? I have a yard!

suelld Wed 02-Jul-25 14:29:09

Sorry GRANNYBAGS that was meant for BEECHNUT.

Labradora Wed 02-Jul-25 14:32:23

Garden furniture and 4 small Aloe Vera plants in pots.
My clothes horses for drying in the hot sun when it comes.
Wildlife is the various neighbourhood cats stopping to peer through our French Doors on their daily circuit. Also micro-ants who quickly scavange any insect corpses.
The first Stink Bug of the season.(Alas).

Labradora Wed 02-Jul-25 14:34:02

RosieandherMaw

More important - what (or who) is UNDER your patio!

I daren't THINK what might be under my patio.
I haven't buried anyone. Yet.

CariadAgain Wed 02-Jul-25 15:10:45

Right at this moment - a load of chemical dust of the "belt ants for six" type - as for yet another summer there are ants running around that area. I hope I can get shot of them once and for all this year. My main concern being how they're running around right beside one of my house walls and I have a nasty fear they might be lurking at the outer edge (it's West Wales - and that means this house is constructed of those huge concrete blocks in 2 layers with a layer of insulation in between them - darn it). I am hoping to get that modern style cladding put up on all the exterior walls of the house - rather than the current rendered and then painted finish it's got.

On the patio itself - a patio umbrella that turned out to be too tall and too heavy for little me to operate - but I suppose it serves a purpose of making it plain "It's a back garden - and so it's private....even if it isn't" iyswim. It was worrying after I bought the house to be told the "garden beyond" my back garden had an attempt for planning permission for garden grabbing!!!!! Thankfully it had failed - and I think my back garden is safe from any problems from that direction now - given they've copied what I've done with my garden (raised beds full of food-growing, fruit trees, greenhouse set-up) and so I think it should be okay.

Apart from the garden umbrella - a set of garden table and chairs, an apple tree (that is supposed to be a plum tree - and they sent me the wrong one and no reply to my complaint it's got the wrong fruit starting to grow on it!). Also a fig tree, an olive tree, a couple of pots of herbs, a hazelnut tree.

FranP Wed 02-Jul-25 15:38:23

Ants, woodlice, snails. Chairs under refurb and a whole load of plants that seem to prefer my patio to their proper place in the flower beds.

Ziplok Wed 02-Jul-25 16:21:58

How lovely Beechnut. They are lovely creatures. I’ve only seen one once in the flesh and it was when we were walking in the gardens at Cragside a few years ago, so although not on a patio, it was on a path. It stayed there quite a while and a few of us had the opportunity to to admire it before it slithered away into some undergrowth.

Call it what you will Sue11d - patio, yard, path, garden, whatever. I think we all get the gist of what Beechnut was asking, no need to pull her up on it, surely?

TerriBull Wed 02-Jul-25 16:30:32

Well right now this view! Glorious Devon, this picture doesn't do justice to it. The wildlife tends to be dive bombing seagulls, not so good.

Allira Wed 02-Jul-25 16:36:25

Pots of fuchsias and geraniums in flower, a pot of agapanthus buds that look promising 🤞 and more agapanthus plants without a single bud!
It's still sunny and breezy, a very pleasant temperature.

Oh, here come the noisy seagulls again!! Nothing for you here.
Someone has just started a grinding machine behind the fence.

Whitewavemark2 Wed 02-Jul-25 16:45:45

Not sure if people have answered about the slow worm, so I will.

They are protected in the U.K. and are actually legless lizards. Maybe 10” long. We used to get a lot in our compost heap on the allotment.

Not remotely dangerous.

Allira Wed 02-Jul-25 16:46:48

I remember putting my hand in a bag of home-made compost once and encountering one.

Thisismyname1953 Wed 02-Jul-25 17:21:01

I’m sorry but this post needs a trigger warning . All my life I have been petrified of earthworms and I nearly panicked when I saw your photo.
grin

shysal Wed 02-Jul-25 17:33:22

Allira

Pots of fuchsias and geraniums in flower, a pot of agapanthus buds that look promising 🤞 and more agapanthus plants without a single bud!
It's still sunny and breezy, a very pleasant temperature.

Oh, here come the noisy seagulls again!! Nothing for you here.
Someone has just started a grinding machine behind the fence.

Allira, I have the same problem with Agapanthus this year, 5 buds on the largest pot and none on the 3 others. The leaves look healthy and I protected them over winter, so rather disappointing.

kittylester Wed 02-Jul-25 17:45:04

We have too. One pot has about a dozen, another 6 or 7 and the 3rd pot has 1.

Yertiz Wed 02-Jul-25 18:04:24

On my patio, at the moment is one of my DGS sitting under the trampoline eating a beef burger.

grannybuy Wed 02-Jul-25 18:09:21

A chaffinch on the patio window handle. Hoping to come in perhaps?

AskAlice Wed 02-Jul-25 18:13:12

Not this year, but a couple of years ago we had this little beauty visiting our patio outside the kitchen door just before Christmas...and no, we didn't have pheasant for our Christmas dinner that year!

LadyGracie Wed 02-Jul-25 18:18:54

My patio pots and NO wasps nest😀

TillyTrotter Wed 02-Jul-25 19:07:03

I’m glad to say no slowworms on our patio just some pots of Geraniums. All my other annual bedding plants are so poor this year - just too dry/windy/warm.

MorbihanPrincess Wed 02-Jul-25 20:15:05

Building blocks to make the patio XD

GrannyIvy Wed 02-Jul-25 20:15:31

We have had an eruption of flying ants!! Otherwise lots of lovely plants in my patio

LondonMzFitz Wed 02-Jul-25 20:26:47

I had two hedgehogs last night chomping at the little pile of dry kitten food I left out (and both water troughs upturned). I moved from London to Lincolnshire and now never see a fox, but so many hedgehogs!

CanadianGran Wed 02-Jul-25 20:30:24

What lovely photos from you all! Looe will have to be on my list if I ever make it over there!

Here’s my wet corner, which gets the most sun, so there is an espeliered apple along the fence, and some comfy chairs.

CanadianGran Wed 02-Jul-25 20:37:21

Thanks for the info about the slow-worm. Hope I never meet one! haha. No reptiles here, just birds (mostly robins and sparrows) and snails. My frog pot has a geranium that has not even started to bloom yet, it's been so cold and damp here. The strawberries are blooming, but we need some sun if they will turn to fruit!