Sunday 28 February 2016

Spring is springing...

Now there's a touch more light about in the mornings and evenings, and the weather is trying to warm up a bit it's time for us to get sorted for this years plant based adventures, but because it's a bit cold for starting some things off outside we got some of the other jobs out of the way, like sorting out the bird boxes.

Two of our bird boxes -

Ready for new tenants.

I built a new and slightly larger shed last year and as a result the bird boxes we have in the large Sycamore at the bottom of the garden were a bit low, and in range of our cat, so whilst I was relocating them I took the time to give them a clean out and repair any damage.

Nest boxes should be cleaned out regularly due to fleas and other bugs that can affect baby birds and the adults, but you have to make sure the box isn't being used, so clean them out around autumn time or in winter, it's also advisable to wear gloves and a mask, we have two nest boxes on the house, but they haven't been used yet, but maybe this year.

House nest boxes (odd picture angle due to patio full of plants) - 


Landlords are nice, rent is cheap.

And if that wasn't enough I decided to use some old scrap bits of wood and have ago at making a round bird house on my new lathe, it came out quite well, I just need to find a spot for it, it may be on the small side, but you never know something might use it, perhaps a Wren ?

Round house - 

I've got a nice spot in the Sycamore for it.

The kids received their spuds for this year from the Potato council, they've been growing their own spuds for a few years now, they enjoy seeing how big and how many spuds they get, one year they only got a single spud from one lot of seed spuds, but it was huge ! 

If you haven't had a go you can find info here (opens in new window) on what you need to do, if you sign up they send you a box with everything you need to get started, they even supply large plastic bags in the kit so all you need is some compost, and of course we've also started chitting our allotment spuds as well.

The kids spuds chitting nicely - 


They'll be ready for when the weather warms up a bit more.

I finally got round to sorting out the greenhouse, which took a lot longer than it should, but at least it's done and I now know how many spare pots we have, which is good as we have a load of plants to re-pot, all sorts from Black currants to Wisteria, Honey Suckle, Passion Flower, basically our back garden looks like a garden centre, it seems as each year goes by the amount of plants we propagate increases greatly, whether it be from seeds or cuttings.


Nice and tidy(ish) greenhouse - 


It's got a few plants in it, in various states.

Plants -


Few here, mostly for the garden.

More plants -


Looks like there's more tidying to be done.

You get the idea - 

Loads more at the bottom of the garden, and by the shed.

And the other day I put some seeds in to soak, ready for planting after a day or two, there's Bay (the herb) Everlasting sweet pea, Laburnum, Crab apple, Thorn apple (bit of an experiment) and some others, basically seeds we've collected from last year, and this is small amount of what we'll end up growing this year, just for fun, and for food.

Seeds having a bath - 


They'll be started of indoors.

As if that wasn't enough we've also started collecting cacti, and we also have some cacti seeds in our heated propagator, which cost £5 from a charity shop, it'll be interesting to see what happens, cacti are something my wife's grandfather was an avid collector of and she has decided to follow in his foot steps.

Not that you can see very well, but stuff is happening in there - 


An update on what's growing in here soon.

I've also started working on the allotment, trying to get that into order, so an update on the plot will appear soon, but for now happy growing.

Thanks for reading.


2 comments:

  1. Love the small turned bird box, what's the dimensions of it?
    Good luck in the garden/allotment.
    Cheers, Andy.

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    1. Thanks for reading, the inside of the bird box is around 3 inches by 3 1/2 inches it's 6 inches high altogether, internally it looks to be a similar size to some of the boxes we have and they've been used by bluetits in the past.

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