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Last post 20-11-2009 9:56 PM by richardpeeej. 4408 replies.

• 29/11/2005 08:53 AM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,971

  Reply | Contact digger, there's a load of info about feeding birds here: [url=http://www.rspb.org.uk/gardens/whatyoucando/feedinggardenbirds/what_food.asp] RSPB [/url] - loads of stuff about birds in general, too; it's a really interesting site. I've read that salt is poisonous to birds because they can't absorb it, so you'll have to start eating those unsalted crisps instead. I went through a pringle frenzy about twelve years ago and can't even look at them now. We've had almost no snow here; yesterday it snowed for a couple of hours but didn't settle. I've been looking at all the lovely photos of landscapes blanketed in white and wishing we could have some too. A neighbour told me that this area is protected from snow, by the Yorkshire hills on two sides and the wolds on the other, and that we only get big snow if it comes from the east. The winds have been from the north, south and west for a while so I guess we'll have to wait.

• 29/11/2005 09:15 AM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,971

  Reply | Contact Hello Lorac, nice to see you in this part of the site. I wonder what your tree is? Could it be a cherry? Sounds like the birds like it, anyway. Yes, encouraging birds, especially thrushes and blackbirds will help your slug problem, though it's a shame that they don't eat at night so they can sort out the wretched little grey slugs and all those snails that come out after dark. Planting many different kinds of plants will attract birds, especially if the plants provide some cover for them, and berries in autumn. Not keeping things too tidy and not using chemicals also helps a lot. Making a small pond is actually pretty quick - I think we had ours done in a day and half - and once it's done it takes very little maintenance. A pond will also bring in even more birds, who'll be attracted by the water, for drinking and bathing. Making sure there's a sloping side with a beach, so the creatures can get in and out, will bring in amphibians. They are such a pleasure to watch; you'll come across them hopping about all over the garden and be comforted by knowing that they'll be up all night looking for slugs and small snails. This spring, for the first time since we put the pond in two years ago, we heard croaking for a few nights and when we went to look there were three fine big clumps of frogspawn. The summer found dozens of beautiful little babies hopping about, like tiny jewels. Dig that pond, Lorac, you know it's right!

• 29/11/2005 09:54 AM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,199

  Reply | Contact Hi Miranda, we put a slope round two sides of our pond and after 3 years one of them caved in, the frogs and toads can still get in. What sort of fish have you got in yours, we have 8 koi, an algae eater and 3 mirror carp. For the first couple of years we had lovely plants in there too, but the whole lot keep being eaten. We bought two lovely lilies for £20 each and they didn't have time to flower before they were eaten. During the summers we put in the floating hyacinths and water lettuces to keep the sun off the water and they eat half of them as well! Its not as if they are not being underfed, they go through a big box of food every 3 weeks during the height of the summer. When the frogs and toads spawn in the spring they dont even get a chance to hatch either! sue1002

• 29/11/2005 10:09 AM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,971

  Reply | Contact Hello Sue, we don't have any fish because we wanted a wildlife pond and if we'd put fish in, they'd have eaten all the wildlife. Our neighbour has fish in his pond and told us that they eat all the frogspawn, snail eggs and all the small critters, even though they are fed properly. I guess they could be eating your plants too. I wonder why the edge of your pond collapsed? What sort of liner did you use? We used that thick butyl sheeting and it's been okay as far as the sides go. Some roots went through the bottom this year and we had to replace it, but I think that was likely because we'd put the wrong plants in and hadn't maintained their size. We'll be careful in future not to put in plants with such sharp and invasive roots.

• 29/11/2005 12:11 PM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,199

  Reply | Contact Hi Miranda, I think it might have collapsed because when the other half and his mate were doing it they were sailing three sheets to the wind, they had had a few the night before. We used a thick liner, can't remember what sort, but it came with a 15 year guarantee, wouldn't be much good now as the place where we bought it from went bust a couple of years ago. The liner itself is still ok, the earth underneath must not have been too solid. sue1002

• 30/11/2005 12:57 PM

  In reply to

  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743

  Reply | Contact Hello all, Miranda thanks for the website advice i am going to a local shop tommorow they have all thr relevant foods for birds as well as being the largest garden shop for miles and they have a sale so i will get a bird table and some food. most of our snow is melted but we are lucky enough to have a jeep which is 4 wheel drive so the snow has not presented a problem(yet)I have been given a rigid pond liner for use at the allotment it is quite deep so i will have to build a ledge up from the bottom with bricks and then pebbles and soil so creatures can get in and out digger

• 30/11/2005 01:03 PM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,971

  Reply | Contact Hello digger. I just tested that RSPB link and found that I'd done it wrong; it should work properly now. Good on you for getting the bird food! Sometimes we feel like we're running a hotel. At bedtime, we have to remember to put their breakfasts out ready for the morning or they gather outside the kitchen window and stare at us. It's such a pleasure having a garden full of birds, and they do a lot of pest patrol too. There is a small pond on the allotment site where my brother has a plot and it gets lots of frogs in it. Sure they'll be good for pest control. I just hope they don't have to fill it in because someone complains about it. We've had a few flurries of snow but that's it. We feel a bit deprived.

• 30/11/2005 01:06 PM	In reply to
  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,971	Reply | Contact ---------------- On 11/29/2005 12:11:27 PM sue1002 wrote: I think it might have collapsed because when the other half and his mate were doing it they were sailing three sheets to the wind---------------- Oops! Were you cross? Could it be fixed?

• 30/11/2005 01:43 PM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,199

  Reply | Contact Was I cross about him being pie eyed, yes he knows better than that now haha, or cross because it collapsed. We have decided when the weather warms up in the spring we will have a go at repairing it, this time I will be supervising!! The pond is rectangle shape with paving slabs around the edge. We are thinking about making a pergola to go over it to keep the sun off it during the summer, and grow something up it that is evergreen but doesn't drop too many leaves or flowers. sue1002

• 30/11/2005 03:34 PM

  In reply to

  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743

  Reply | Contact hi,all i must confess that i have not really fed the garden birds properly before, I have unintentionally fed the big fat local woodpigeons on brassicas and we do have an awful lot of squirrels but i will get the correct advice in the morning. I am feeling very tired recently i think it's because of the weather dark and gloomy, i some times wish i could hibernate until spring and i think my OH wants me to hibernate she hasn't said that but i can feel it in the air! January edition of Gardeners world magazine has arrived this morning so i will curl up in front of the fire and have a good read, bye for now my friends. p.s. if fushia is reading this it's a while since we have all heard from you do please let us know you're ok. digger

• 02/12/2005 05:41 PM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,971

  Reply | Contact Hello digger, you're not alone in wishing you could hibernate. It's something that both me and him often wish we could do, and feel we should do at times. Especially on days when it's cold, dark and pouring with rain, I get the strongest urge to curl up somewhere cosy and sleep till spring. The sound of the rain battering against the flat roof bit of our dormer makes me so sleepy. How are the birds? Have they been exploring your gifts? I put out a couple of big marrow bones that I'd cooked up for stock, the other day, and have seen the little robin pecking away at them. The robin is quite dwarfed by these huge great knuckle bones, but undeterred. The eight blackbirds are still chasing each other round the garden from dawn till dusk and I wonder when they ever get the chance to eat. Sue, best of luck with the pond! The edges of ours got a bit flattened because I stood on them, but it was easy enough to fix, by pulling up the plastic edging and stuffing more soil under it.

• 02/12/2005 07:31 PM

  In reply to

  Carro-online Location: Joined on: 02 Dec 2005 Posts: 1

  Reply | Contact Hi Lorac Im hoping a pond is a good idea to attract wildlife, i put in a small one two years ago and im still waiting for the frogs!(i feel encouraged now that others waited this long also) i have various birds drinking from it and the marginals are settling in, but had to net it to stop the pigeons bathing in it this summer,as they were recking the plants and leaving a deposit of feathers. Creating a wildlife garden gives you allsorts,our compost bin attracted loads of mice so i had to move that elsewhere ps.wrens enjoy grated peanuts, chopped raisins and cheese, so do robins and blackbirds but it needs to be placed in a dish or coconut shell between shrubbery as they are rather timid.

• 02/12/2005 08:51 PM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,199

  Reply | Contact Hi Carro-online - I'm glad we're not the only ones whose compost bin has attracted the mice, I frightened one in my compost bin a few weeks ago, set some traps outside it and caught it about 3 days later. I hate the things. I don't know whether it just came along for lunch or had been nesting nearby. I knew it wasn't nesting inside the bin as I got the fork and turned everything over and there was no more movement. We haven't seen or caught any more since so it must have just been visiting. The frogs are probably in hibernation now, you might see some in the spring. Ours arrived the first spring after we put our pond in. We had a pile of sand waiting to be used and in the summer when we used some of it, out hopped a frog, it was well into it. sue1002

• 04/12/2005 08:03 PM

  In reply to

  anthemis Location: Joined on: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 317

  Reply | Contact The blue/great tits here have got really picky. We have two feeders out, one for sunflower seed and the other for peanuts. They can spot a freshly filled sunflower feeder within seconds and queue up in the nearby shrubs to wait their turn, but when they have emptied it ( takes a couple of hours on a cold day) they are reluctant to eat the nuts whihc are definitely the last resort. I have also noticed a robin getting inside the cage-type squirrel-proof feeder, have started worrying that it might eat so much that it'll be too fat to get out!

• 04/12/2005 08:08 PM

  In reply to

  anthemis Location: Joined on: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 317

  Reply | Contact ---------------- On 11/24/2005 8:12:45 AM miranda wrote: .... soand trying to achieve year round flowers somewhere in the garden...... ---------------- I'm really pleased with the effect of some of the grasses I've put in. Calmagrostis Karl Foerster, some miscanthus and several others. With so many other things looking a bit sad now, the grasses look wonderful with the low winter sun shining through them. Thats another good thing about being retired, I used to find it so depressing to leave the house in the dark/come back in the dark and never see the garden during the daylight hours!