Sometime I just get carried away and forget to write in the blog of what I have been up to recently so here is a brief run down of the last week or so.
With the growing season in full swing I am constantly weeding and cutting back so this is a daily occurrence, so apart from the weeding I decided to plant out some of the Teasel that I had grown from seed.
The plan is to surround what I am calling the Siskin hide, down by the pond with Teasels and thistle type plants to give feeling of being in a small woodland glade from where next winter I can photograph Siskin, Goldfinch and Redpoll, that’s the long time goal anyway.
This winter I will try and coax them in with food, mainly niger seeds and sunflower hearts onto Teasel I grew on this year.
Here is the ones from and last year and some of the news one planted out to flower next year, I still have around 40 plants left so will plant these at the back of the pond later on.
Click to slide photos.
Recently I had a great couple from Cuckfield Peter & Sally, who rented my hides and mentioned that they knew of a tree surgeon who could supply me with some free wood chip, to mulch around my trees. ( I like free )
When its sunny and we have no rain for a while the clay soil bakes rock hard and cracks, so my plan was to mulch 2 foot or so around every tree to retain moisture and stop weeds, its another big job but worth it in the long run.
So on Friday morning David of Sparks farm tree surgery (Link on Links page) true to his word dropped of one of 3 loads.
WOOD CHIP , ONE OF 3 LOADS
Because the wood chip had only been done that morning I decided to use it on the paths instead of mulching around trees as I am supposed to use old/decomposed wood chip for mulching, something to do with taking too much nitrogen out of the soil. ( never stop learning )
The next lot I hopefully get I will leave to rot over the winter then use in the spring once the worms have done their job on it.
Here is a few photos of the paths complete with wood chip.
Click to slide photos.
The 3 loads took me 2 full days to barrow around the wood but looks good and really nice to walk on.
Well that’s what I have been up to recently, stay tuned.
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