Bee house

[Pops]

Not many winter vacancies left

[Rodbender]

Re: Bee house

That's interesting Pops. We were quite amused the other day when a Bee lodged itself in the hole of one of our bird feeders.

[Ian]

Re: Bee house

Excellent - I was too late for this year but we have bamboo growing in the garden so I will make a home-built bee house for next year

Ian

[Pol]

Re: Bee house

Not many winter vacancies left

Nice but I'm scared of bees, been stung too many times.

Did you have any success with the Hogitat? There's nothing in ours and we seem to have lost all the Hedgehogs, haven't seen any for more than a year. Something's been in and around the Hogitat but I dunno what it could've been. Maybe squirrels, foxes or perhaps the badgers have 'done away' with the hogs?

Pol

[Pops]

Re: Bee house

Ian, it needs to be up by late June.

No hedgehogs yet this year Pol but we do have a froggy family

[Pol]

Re: Bee house

Ian, it needs to be up by late June.

No hedgehogs yet this year Pol but we do have a froggy family

Oh heck, don't mention frogs! We have them all over the place. We also have lots of Toads and Newts - Toads liking to hid in holes under the patio and under the old shed.

David keeps threatening to fill in the pond but he wouldn't really do it.

Pol

[Pops]

Re: Bee house

Forgot to mention I also have a toad
I would love to have a pond but ................

Suzie is fascinated with the frogs. When she goes out at night she likes to nudge them with her nose to make them jump

[Pol]

Re: Bee house

Forgot to mention I also have a toad
I would love to have a pond but ................

Suzie is fascinated with the frogs. When she goes out at night she likes to nudge them with her nose to make them jump

Good for Suzie!

Our pond was already there when we moved into this house (back in 1981). It's always been full of life though the fish were repeatedly taken by visiting Heron or neighbouring cats so we stopped having fish after the last one died. Other than that the pond gets very full with a Water Lily that tends to suck the wretched thing dry. Ponds can be a lot of work, high maintenance but we hang onto it for the sake of the frogs, newts, toads and whatever else chooses to live in there. I don't mind as long as David deals with the muddy slime and mess it generates.

Pol

[Ian]

Re: Bee house

We have lots of frogs but no pond! We haven't seen a hedgehog for several years but the garden fencing is now probably too secure for them to wander from garden to garden as they used to.

I had a bonfire last night to get rid off a large pile of shrub and tree prunings - I can now see where the grass once was in the rear of our long and narrow garden

Before you ask, I was very careful about the fire and it was in an old wheelbarrow off the ground and only small batches of refuse were added so little chance of reasonable size critters being barbecued

Ian

[Pops]

Re: Bee house

Haven't had a garden fire for yonks, don't need to go to the tip either.
I paid the council a one off fee of £20 and now have all my cuttings etc collected once every 2 weeks between March and October.

[Pol]

Re: Bee house

Interesting! We all have a brown wheelie bin supplied for garden waste (grass cuttings, branches, veggie peelings etc) and it's emptied every two weeks. The garden waste is then composted and I think the local council either uses for their parks and gardens or etc or sells it.

First week household waste is collected (green wheelie)
Second week, garden waste (compost) and paper and other recycle waste (eg paper and cardboard, tins, plastic and glass bottles etc). Green boxes are supplied for the recycle waste.

It's an all year round service and funded by the council taxes - all household get the same service. Very useful service it is too.

Haven't had a garden fire for several years, thank goodness!

Pol

[Pops]

Re: Bee house

That's how it works with us Pol but we don't have boxes now. Just the 3 bins.
The £20 payment was to actually buy the brown bin. This is the second year of the scheme and it saves me no end of work disposing of the cuttings etc.

[Ian]

Re: Bee house

We have black and a green wheelie-bins which are emptied alternately once a fornight. The green bin can contain anything from food waste to garden waste; basically it has to be organic and compostable. Paper and cardboard is accepted as well. The black bin is for anything else apart from what can be recycled in a plastic bottles and metal cans box and a glass box. This is all included in our annual rates so no extra charge required.

The amount of garden clippings and prunings I had accumulated was enough to fill 5 or 6 green bins. It was fun to do the garden fire and the neighbours didn't mind. It was a still evening so the smoke, of which there wasn't an excessive amount thanks to everything being so dry, didn't blow around in an un-neighbourly fashion. Also have a nice pile of ashes to rake into and help fertilise the soil before I re-seed the grass. This is at the rear of the garden - all our grass died over the winter and spring because of the very wet weather. Last month I returfed the lawn nearest the house (rather than re-seeding) and I have to say after the hard work of shifting around 25 rolls of turf (and leveling the earth after digging out what seemed like miles of weeping willow roots) the result looks great And the chooks have been banned from the new lawn! But they have a new fenced in extension to their run, although a couple of the critters have learned how to scale the fence! Modifications are coming this weekend at Stalag 36 Deaconsfield Road

Ian

[Pol]

Re: Bee house

... And the chooks have been banned from the new lawn! But they have a new fenced in extension to their run, although a couple of the critters have learned how to scale the fence! Modifications are coming this weekend at Stalag 36 Deaconsfield Road

Ian

Aww the poor chooks just wanna cluck and run free.

You ca get grass seed specific for hen runs at Meadowmania.com . We've used their lawn seed for shady areas as well as the meadoe flower seeds and always had good and fast germination - I'd estimate at lest 90% germination rate too.

Here's the link and look at the 'grass' section for the hen run. (The finer stuff is under 'lawn seed).

http://www.meadowmania.co.uk/grass-seed.htm

Pol

[escallonia]

Re: Bee house

Try putting cat food out Pol ,any flavour my sister in law puts it out at just before dark. reason being that the seagulls help them selves. She is here at the moment and tells me that three come to feed every night without fail she is fattening them up for hibernation just keep feeding until they stop coming. John.