I'm absolutely amazed at the amount of people logging on to see what's going to happen next and I'm flattered by your kind comments, thank you very much! From last month our audience has grown even more and we now have regular followers from:- UK, USA, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Luxemburg, Poland, Czech Republic and Vietnam.....WOW!!! welcome to you all.
As I write this the first day of April has just ended and we are now firmly in spring, this is great as the garden and wildlife are really starting to come alive! I currently have a bees nest in an old bird box and we are just starting to get the first butterflies of the year out fluttering about and basking in the sun!
Unfortunately due to a health issue I have been unable to get out into the garden as much as I would have liked to recently. I have however managed to sow lots of wildflower seeds and plant some summer flowering bulbs so I haven't been completely lazy!
Birds have been such a great source of interest for me over what turned out to be a really hard winter where we had snow and also lots of very wet weather. As mentioned in past posts my pair of Reed Buntings are still with me and have fed on my seed feeders for several months. The female has really filled out and I'm hoping that they will give me the pleasure of watching them bring up their young very soon. Not too much to report in the way of new visitors other than this lovely fellow who came to visit me recently....
Great Spotted Woodpecker taking a drink after a visit to the peanut feeder!
Right then back to the gardening and once again I'm transporting you back to last year and to the month of October. Last post I built the 'old new stone bridge' to add a further feature to the dip in the lawn. As usual I felt that although this looked ok it needed something to link it to the rest of the garden (never happy am I!!) To me this bridge just looked like it had been dropped into the dip and had no real association with other parts of the garden. After scratching my head for a while I came up with the idea of creating a dry riverbed which would wind it's way from the end of the garden and down under the bridge. As mentioned in my last post I had also acquired more rocks from a work colleague which would be 'just the job!'
The area where I planned to run the stream along was overgrown with very old shrubs which had become straggly and out of hand, they also were supporting a good amount of brambles which required clearing before starting the build.
As usual here are some pictures of the stream to show you what it looks like and it's relation to the bridge and rest of the garden.....
This picture shows the area where the shrubs have been cut out. Note the bamboo canes which I have fixed to the fence, these have now been planted with honeysuckles and a few hedging shrubs which will grow up and create a nice natural hedge in time.
The pictures above and below show the addition of a path (using recycled pavers and decking boards!) A channel was then dug out to follow the line of this path, the channel was lined with weed membrane and then filled with different size Pebbles to give a dry stream effect. At this point holes were dug on the inside of some of the bends lined with polythene and soil and planted with irises and other bog plants such as Marsh Marigolds (Caltha Palustris).
Rocks were then added and soil banked in behind them to create a natural appearance and to add movement to the stream
This picture above was taken stood on top of the bridge, you can see how the stream appears to run down and under the bridge. The picture below shows the relationship between the two features
In this picture above you can see that I have planted some 'sedge' type grasses and irises into the soil near the path which when grown should add a natural feel and soften the lines of the hard path edge.
Well that's about it for now the stream bed has been planted and soon planting in the banks will begin to add some further interest to this area. This steam has taken us up to November 2010 and the only job of 2010 not written about yet is my raised vegetable beds which will feature in my next blog and bring us up to date at last!
If I haven't already bored you enough I want to leave you with a few of pictures taken recently....
Jackdaws taking a refreshment break in the field at the bottom of the garden 111meters (365foot) away! (shot with a 400mm lens and 2x teleconverter)
A Magpie coming into land at the feeding station
Male House Sparrow eating a seed from one of my feeders
(Next time, raised vegetable beds, a 'lot' of compost and bang up to date!!)
Bye bye for now see you all next time....
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