SuburbanGaze

My Art A-Level has finally come in useful.  I have added some colour to some boring terracotta pots by painting them with emulsion paint using some tiny tester-pots that have cost just less than 50p each - Gorgeous aren't they? 

We have been doing some background reading and online research about creating the perfect wildlife garden.  Everything we have read is directing us towards creating a wildlife pond (one without fish). There are some rules that we need to bear in mind, these being: ensuring the depth at the deepest point is at least 60cm so that male frogs can hibernate over the winter without being frozen (female frogs hibernate on land), flat shelves to place plants on at the sides and probably most importantly a slow slope towards one edge with a beach so that small mammals and insects can climb out of the pond without drowning. We have used the area where the Air Raid Shelter formerly was as it gets some sunshine for part of the day and is at the far end of the garden protected by the surrounding fences also the soil at the back is probably the highest concentration of clay we have. We have shaped some soil over the remaining walls of the shelter and then added fleece for insulation

We have been focusing a lot of energy on the last 8 meters of the garden and our most recent project has been digging out the roots for the 2 conifers that we cut last summer.   This will open up the space and make the back more accessible.  The soil that we have been digging out hasn't been really heavy clay but a lighter soil that feels better in quality - less clumpy.   Winning!

First of many (hopefully) bird boxes has made its way into the garden attached to the last Conifer of the 3 at the back.  Hopefully this is high enough to protect it from predators - it's a rather understated pink house, nice.  

Hooray our first tree purchase has been made, planted and staked.  We have chosen a small Canadian wildlife friendly tree which has all round seasonal interest with a single stem Amelanchier Lamarckii. This tree promises to give us an abundance of blossom in the spring followed by green leaves turning bright shades of red and orange in the autumn with berries that the birds will love.  Can't wait to see the seasons changing. 

We have been finding out about Azaleas this week as we have two mature and evergreen plants ourselves which have flowered reliably for both Springs we have been here. We've also just purchased the orange one which is deciduous.  They really are lovely to look at and the flowers are very pretty brightening up an otherwise dull corner.  As they like acid soil we have mixed some bags of ericaceous  soil into the planting area.