Build It and They Will Come...

We've been torn between adopting battery hens, keeping bees or creating a wildlife friendly urban patch. We've weighed the pros and the cons, attended talks and borrowed how-to books from the library. However the aged toads, the nervous newts, the bumbling bees, the curious insects, the chattering birds that claim our garden as their rightful own rendered our deliberation moot.

We decided to install a larger, deeper pond since our first pond (puddle) was full to brimming with toad tadpoles and newt larvae last spring.

The digging of the hole for the pond was redolent of childhood sandpit excavations; those earnest attempts to tunnel to the other side of the planet. Disappointingly no crystals, fossils, neolithic remains or roman or medieval debris were unearthed in the diggings.

We stopped and started and stopped to allow the blue tits time to feed their brood...

... and to rest our aching biceps - sparrow's kneecaps.

We made sure the top of the pond would be level as the garden slopes.

We lined the base of the hole with a 5cm layer of builder's sand.

We laid in the liner and checked the levels again.

Meanwhile, a quiet but overt show of protest was held in a sunny spot of the raised beds throughout the digging activities. Demands were made for a replacement sunning platform - tout de suite!.

The liner was secured in place by progressively filling the pond in stages and then back filling the hole. We patted & tamped the earth around the fiberglass shell by hand, whilst we reminisced about our mud-cake tea parties of yore.

Some plants surrounding the old pond were carefully transplanted to the new site, however the old pond will not be emptied for a couple of months to give the newts time to do their thing and to allow the new pond water to settle.

#EppingForest

A short walk today to visit the coppard beech at the lost pond in Epping Forest.

The dog violet were out, underscoring the quiet stillness.

Pie Plant

Nothing like new season rhubarb baked in a pie to make ye ♥ sing.

All in a Weekend's Work

We cleared approximately 2m3 of soil to reveal these concrete slabs. Then we lifted the majority (some 5.5m2) of them, leaving some to make a navigable path to the compost bin.

MIFFED.

The pudding took refuge in a tomato pot as we hauled the slabs up the path and through the house to the kerb for collection.

We worked slowly and with breaks so as not to disturb the new family of blue tits. We have left the levelling of the soil we dug up and the planting of the spuds (it's getting late, we know) for next week.

Our patch of wood anemone is out in it's petticoats.

The blackbirds meanwhile, gorged themselves on the unfortunate worms we uncovered.

Garden Critters

Aegopinella pura?

We've been following Snail Trail 2015 (@UKSnailTrail) and it's made us more curious about ye garden conchological critters.

Lauria cylindrica?

?

... and some spiders we spotted.

Noble False Widow, Steatoda nobilis

House Spider

Sunny Sunday, Monday

Before we can plant our spuds we need to install a new trellis at the back of the garden ... and translocate and rebuild the compost bin. As you do.

We removed a trug load of brick rubble in digging the holes (with trowels and teeth-gritted determination). We positioned the posts to meet with the verticals of the trellis.

We had more than a GRUMBLE about the fact that we'd purchased a 2.5l and a 1l pot of the same branded, tinted wood preservative only to discover that the difference in colour between the two pots was more than several shades out when dry. Poor QA, it's not on is what we say. We were forced to sit in holiday traffic, shell out for more preservative than we needed and put in an extra couple of hours to put it right. This is supposed to be the the holiday that peeps knock back and eat hot buns and chocolate.

We held the posts upright by jamming brick rubble back into the holes. This allowed us to walk back up the garden and check whether they looked true. We didn't use a spirit level as the existing visual verticals contradicted a 90° perpendicular.

We discovered that postcrete is very easy to use, requiring no mixing. A heads-up: make sure you wear a dust mask (or pull your t-shirt up over your nose as we did) because it billows up in a great dust storm when you empty it from the bag into the hole, no matter how slowly you pour.

We fixed the first two posts and sections of trellis to make sure that the horizontals were level. We adjusted the height of the posts by pushing rubble underneath.

We fought the holly and dog rose and we won.

This old compost bin was once hidden away under the canopy of a very large fig tree...its time had come.

Before starting we searched for any wildlife that might be sheltering in the old compost bin and its surrounds (every year, when turning it, we wish for hedgehogs but to no avail). We dismantled the compost bin taking care not to disturb this sleepy toad. She's a beauty.

We re-used all the sound wood from the old bin. We had to use an offcut of new marine ply to make up the short fall. The new bin was built to fit the dimensions of the offcut which we used for the lid.

"Cat-a-stroppy"! Tubby tabby was NOT amused at the destruction of her sunning perch.

The new bin with improvements: the lid is braced to prevent it from curling. The front enclosure is split in two for easy removal and is held in place by sitting in a slot on either side.

We think it scrubbed up well.

Sadly no tatties were planted as we discovered concrete slabbed paving buried under the spot we were planning to dig. Another job for another day. Let's hope next week end is sunny.

Glam frock

Hot Buns #EasterBakes

yeast leaven

kneaded

proving

knock back, shape, rise

baked, glazed