Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!

After the weeding at the railway, I then continued all the way up the Hawthorn hedge border, right to the back of the garage. Another one hundred feet of crawling around on my knees. Despite a kneeling pad, everything was hurting by the end of it!

I then had a wander around with the camera and particularly like the photo opportunities around the wood. The white Hyacinths are now fully flowering and the purple ones taller and even more vivid.



Here's a closer view of the red flowering currant. It was only around three weeks ago that this looked bare.

 

While I was photographing the Hyacinths, there was what sounded like a formula 1 race, nearby on the hellebores. It was bee central and I caught this one on macro settings by luck, as the camera was too close to the ground to see the screen.



All the Snowdrops are dying off now. I can't help but think how clever nature is. As the flowers wilt, the stems droop, arcing down some distance from the parent plant. The seeds will be deposited around six to eight inches away to spread the next generation.

 

We've had quite a lot of birds visiting the feeder during the day and even had several daytime visits by the foxes. I've now established that there are three foxes. Basil, Scar ( injured eye fox ) and a new one the other day, smaller, darker ears and very skittish and nervous. We also had our first hedgehog captured on the camera.

With all of this in mind, I decided a watering hole might be a good idea. At some point, I could fancy a water feature, perhaps a little stream through the wood. For now, I found a large plastic bone meal tub. I cut the bottom two to three inches off, washed it out and dug a hole in the woodland, to sink it flush with the ground.

I half filled it with river gravel from the drive, so any hedgehogs or other small creatures can climb in and out without a large lip to climb over and filled it with water from the rain barrel. Four minutes later, a Bluetit was there having a drink.



26th March 2025

Today, I placed another small camera right beside the new watering hole and left it. It wasn't long before a Bluetit and Blackbird were making the most of the new feature.

 

After lunch, a Bluetit was back again and also what appears to be a female Chaffinch.



By early afternoon, the continuous running camera had filled the memory card, so that was cleared and set back out. I haven't checked it yet. I'm hoping to catch some night life having a drink too.

 

@ArmyAirForce, smashing photos and a clever idea for a little pond.

I can thoroughly recommend the oval shaped memory foam kneelers and I use two when weeding a long length of border. Kneel on one, then when you need to move along, put the 2nd in front of you and move onto that one and so on, if that make's sense. It saves the continual getting up and down bit which is tiring.

 

We have several kneelers of varying foam densities and they help, but won't cure my 85 year old joints, trapped in a 55 year old body!!

 

27th March 2025

I was back out to the mini pond this morning, having raked through the bag of garden waste from the other day. I picked out all the moss I'd weeded and laid it around the pond, to soak up the splashed water from the birds bathing. The moss should like it there and will stop the soil from eroding and turning to mud. The moss also hides the outer edge of the plastic container.



Hopefully, the birds won't try to pinch it all for nests! Since the moss had been in the garden waste bag for a couple of days drying out, once all squished into place around the pond, I gave it a quick water, which is why it looks so wet here.

 

Last night, the main trailcam caught one of the foxes sniffing around, but also the hedgehog in the wood at the same time. The first two videos showed the hedgehog was staying fairly still while the fox was moving around. By the third video, the hog was nowhere to be seen, so must have done a runner while the fox was looking the other way.

The trailcam records 25 seconds of video, but then there's a pause time before it can trigger again. This is to stop constant triggering filling the memory card and draining the battery. The hog must have made his move in this pause between the second and third videos.



I also weeded the kitchen border today. In addition, I dug out two silver dust plants to make some gaps for bedding plants, moving one to the end of the yew. Whether it stays there, I don't know, I just didn't want to bin it before I'd fully decided what I wanted to do. I also dug out some Rose campion plants, that were coming up under the stepping stones. They were transplanted to one of the plastic planters next to the workshop for now, but may end up moving to the wood.

 

The other silver dust plant was moved to the bottom of the steps. Again, this may not be permanent, but it filled an area of bare soil for now.



Late in the day, I had a new visitor to the wood, a Goldfinch I believe. He/she was also enjoying the new water feature.

 

It's surprising how many people feed birds and animals but forget they need water too. How long before your little watering hole turns into a small pond?

 

The urge to do it is there, but the lawn edging, lawn levelling and finishing landscaping and planting at the very bottom of the wood is a priority. I could really fancy a little stream, possibly using a solar powered ( battery backup ) water pump, as it's a long way from any mains power. All stuff to research in the coming months. Perhaps a next year's project?

 

I can understand that. You've achieved a lot there and time, priorities and planning tend to get in the way.

 

Been thinking overnight. I could actually take mains power from the observatory and bury a cable under the lawn to the wood. The observatory is directly opposite the wood and would only require a run of around 35 feet of armoured mains cable.

 

29th March 2025

Mini pond has gone, thanks to a slow leak. Must have had a tiny pin hole or fracture in there somewhere. Good news is midi pond replaces it, thanks to Ikea! Pics later.

 

After spending the morning photographing the solar eclipse, I got to work on the pond revamp.

As mentioned in the post above, the bonemeal pond was pulled out due to a slow leak. Plan B began last night as a result of Lynne needing to take some stuff back to Ikea. She mentioned that they had green laundry baskets and I figured that could make a good replacement pond - and bigger!

The basket was cheap enough and a reasonable volume. I cut the height down, making it around 5 inches deep at one end and 2.5 inches at the other. I then used my hot air paint stripper to soften the plastic and distort the shape from the ellipse, to a more irregular shape.

The old pond was removed, moss cleared and the hole enlarged to accommodate the new shape. It was laid in, back filled around the edges and the moss replanted, along with a bit more retrieved from the patio and borders.

I want to add a couple of pond plants to the deep end and plan a shopping trip tomorrow. For the time being, I made sure there was plenty of gravel in the deep end in case any small animals fall in. With the water filled, it is still only 2 inches deep at the deep end. I'll rake out some gravel once I add the plants.



The wind was steadily getting stronger all day, resulting in few birds in the garden. The pigeons made their usual appearance and a Jackdaw was the only bird to visit the feeder. A Blackbird, Dunnock and Bluetit were at the pond in the morning, but that was before the wind picked up. The only birds to visit the new pond were the pigeons. I'm sure the others will be back soon, as they've been making the most of the original version, both for drinking and having a good bath. So here's the new version, just awaiting some greenery at the deep end.