Aviary Garden 'soil'

Hello,

I live in Hong Kong and I own an aviary that was once filled with grass and plants but has become fairly desolate. There is a bamboo tree and some clover-like vegetation growing next to it that are the only survivors of the birds' chewing habits. The only reason the bamboo tree still lives is that the leaves are all gathered outside the mesh where the birds cannot destroy them. There are 17 of them and come that 'season', everything becomes nest material. The soil does not drain well and resembles a dirt wasteland.. although it must be nutrient filled from the mass of birds droppings. I'm not quite sure how to describe the soil, its quite dry and hard, perhaps a bit sandy. I cannot use any chemical fertilisers due to its toxicity to the birds.. and i'm also limited by the plants that they can be exposed to. I have tried in the past planting bermuda grass, it grew in patches and some of it became quite thick but died out in the end. I have been searching high and low for 'chickweed' seeds here in HK with little luck. It is, apparently, the consummate foraging plant for birds and has infamous weed status in survivability in 'all soils' and 'all climates'; which sounds ideal. There should be a delivery from the UK soon...

Hong Kong has a sub-tropical climate, with typhoon seasons and periods of very hot sun. The aviary is sheltered enough that the winds are not tragic but during the recent typhoon, which was far worse than usual, there was a degree of flooding on most of the ground. There is sufficient sunlight in the aviary I believe as the covers are clear.

I think that before I try my hands at anymore planting, I need to start again with the soil and get the drainage sorted.. and this is where I'm a little lost. I would think that digging and raking up the top soil and mixing in a lot of mulch and organic compost for the initial planting and for all further workings of the soil would get me on to a start of renewing the ground and bringing back the 'good times', but for all I know thats soil heresy.

your advice would be very much appreciated,
thanks

Big Youth

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Bigyouth. My mum had five aviaries in her younger years, she is now in her 80's and had to give them up some years ago. Hers, as you describe them were a 'wasteland' too and to be honest I don't think there's a lot you can do about it. The birds tend to strip anything that's planted and in the process compact the ground.

You could try digging down at least 1ft and lay some gravel before covering with the soil, this might help the drainage.

There is a thread in the 'Garden Projects' section by 'Mr. Grinch' who has been dealing with his own major drainage issues. Perhaps you could take a look at that to see if it's any help.

Can I be nosey and ask what sort of birds you keep please?

 

Just to add to the above. There is a member of GC called Raebhoop, he has aviaries and may be able to help you out when he's here.

 

I do not know the SIZE of your aviary
What I would do is halve the access for the birds, and plant up the other half
Then when grown, transfer the birds to the grown half and do the same with
the barren half left
Otherwise the birds will eat any growth as it appears

Jack McH

 

Hi, I actually wrote a reply yesterday.. pressed the wrong button and thinking I'd posted it..

thankyou for the advice, I keep a clan of lovebirds and 2 pairs of cockatiels. The lovebirds consist of green and yellow peachfaces and 2 rather spoilt dutch blues which I handfed a year ago. There is currently a partition in the aviary separating the cockatiels and 4 of the younger lovebirds from the older ones who have a tendency to bully. The cockatiels and the younger lovebirds are no threat to each other or the plants, they have the odd nibble but the adults are the ones that strip anything they can find; so one side is 'plant-friendly' though I haven't had many planting exploits in the aviary since the partition was made.

My objective is not towards the aesthetic, I'm looking for anything that grows well and provides vegetation as apposed to dirt. For ground cover I'm considering Chickweed, Spider plants, Alfalfa, wheatgrass (although thats not hopeful..), basil or sage, I was quite surprised to hear that basil is poisonous to mosquitos.

For trees I have fewer options, but I think that a large/wide and well rooted areca palm will survive. The bamboo 'tree' is better described as a living 'cane', it has actually, very wisely, spread its roots to the exterior of the aviary where a few new shoots have already grown to a couple feet. I know that not all the plants have to be in the aviary for the birds to benefit from them. I've heard that Areca's are particularly good at recycling air so I may transplant a few from the extra plants I have and pot them outside.

 

What about planting stuff in pots so you can rotate them in and out. That way you could revive the ones the birds have a go at and still have something in there. Can't advise on what to plant though as I know many are poisonous. Maybe lay gravel or something else on the ground to keep it from getting muddy?

 

Ooooo I love the dutch blues! My mum had Peach-Faced and Fischers. She also bred Ringnecks, Quakers (very noisy), Cockatiels, Bourkes, Budgies, Canaries, Quail and Diamond Doves as well as foreign finches of various sorts.

Catztail has a good idea there, about growing in pots and alternating them to give them a chance to recover. My mum also put large leafy branches (non poisonous) in the aviaries which helped keep the birds busy.

 

Wow she kept her fair share of birds, must have been quite a setup. I always thought Bourkes, i think the 'normal' male, had the most vivid and surreal plumage colouring. I did, and still occasionally, walk by a park with a bag and some clippers and clip some leafy bamboo branches; it definitely took their attention away from the living bamboo tree. I've got a lot of dried palm leaves and nests that I will hang up for them to chew up. I'm gonna buy some potted Fin Basil, which looks tougher than the normal basil and comes in a thicker bush which I think they'll find more difficult to attack, and one small bush is only 15 HKD, just over a quid. The only thing that worries me about potted plants is the soil they use, I will have to cover it with stones to make sure the birds don't get at it.

The Chickweed seeds finally arrived, the amount in the bag didn't quite look like 4000 but I don't think I'll need much. I've bought a few bags of 'Organic black soil' which apparently contains 20% Peat Moss and 80% Peat soil so before I plant I'll mix that into the top 3 or 4 inches of soil with some organic compost and enact 'light cultivation' which apparently chickweed favours.

 

You've got your work cut out there Bigyouth. So are you going to plant straight into the aviary or use pots, I've got a bit lost with the soil business. If you are planting directly, you'll have to give the plants some protection while they are growing or the birds will strip them.

Oh, just remembered.........Redrumps as well.

 

I'm going to sew the chickweed seeds onto most parts of the soil and I will plant a few spider plants in the corners. At the same time I may plant an areca palm depending on space and where exactly the bamboo tree's roots are growing. But before I do any of this, I've got to get sweeping/cleaning the whole aviary and throwing out the old boxes. For the next 2 weeks I'll keep all of the birds on one side and see how much it has grown.

 

What about making chicken wire tubes to stand up around the plants you put in? Or make large plastic boxes to put over them out of transparent plastic sheeting.

 

I spoke to my mum this evening Bigyouth and she says you are wasting your time planting directly into the ground as the birds will strip the plants completely as soon as they can get at them. Perhaps it would be better to put them in pots as Catztail suggested.

 

The plastic sheeting would be great but I don't think I have the space and it would be hell to keep clean with the bird muck falling on it.

Thankyou for the advice Sheal, I will have potted plants that I can move in and out, the fin basil and some other herbs but I really need some kind of ground cover; I've never seen the birds on the other side of the aviary strip plants, (the cockatiels), and there is quite a lot of clover surviving as is on the ground on both sides of the aviary. I will hang up a lot of palm material for them to chew and test the water with the potted plants before I do anything else.

 

Perhaps. I'm assuming you want the plants in there for aesthetic reasons. If so I suppose you've considered planting around the aviary rather than inside of it. Otherwise, the droppings aren't such a problem. You could get cheap corrugated perspex, standard size 1m x 2m and after making some air holes you roll it into long tube fixed with bull-dog clips. You fix four to six bamboo canes vertically in the ground around your plant and slip the tube over them to keep the tube in place. To stop the droppings getting on the sides of the tube you put a wide piece of hardboard on the top, so it sits like a table top on the perspex leg. The whole thing only has to be as big as the plant. Or if they do dive bomb the sides you can always hose it off. They'd look like mini greenhouses. Alternatively, can't you create something out of clear nylon netting hung from the ceiling or across a corner to cover the plants?