A place to learn, share and inspire others to create a haven for you and for wildlife.
Sign In or Register to join the conversation
Hi folks. I decided today to make a start towards replacing the crumbling wall surrounding a part of our garden. I thought it would maybe be fun to do a thread to document this, so here we are. I have no idea how long this going to take me or how the finished wall is going to look, as is normally my way, I'll sort of work it out as I go along. I suspect I'll often be sidetracked along the way, as has already happened today. I've been collecting stones for a while now and I don't intend to replace the wall with bricks. Instead I'm going to use stones which are not all of the same type of stone, but that's what I have, so that's what I'll use. The first few photos show the condition the current wall. The first photo is the end of the wall nearest my woodshed and as you can see, it's not looking great.
The wall is only a small one but has been here for many years and is now crumbling badly and really insecure and wobbly at bits. This photo shows the wall behind some of the stones I've collected.
A view of the wall with the large stones moved away from it.
And a more detailed view of the extent of the damage.
As we all love the birds, I'll see if I can photograph some of them along the way, like these Starlings on my neighbour's TV aerial.
I also decided to stuff some straw into a suet ball feeder and hang it in the holly bush in case the birds might like to use some of it as nesting material.
I've decided that probably the best way to go about this is to lay out all the stones that I have and hopefully this should maybe help me to select the stones easier as the build gets under way. The next photo is of the stones that were piled along the edge of the old wall. I've tried to lay them out in a sort of organised way, (to me anyway).
At around this point, Mrs A called down to see if I fancied going to the garden centre with her for a cup of tea. This sounded great to me, so off we went. As is the way of things, we ended up having a light lunch and returned with a new adapter for the garden hose, a 12.5kg bag of peanuts and two new peanut feeders, one of which is shown here. We liked the look of these feeders because the wire mesh goes all the way around the bottom an back up the other side which should help to prevent the peanuts at the bottom from becoming damp, although the Sparrows around here take great pride in preventing this from happening by scoffing as many peanuts as they can, as often as they can.!!
When I got back down the garden to start again, I found that the supervisor had arrived and was carrying out a detailed assessment of the site. This is Tee Tee, one of my three cats. She likes to ‘help’.!!
Assessing and helping can be very tiring however, so it wasn't long before mental and physical exhaustion got the better of her.!!
Mrs A called down the garden again, reminding me that she'd promised the elderly lady next door that I'd dig out a few very small trees that had taken root close to her front door. Also I was to dig out some Peony Roses from the same area as well. I actually broke the first garden fork that I used, but think I may be able to repair it with a small exhaust clamp. I got another fork from the shed, which we actually found lying in the middle of the road when we were out in the car one day.!!(the fork, not the shed).!! I've actually found loads of things lying in the road now that I come to think about It.!! The list includes a pair of safety goggles, one of those hard hats with the ear protectors fitted to it, a small digital camera, three battery powered inspection lamps (all at different times and in different locations) and my most recent find was one of those clamp things that mountaineers use to help them when they're climbing up a rope,.. you know the type of thing? You attach a bit of rope with a loop on it to put your foot in, and as you take the weight off your foot , the clamp thing is slid up the rope and then grips the rope again as you put your weight back on the loop.!! Quite ingenious actually... In actual fact, it’s in the drawer downstairs, I’ll go get it and take a photo of it to show you… back in a ‘tic.......... Here it is..... Thanks for waiting.!!
Never be afraid to stop and pick things up (safely of course), you never know what you'll find. I actually doubled back to get the safety goggles.!! Anyway... I dug up the small trees and Peony Roses but I hate to see things go to waste, especially as they're living things, so the small trees are now planted in my garden and Mrs A found a place for the Peony Roses. I've no idea what kind of trees they are but here's a photo of one of them in it's new home, half way down the garden. I put it in the middle of some other plants that Mrs A has got (with her permission of course).
I am in all honesty trying to get back to the wall but the way things went today I was all over the place. Mrs A once again called me to see if I wanted to see a Bee that was on the ground at the front of the house. This is a photo I took before we moved it to a safer location in the garden amongst the plants. It was moving very slowly on the ground.
Whilst I was down on the ground I took a few snaps of a couple of the plants that are out at the front of the house. The first one as I'm sure you'll know is a Heather but I've no idea what the second one is. I'm not great when it comes to idenyifying plants.
Another bit of crumbling wall at the front of the house. I'll have to sort this at some point too.!!
On the way back round to get on with sorting out the stones I thought I take a few pics to show you some other stuff. It may surprise you, but I actually found these tubs (I have two of them) in the field at the back of my house. They were much taller than they are now and someone had made then into garden seats, obviously didn't want them any more and threw them into the field. There is a pile of wood in the corner of the field that the farmer doesn't bother about, so long as it's only wood or garden waste. Every now and then he sets fire to it. It’s really handy actually as all of our trimmings and stuff can go out there without the need for us to bag them up and take them to the council's waste centre. I cut the top off the seats, painted them up, and Mrs A planted some sort of butterfly friendly plants into them.
I also found this small tree lying in the field, minus a pot. I rescued this as well and put it in a pot over the winter. I planted it today in another bit of the garden but have really no idea what it is.
A view looking down the garden from the other side of the fence from the barrel planter. I built the wee hand cart thing myself out of some wood that I had lying around. Mrs A puts flowers in it in the summer and it looks really nice. The wheels were bit of a nightmare to build and I tried to persuade Mrs A that a broken cart with only one wheel would be nice, but she was having none of it. I had to build the second wheel.!! It's full mostly of the soil you get free from the council recycling centre once a year, mixed with some garden centre compost as well. The box behind the cart to the left which looks like an oversized Rabbit Hutch is Harry's house(one of my other cat's). I actually built it for Tee Tee when we moved here but she looked upon it with spectacular indifference. When Harry adopted us he moved in without a second thought. He has a comfy bed in the top half where it is nice and dry.
Heading back to continue with the wall, I took a photo of some House Sparrows leaving the tree. I'm not sure what type of tree it is but I think it may be a type of ornamental pear willow....I think. It does bear very small, hard, pear shaped fruits every year.
It's a great tree for the birds. It's close to the feeding area and the Starling and Sparrows love it. Another photo of House Sparrow’s in the tree, and arriving at the tree.
A quick stop over for a refreshing drink of Lager Shandy.
An artistic look through the stones.
Since I'm at the bottom of the garden I'd be just as well to show you a view out over the fields at the back. The farmer had been spreading....stuff...on the field the other day but you tend to get used to it...if you know what I mean.!! He puts cattle in here later on in the year so maybe expect a post about cows at some point.
This is my chimney thing that we sit round on the summer nights, and as you can see, it hasn't has the best of winters this year. Another job to add to the list.
I have plans to use this barrel as a Water Butt, but I need to put guttering up on the shed at some time and use the run off to fill the Butt. Yet another one for the ever lengthening list of things to be done.
Almost back to the stones again, but first a quick photo of one of those insect home things that we have in our Holly Bush.
I do have another pile of stones which I now got round to bringing out and organising, but before I show you a photo of all the stones together, I thought I'd introduce you to Harry. Some of you may remember him from an earlier thread, but if you missed that, here he is. He's quite old we think, and he's also a bit deaf, especially with lower frequencies. He has only recently taken to coming into the house for a wee while in the evening, before wanting back out again. He lives outside most of the time. Tee Tee hates Harry and they constantly go through a ridiculous charade where Tee Tee does what we call 'The Slow Walk'. She postures herself and passes by Harry's box with exaggerated slowness, looking at absolutely everything around her..Except Harry.!! He flattens himself to the base of his box during this and watches her intently. Totally ridiculous behaviour from both of them. Occasionally though, it does come to blows, but happily not as often as it used to. This is Harry in the bottom part of his box, pretending he doesn't know that Tee Tee is watching him from further down the garden.
This is Tee Tee, watching Harry from further down the garden, no doubt planning a 'Slow Walk' up past him.(note the condition of the wall behind her).
A pair of Goldfinch paid a brief visit, this being one of them.
And finally, these are all the stones that I have for the wall.
I think there are enough stones here to do the job and if I need smaller ones I can maybe use the sledge hammer to break up some of the more awkward shaped ones. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to do this in small steps (mixing the cement by hand) or if I'll maybe get hold of a small cement mixer and try to do it in one go if I can get a good day for it. It’s taken ages to put this post together and I do realise that it did veer off course at bits, but I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I’ll update this maybe next weekend if any further progress is made.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Thanks everyone once again for all your nice comments.Birdie: I've had a look on the Freecycle site and at the moment there don't seem to be any stones on offer but strangely enough there are a few Walters.!! Higgy had mentioned Freecycle in his pond thread and has managed to get some good stuff from it I believe. The idea with making my own bricks is worth thinking about though, and I've also been thinking of setting about some of the larger stones with the sledgehammer and possibly building the front of the wall with smaller pieces and using the mortar to help shape it all. As a last resort I have also been thinking about actually buying..(Yes buying)..some pre cut stones from perhaps a builder’s yard or a stonemason’s yard to finish the wall off. I don't know yet what I'll do but I certainly have to do something.!!Wendy: The green support thingy's are for to help keep Delphiniums upright as they tend to fall over easily, especially if it rains heavy as I'm sure you know. This part of the garden is actually my bit although Mrs A does help keep an eye on it for me. To begin with I would protest at her cutting at things in there but after she threatened to do unspeakable things to me with her Secateurs, I agreed that she was more than welcome to help out.!!(those types of things shouldn't even be joked about).!! The next photo is 'my bit' last year although the Delphiniums took a sore beating from the slugs early on in the season and only really came back later than when this picture was taken. They come in at the back, closest to the Holly Bush behind the Lupins. There are also Red Hot Pokers in here but they didn't come to anything last year so fingers crossed for this year. To be honest I don't know the names for most of the stuff that I've put in here but here's the photo anyway.
And just one more from last year. Hazy, you can see the stump that I was telling you about with the wee plant in the top of it. I think Mrs A told me that it would maybe take a couple of years for the plant to get going.
Your 'bit' looks mighty impressive PHA, so much height & colour, & what a lovely way to utilise a tree stump!!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Hello Paul,
what a beautiful garden you have (with a nice view, too)! And Mrs A has made very good use of your self-made cart. It looks great with all the flowers. Your lawn looks perfect. What my parents have in their garden cannot be called "lawn", for it is nearly 90-95% moss, no matter what we try. At least Mrs Blackbird seemed to be pleased with it when she built her nest.
I hope you can find more stones for your wall. It would be a pity if you had to leave it unfinished (although it already looks as if it might be finished).
Yours, Bente
Thanks folks. I put a lot of hours into a bit of lawn maintenance last year and it made a big difference. I'm planning to do a bit more maintenance to it once the wall is finished so I may do a quick thread to document it. As for the wall, Birdie has come up with a few good suggestions but I'm still not sure what I'm going to do yet.
Wow Paul, I've been really busy lately & just read your update. Lovely news of the sparrows & fingers crossed for the nesting.
The wall looks amazing & glad to see the bubble is in the right place!! If you can't get the right stones now I think you should be patient & wait for some to come along. Perhaps they will 'fall' off the back of a lorry. Do you have a local tip? Over here all the local tips have places to put rubble & you can often pick up nice looking stones there.
When we lived in Somerset we had a surplus of stone & our friends wanted some to line a river bank. I have never forgotton their old MkII Ford escort estate almost touching the ground as it left our house with another load. They are jolly heavy aren't they!!
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Thanks ladies.
Hazel: We do have a few local tips nearby so I may go and have a look around to see if there are any decent stones there. I know what you mean when you talk about the car's suspension being flattened, a few of the big stones that I've used did the same thing to my car. One of the stones I didn't actually think that I was going to get into the car because I really struggled to lift it high enough to put it in there.
Birdie: Please keep any and all information coming; you certainly haven't put your foot in anything. I only found out a few weeks ago about the Freecycle thing and I do really appreciate you telling me about it all the same. The Clover seeds were bought at a local garden centre and I grew them in trays in the greenhouse before putting them out into the garden. There are white ones and purple ones but the purple ones seem to have done better than the whites.!! What a great story about the electric fire, I'll bet J still smiles about finding the coal part again every time he thinks about it, what were the chances of that.?? The photo of the lawn does show it in a good light but it does actually waver up and down at bits. I have a big heavy roller that I run across it every now and then though. Like I said earlier, I'm going to do a bit of maintenance on the lawns again and I have in the shed a contraption for aerating the lawn that I think you're all going to love when you see it. If it's dry this weekend I may do it then before the growing season gets into full swing up here.!!
The Sparrows are still going in and out of the box so it's looking good so far, although Mr S has still been spotted going into the box at the other end and then going straight back into the one that seemingly has a nest in it. I know that this will probably come as a complete shock to all of the girls out there, but it seems that male's aren't too bright at times.!!
On another wildlife theme, Mrs A went into the front porch to feed Tee Tee this morning only to come back and say that Tee Tee had a guilty look about her. Knowing what this usually means, I armed myself with a wooden spoon and a measuring jug and this morning I rescued not one, but two mice from Tee Tee's porch, both of them completely unharmed.!! The second one led me on a merry dance and at one point shot into the lower folds of my housecoat as I was kneeling on the floor trying to get him into the jug. A slightly worrying few seconds I can assure you, for both me and the mouse.!! Anyway, I have to go to work now so thanks again for all the lovely comments.
Paul, I do hope that the jug and bowl are kept for the mousies and not for making the gravy for the Sunday roast!!! Looking forward to the next update.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Thanks Catlady, now that you mention it, the jug looked suspiciously like the one that Mrs A uses to make the tea for my thermos flask in....
Hi folks. It's been almost a week since I've updated this and I have to say that a decent amount of progress has been made on the wall. I’ll try to stay on topic but as usual, that may or may not actually happen.!! I had other things to do on Saturday morning and by the time I was ready to start working on the wall it was pretty late in the day. As normally happens, the birds always seem to distract me from the work, this Starling was no exception…
We’ve also been getting a few Finches coming into the garden recently and I was absolutely delighted to have a beautiful pair of Redpoll’s arrive, this handsome chap being one of them…
As I've mentioned before, I’ve been running out of stones...(of the correct size anyway)...and I happened to speak to a good friend of mine who has a brother that has recently put a pond in his garden. My friend was of the opinion that his brother may have a few spare stones lying around so a meeting was arranged and I’m now the proud owner of another small collection of stones, although I’m not sure if they’ll be of any use for the wall.!! In return, my friend’s brother has a claim to a few of the larger stones in my collection. The next photo shows the new stones that I have acquired.!!
This photo shows my collection as it is now...well.... actually,... not as it is now..., I managed to get a few more stones yesterday and the chances are that a few more may find a home here over the coming days.!! Anyway, this photo shows my collection as it was on Sunday afternoon. I know this is strange, but the pile of stones actually looks bigger than the pile I had to begin with although I know that this can't be possible.!!
After the stresses of bird photography and stone counting, a small refreshment break was called for…
….followed by some more bird photography....prompted by the arrival of this particularly handsome Rook.!!
Not quite getting to the wall yet, the next photo is a prime example of communication breakdown.!! A few days ago I had commented to Mrs A that we hadn't put out one of those basket liner things that the birds love to tear apart for nesting material. Upon opening the Greenhouse on Saturday, I found a brand new and very large piece of basket liner which I immediately set about tearing up and placing around the garden for the use of the birds as nesting material. This next photo shows a decent sized piece of the aforementioned material.!!
Imagine my surprise as later on in the day, Mrs A came charging up the garden and accused me of destroying the brand new liner she had bought for the long basket at the side of the house.!! Sometimes it appears that you just can't win.!! No amount of reasoning could persuade her that it wasn't actually my fault.!! I retreated, dispirited, forlorn and broken hearted, back to my small area of the garden, and whilst sulking and mumbling to myself, I managed a shot of this particularly lovely Blackbird.!!
Believe it or not, I did actually do some work on Saturday and this next photo is proof that the wall has now reached, and indeed passed the end of the Woodshed.!!
Sunday:
The day started off with Mrs A calling down the garden to say that the Cows were back in the field. As I'm not sure as to how much you all know about Cows, I'll give you the benefit of my considerable knowlege of these animals. They are not actually called cows up here, they are in fact called Coo's. This next photo shows the Coo's at the bottom of the field.!!
This photo showcases the vast amount of information that I have in regards to these beautiful creatures. From left to right we have.... a Black 'n White Coo..., a Broon Coo... and three Black Coo's.!!
As kids we used to stand at the fence at the bottom of the garden and 'moo' at them.!! They would all come up to the fence and we would feed them with handfuls of grass. We also used to go out into the field and lie down, the Coo's would pluck up the courage and eventually they would surround you and lick you.!! Great fun...if you're a small boy.!! I remember one dark and wild night we heard banging and crashing from the shed at the bottom of the garden and my Dad went down with a torch, thinking that someone was breaking into the shed. He opened the shed door and almost did a back flip as a huge Coo moo'd at him from inside of the shed.!! It totally wrecked the place and left….well….Coo stuff, all over the inside of the shed. By luck the shed had two doors, one on the side and one on the end and this is how we managed to get the Coo back out.!! They also used to break into the gardens at this end of the street and we would often have to chase them up and down the road to get them back into the field. Great memories.!! Turning the camera back up the garden, this shot is one of our plants in a pot near the back door. Possibly a Rhododendron or perhaps an Azalea? We have two of these.
This is one of Mrs A's but I don't know what it is. It's really pretty though.!!
The rain had started by this time and the wind was really howling. Not a great day for wall building.!! You can see the life returning to the trees in this shot. The small tree just to the left of the feeders is an ornamental Apple Tree that we put in last year. Really just an extra perch for the birds and if they get a few wee Apples at the end of the year, all the better.!!
The wall building had now moved to the back of the Woodshed but the horrible weather called for an improvised shelter. I had thought about the Gazebo or maybe one of the big fishing umbrella's, but the wee umbrella did the trick...with a couple of strategically placed stones to stop it from blowing away.!!
A short lull in the weather produced another few opportunities for some more bird photos, this female Chaffinch being one of them…
..and also this shot of a Starling....doing what they generally do.!!
A gorgeous Collared Dove put in an appearance....
..and a pair of Jackdaws were keeping an eye on proceedings.!!
Meanwhile, once again the wall move onwards.!!
Another mix is brought up to the front...
It was nice and dry under the umbrella with the shelter of the Holly bush.!!
This shot shows the end of the wall (so far).!! I'm not sure if I'll just leave this end as it is now, I want to leave access for Hedgehogs.!!
..and another photo looking back out towards the garden.!!
This one is looking in towards the fence at the back of the Woodshed.
Well, that's nearly it for this time, but as I cleaned the place up a bit the rain went off and it brightened up enough for a few last shots of some of the birds that were around.
A lovely male Chaffinch on the big fence....
| can't remember if I mentioned about the Starlings that are nesting in the roof. The next few photos are a few of the coming's and going’s of the Starling family as they go about the job of nest building.!!
...and a final leap of faith.!!
Untill the next update, I'll leave you with a photo of the wall as it is now.!!
Hope you've enjoyed
Absolutely fabulous update Paul and stunning photos, I was laughing from start to finish, you are a real tonic to the start of the day ! You brought back memories too of my childhood days when we lived in the countryside backing onto a field where we used to dive out once the combine harvester had made nice neat hay bales for us to start dragging round and building dens and tunnels with lol As for the Coo's we had plenty of those too, the black and white Friesian variety, and in another local field a wild pony which my brother tried to do a Cowboy style run and leap on to its back one day only to come back home with a hoof imprint on his head which still didn't knock any common sense into him ! Well, at least you have made good progress and reached the side of the woodshed, its looking great. Just wondering now how I can get two large Oak tree slice dining tables to the North East lol
_____________________________________
Regards, Hazel