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Hello friends, as I previously indicated Mike and I were keen to use the lovely slices of Oak trunk and logs which came from a dead Oak tree that had to be felled so we decided to create a Stumpery area for bugs, insects, birds inclusive so after preparing the area yesterday we spent the whole day toiling away to get this feature completed. I can't tell you how heavy the Oak slices were and because of my weak right arm (tennis elbow) I had to rely on a lot of help and muscle from Mike, however between us we did really well and managed to roll (with a struggle ! ) a lot of the Oak into place. I wanted to create an area for all wildlife so added perching twigs/branches and I nipped to the local garden centre to buy a wooden barrel which I could use as a bird drinking/bathing area amongst the stumpery. Anyway, without further ado, here are the photos of todays work which was the main project day. Yesterday we prepared the ground digging out a lot of top soil as the Oak had to sit bedded down slightly.
This is the area we chose at the far corner of the garden which is a mix of shade mostly but some filtered sunlight too. You can just make out Mike by the area we used.
These are some of the large Oak slices and logs we incorporated in the stumpery ....
and yes, I did my share of the soil shifting yesterday !! This is the basic shape and we took the top soil down to a good 6 - 8 inches.
now the first Oak slices into place, ignore the wooden barrel as that was repositioned to a different place once we got further into the project; we used two wooden posts to help position the heavy Oak into place as you couldn't roll them straight on to the soil as they would have bedded in and not moved ! ...
and now a series of the progress throughout today ....
I wanted to place perching areas for the birds around the back of the stumpery and to the right hand side ....
You can just about make out the branches for perches and the wooden barrel now in place ....
Fortunately with such a large garden I was able to dig out some existing ferns to start placing in the Stumpery
We also added some other shrubs plants and three more ferns, one a large one with lots of unopened fronds
I placed a perch above the wooden barrel for the birds ....
this is a side view of the area which just kept growing lol
The large Oak slice at the front had two rather nice ornate knots so we placed it front facing ........
it was the heaviest of all the Oak so we needed a tea break after getting this one in place !!!
the addition of a plastic bendy bucket, cut down to size as a liner for the wooden barrel. We added a double off cut forked tree branch which we
immersed in the water bucket so the smaller birds have somewhere to perch if they just want to drink and not drown lol !
We added a log edge border and a Pieris shrub I had spare ............
View from the other side
and view from the front
you can see the perch I fixed above the water barrel
lots of secured branches lateral and vertical for the birds and we added shrubs to the background area
I will try add more photos as it settles and matures. Just amazed we got so much work done today :)
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Regards, Hazel
Evening Hazel, Your new stumpery looks good! Congratulations to you and Mike. Now you'll need to build a hide partway down your garden from which to take photos of all the new visitors you will have!
Kind regards, Ann
Evening Ann and thank you. Maybe if we keep adding to it every day we can get it to within easy photograpic distance lol Mike did in fact add one more stump to each end of it today and they look great; when I walked round this morning it looked like it had been there for years lol I'm really glad we created this area although I still have more to do with it yet, more plants, and insect friendly flowers, etc., ! post edit: maybe Cyril would like a garden swing lol
That's absolutely fantastic Hazy! I must say my muscles ache just looking at those log stumps let alone moving them! Well done! An idea for the insects is you could drill some holes in the stumps for them and make a bug hotel! A kind of Bug B & B! lol
Hazel, I think Cyril would like a peanut box, since the garden swing is for you!
Is fabulous aitch, well done you wonky pair & look forward to more pics!
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Wow, that’s very nice, a lot of hard work but well worth it in the end, Hazy.
Jim
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Thanks Katy, Ann, Wendy and James, I noticed the Blackbirds, Robin and typically Cyril Squirrel are already enjoying the area. We are going to drill some long narrow channels in another log which will act as a Bug Home ! it will probably be a work in progress throughout the year lol as you say James, hard work but cetainly worth the efforts and it looks like its been there forever !
You've done an amazing job there Hazy & Mike. Well done!Hard work too! I've a few primroses you can have if you'd like! I'll swop them for a squirrel. It'll be really interesting to see how it evolves.
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Evening and thank you Hazel; I took a few photos of the first visitors to the stumpery area today, bearing in mind I had to set the camera up with the remote as it is too far from the house to take pics.
I think it is going to prove a very popular and well used feature as long as Cyril Squirrel doesn't dominate the area !
1st visitor to the stumpery ............
now "king of the castle" on the top perch !
next visitor ...............was expected at some stage lol
think Cyril was trying to claim the space by placing his paw on the perch !
and Cyril thought the container had food in it but alas, I had placed Sphagnum moss in it for the birds to use as nesting materials !
3rd visitor a lovely GT .............
then a Magpie turned up in the afternoon
inspecting the water barrel
and he found the live mealworms that had crawled off the logs and onto the ground so scooped them up and took them to one of the perches where he enjoyed a tasty meal......
and a very nice surprise at the end ........... whose that at the far right hand side of the photo by the pink suet pellets ? !!!! ..........
Its our Nutty !!!
gobbling up a suet pellet
notice the mealworm trying to escape under the rim of the water barrel lol ......
Just looked at this thread hazel, sorry, what an incredible job you and Mike have achieved there, the end result looks like it's been there for years,so picture perfect. You'll have to get one of those cameras on a wire and whizz it up and down the garden Lol
Well done
Terry
cheers Terry
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