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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 :)
Hi hazy -what a lovely spot.I can see how much hard work you and Mike have put in, but the birds will love it.I hope they realize how spoiled they are? Are you planning to put food on the logs-ready made natural bird table!Look forward to seeing it's progress
Jayne
I can see that area becoming 'Critter Central' as it beds in. I think FGR might take time out from the front garden to inspect it too. Plenty of good foraging opportunities for the Robins and Dunnocks. I think you should (both) take a day off!
Thanks Jayne and MC, yes I will use the logs/branches/slices to place pastry or bird food on and hopefully during the warmer months the birds and insects will be able to get some shady respite from all the hot sunshine we are going to get lol !!
Maybe we will take tomorrow off garden work MC - I wonder how our muscles will feel when we wake up in the morning - Ouch lol
Just so long as you have the strength to put out mealies for FGR, that's all that matters!
Unknown said: Just so long as you have the strength to put out mealies for FGR, that's all that matters!
Well you seem to have your priorities in order...
Wow Hazy - you and Mike have put in some hard graft there - makes me feel all stiff and achy just thinking about it! I bet the birds are going to love it and will soon be over to investigate. I don't know about the birds in your garden but whenever I put anything new out it is always the blue tits that are in there first.
Look forward to seeing photos of it being used in due course. Hope you're sat relaxing this evening!
Hi Christine and thanks, as you can see from the time of this reply all the hard graft didn't help me sleep lol so I've got up for half an hour to make a drink and then try some shut-eye again ! It will be interesting to see which birds and creatures use the new area but I bet the Blue Tit is first as I heard one twittering away watching us work lol I still want to put a few woodland flowers in at some stage and miniature bulbs for next springtime which will be planted September time; always a work in progress but it keeps us fit and its good to be creative !
Wow Hazy, it's looking really fantastic, very well done on everything. Those stumps are huge, they must have taken some wrestling into place and I love the way you've incorporated the various perches for the birds. Using the logs to create a border at the edge looks really great; it really helps to frame the stumpery and settles it in nicely. In previous photos of your garden you don't really get the scale of things but the first photo with Mike in the distance really shows the size of everything, you must have to phone each other to meet up for a cuppa.!! The ferns look great, I'm a big fan of ferns and it's going to look awesome once you've planted it all up and given it a bit of time to establish, I suspect that it's going to become a favourite place for a lot of the wildlife in your garden. Do you have any plans for perhaps a Hedgehog Home anywhere in or around the stumpery? It looks like a great place for one. You both deserve a well earned rest today but you'll probably end up pottering about and doing this or that to it, I always find that when I start on something I've got to keep at it until it's done. I'm looking forward to seeing it developing as the season goes on. More updates please.!!
Paul
Thanks Paul, as you say, its hard to take a day off the gardening when looking around, always something to get stuck into lol I want to get some woodland flowers at some stage and will eventually put miniature spring bulbs in the area, plus somewhere for a hedgehog too ! maybe also a bug box of some kind although we found lots of wood lice, slugs, etc., when we moved the Oak !! Our tree bumblebees have use of the bird houses that are vacant lol Like your lovely garden, we always find something to keep us busy and I've got to say I enjoy projects which are creative; surprisingly although I was up in the early hours not able to sleep, I had a good lie in this morning and we both feel pretty good surprisingly with no really painful or aching muscles so we must be reasonably fit for 58 and 69 years except for one wonky right knee for Mike (he has a new Australian left knee ! ) and a right wonky elbow for me lol