An Early Summer Building Project Completed

Having had this large tree stump at the front of the house for a couple of years,

I never really found much use for it except to stand plants on. And it's actually

a remnant come souvenir of a huge Leylandii tree that our neighbours had chopped

down two years ago.

And it was only after seeing pictures online of a water well and a bird table that

gave me the whole idea of making something. It was almost a eureka moment. And

I've been working on it since our Platinum Jubilee weekend, although I had difficulty

getting the right colour of paint to finalize the project. I was initially after a woody shade.

But after four coats I settled for a mid range natural wood colour.

Of course I'll add a nut container on it for the birds. And I'll put in some straw under the

roof.

The building of it was fairly straight forward. It was just the repetitive painting that

dragged the whole project out. And it felt quite rewarding recently to catch a local Magpie

drinking from the bird bowl.

It makes a great piece of garden furniture and I imagine it's not something you'll find

in a Garden Centre.

  

Below: Fixing side supports so as to build a platform for the roof.

Below: Fixing the roof on.

Below: The finished Bird Table with the final coat of paint.

Below: These were the original painted colours of the Bird Table. And pretty disastrous

they turned out. One was too dark (left) and the colour on the right was way too bright.

A Summer Building Project

Here's a little Summer project that's been keeping me occupied this last few weeks.

I recently gathered up a few discarded wooden pallets and used the timber to make a large

wooden plant trough/container as well as a housing frame for our dustbins.

Normally this time of the year I can be found in our back garden as our Garden Flat

tenants have been away in Europe this past six weeks and still haven't returned.

But this year I decided to put all my energy into some work at the front and side of the house,

thereby giving up my routine pleasures of working in the back garden.

Below is some of the timber, once I managed to prize it away from the pallet frames. 

Above: Using some of that timber I managed to create this large plant container.

Below:  The large container has now been sanded down and painted blue,

not forgetting the plastic lining to protect it.

The plant container is finally put into place at the side of the house where our dustbins

used to be. And so now the bins are on the other side and well away from the front floor

flat.

Above:  Rather than packing out the container with Summer colour, I thought I'd fill

it with some Ivy, Box Hedge and some Hebe, the very kind of plants that will thrive

throughout the Autumn and Winter.

And so off to the Mill Hill Garden Centre for a few plants and some inspiration.

Below:  Once in Mill Hill I couldn't resist another visit to the Village Pond.

Above: Down by the side of the Pond I was lucky to get this close-up shot of a

Common Blue Damselfly.

Above: Fields near the entrance of the Garden Centre.

Below is the entrance of the Garden Centre, or as it's officially called,  The Finchley

Nurseries and Pond Life.

The Finchley Nurseries covers quite an area outdoors as well as indoors and has

a phenomenal range of plants including some that I haven't been able to find in

other places.

Below: Lots and lots of Lavender. More Lavender than anyone could possibly want.

Above:  After long searches in other places I finally found some Mint plants.

So I bought half a dozen.

Once back home I planted all the Mints into a hanging basket. Something anyone can

do, even if you only have a small balcony, preferably using the floppy hanging type of Mints.

Above right and below is the result of planting a stone from an Avocado fruit.

This plant is now a foot high and growing.

Above:  Our Summer Petunias.

Below:  Looking out of my top floor window, I don't think I've ever seen so much

Virginia Creeper Vine growing all over the place. It's absolutely rampant this Summer.

And below all this growth in my neighbour's garden is their garden shed. And it is completely

buried.

And I realized why just recently. It's all down to the fact that last Summer, that neighbour

had their 20 year old Leylandii tree chopped down. And so the Virginia Creeper,

or Boston Ivy, is now getting the full sun all day.

And in just a matter of a few weeks these green leaves will turn into a wonderful

deep Autumn red. I can't wait to see it.