We hung the new bluebird house this morning and I dug into my old gourd stash and rigged up three birdhouses from them. One I put on the porch hoping the little wren will return and use it. I saw her a few days ago perched right where I put it.
It is now two days later and I am happy to report the wrens have moved in!
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I hung the other gourds in the trees in the west yard. Hope someone finds them useful.
The road crew is still working....which means I have to come in after a couple of hours in the early morning. The dust is horrible.
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| From Gardening 2010 |
GARDENING
I am trying something new this year to prevent weeds in the iris beds and onion rows. I know Iowa State developed a special corn gluten meal formula that they have a patent on. In stead of paying $35 a bag for it, I am just buying it in bulk from the feed mill we do business with. I got 100 lbs for $9. I have no idea how to spread it so am just lightly covering the soil with it. I have a couple of more iris beds to do this afternoon.
I also fired up the string trimmer and edged some beds and mowed inside the garden fence.
The Cellar Bed
The cellar is covered with a grass, maybe brome. It has white roots and runners and the seeds broadcast horribly. I vow to try to mow off the cellar before the seeds set this year! This grass is almost as bad as Bermuda and has spread into lots of the flower beds. It was in the mums at the north end of the bed so I had to dig them up and separate out the grass. It was probably a good thing for the mums, Sheffield Pink. I divided it and put some around the front of the bed which should look good later in the summer and fall give some color when the daylilies are finished.
Still watering various beds.
That little gourd birdhouse is adorable as is the wren. Glenda, what size hole did you drill into the gourd? I know certain birds require certain openings. And, at the end of the season, do you just discard the used birdhouse since you can't clean it out? I don't have any birdhouses and really should do something about that. :-D
ReplyDeleteKris, I did a 1 1/8 inch hold. It was very tricky because the drill kept breaking the gourd which is three years old. I finally finished the hole with my husbands very sharp pocket knife.
ReplyDeleteI will just pitch it.
Walmart had some very cute inexpensive cedar wren houses made by the Amish. I bought one for my MIL.