little green fingers

Chicken poison, white lines and David Archer

2012-01-27T14:44:20+00:00

It has been a week of ups and downs here. Admittedly, not of roller coaster proportions but more akin to driving slightly too fast over a hump-backed bridge.

The down has to do with chickens.

This, some of you may recall, was one of the many failed resolutions from last year that I was planning to atone for this month by, at last, getting a chicken house and starting work on my WIR (walk in run - thanks to Jane Perrone for my new favourite three letter acronym). Then a friend pointed out that I might want to double check on the toxicity of yew to chickens, as a hedge of it would border the entire run.

Pah! I thought. No problem! Birds are OK with yew - in fact it's their penchant to eating the berries which help the plant spread. Of course, I do know it's poisonous to humans - and much livestock for that matter. I'll admit, I only know about that second group because of an episode of The Archers where some of David Archer's cows were killed after eating dumped hedge clippings. As an aside, this was a typical Archers storyline because it gave David the chance to do what he does best - sound both world-weary and exasperated whilst at the same time adopting the role of rural vigilante - a kind of Charles Bronson in wellies. Indeed, in my head he will always be "David Archer: Badger Killer!". But I digress...

Sadly, it turns out yew is poisonous to chickens and, although they would probably avoid it and other harmful plants whilst roaming free, having it constantly at their disposal may well be pushing my luck. As my son has already been reduced to a blubbering wreck by the death of his Triops and Stanley the Sea Snail, if I also manage to poison his chickens it might be the final straw.

On a happier note, I have, this week, been spraying a lot of white lines. This is more exciting than it sounds (not a hard feat) as the purpose was to layout the 300 metres of path about to be added to our village playground as well as deciding on the spots for the hard surface playing area, BMX track, double slide, climbing wall, picnic tables and bird nest swing. Yes, this week sees work begin on the final £45,000 stage of this redevelopment, made possible by a grant from WREN.

Being me, I'm more excited about plans to leave some small sections of the field unmown to encourage wildlife and gain a more interesting looking site, but I have a feeling the children will prefer the play equipment. Tsk, kids these days!

The work should take about four weeks so I will update you on progress as it goes. So far, we're on Day 2. Sadly Day 1 was mostly taken up with the site manager carefully respraying somebody's very shoddy white lines...

Broken resolutions, essay extensions and tractor tyres

2012-01-16T13:04:02+00:00

Source: Irresistible Ideas for Pla y Based Learning

I was somewhat depressed this week by the realisation that of my five new year's resolutions last year, I only managed to tick off one (and, in the spirit of full disclosure, my father actually completed this on my behalf).

I still don't keep chickens, there is no Pete Beale style market stall for the kid's to flog their produce, the school has singularly failed to take up my offer of helping with Gardening Club, and most pathetic of all, I can't seem to blog on even a weekly basis.

So I've decided to treat my resolutions on the same basis as I treated every single weekly essay in college. I shall ask for an extension.

I shall also... hmmm, how shall I put this? Cheat. A bit. Just, you know, to make sure I keep this blog a little less sporadic.

Yes, much in the same way I always borrowed Jen's revision notes because they were more thorough than mine, better thought through and best of all, legible, I shall, on occasion, use a blog post to point you towards superior content online. This will hopefully mean you see interesting things, whilst I can bathe in the reflected glory of someone else's genius.

This week, a sandpit caught my eye. I spotted it on the Studio 'g' blog but the original idea was actually from Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning - an Australian blog. Very simple, very cheap (provided you can find a tyre to recycle) and incredibly effective. The long bamboo poles can be covered with sailcloth or a similar outdoor material but you could just use an old sheet and simply accept it will have a shorter lifespan.

For anyone offended by the black rubber exterior, it would be easy enough to plant around the edges and soften the look. In a sunny spot, something like Stipa tenuissima would give movement and is a very tactile plant for kids.

Making bird feeders - the kid's cut

2012-01-09T22:31:55+00:00

This is a very good time to feed any birds who've decided against vacationing in warmer climes. What's more, it's so easy to make treats for them that I thought I would let my three-year-old, chicken-pox-ridden son explain.

In case you didn't get all the details, there is more information (but fewer "kissy hearts") here.

Pinterest, pies and playhouses

2012-01-05T13:53:35+00:00

Source: A Place Imagined

My four, yes four, Christmas trees are still fully decorated, the kitchen cupboards remain stubbornly coated in paper snowflakes and I'm about to bake a batch of mince pies. It would be an understatement to say I'm a bit of a fan of Christmas and, quite frankly, I'm going to milk my full 12 days worth.

Sadly though, I will have to think about moving on tomorrow and, for me, this is going to involve a little garden planning. I usually ruminate on ideas in January in the hope that I can have come to some conclusions and pulled my finger out before we're well into spring. This year I have more pressure than usual as I'm due to open my garden in six months time as part of the National Gardens Scheme and I want to add a few more areas of interest, especially for children.

If you're looking for a little design inspiration, I would recommend stopping by Pinterest. This is a kind of virtual pin board where you can collect and organise images. Although you can apply for an invite to be a 'pinner' there is still a lot to find by browsing other people's boards.

Of course it covers everything under the sun, not just gardens, but there are plenty of pinned images with a horticultural flavour. Rochelle Greyer, editor of the new online Leaf Magazine and the woman behind Studio G blog always has brilliant boards to browse - you can check them out here. For more specific kids garden ideas I've put together this board (which includes the playhouse image above) but there are plenty more out there - just put in your search terms and then look at either pins or boards that use those keywords.

Happy pinning. I'm off to roll some pastry and hum a few carols.

Terrariums, supergrasses and Hex Bugs

2011-12-08T10:25:24+00:00

The other day I learnt this lesson: when a child tells you “If I eat any more of this, I’m going to be sick” they aren't always being melodramatic.

Sadly, I also learnt that my daughter is a stickler for the rules. It didn’t matter how many times I tried to explain that her brother only threw up because I forced him to eat too many beans she just became more and more adamant that “You can’t go back to school for 48 hours after you’ve been sick.”

I could’ve risked it, but sadly Ava would embrace the role of Supergrass.

So I had my son at home “sick” for two days, except he had bundles of energy and required almost constant entertainment.

Bring on the Terrarium (less catchy that "Bring on the Wall", I’ll admit).

Yes, Oscar decided we should make a terrarium as he’d seen one in a book.

Thankfully these are relatively simple and a useful way to distract children for a good chunk of an afternoon.

First you need to find some kind of clear container. I have seen terrariums made using old plastic bottles, but quite frankly, if this thing was going to sit around the house, I was after something a little more pleasing on the eye. Thankfully I had a fishbowl shaped vase which I’d purchased from Wilkos for the princely sum of £5 which was perfect.

You then need to add some gravel to the base to act as a drainage area for excess water, followed by a layer of charcoal. This is important as it absorbs the smells which would otherwise arise from a slightly damp and festering environment. Sadly, it is also supposed to be "activated charcoal" (nope, I hadn't a clue either but apparently this is the stuff you use in aquarium filters and can be bought from a pet shop). However as ours has an opening rather than being a fully enclosed terrarium I'm hoping we can gloss over the fact I threw in some bits of charcoal from the barbeque.

Next you need to add compost. Usually the advice is a peat-based compost but I’m a tree-hugging peat-free kind of a girl, so this is all we had. Quite frankly, I doubt it will make much of a difference.

Finally, you get to add the plants. Given the moist environment, it is best to stick to ferns, mosses and lichens because flowers are apt to rot in this sort of atmosphere. That said, we were somewhat bereft of mini ferns so I let Oscar add a Viola and Hellebore which had self seeded in the garden. These will give the finished space a bit more interest and we can always swap them out in a few weeks.

The moss and lichen we found on broken twigs and in shady spots around the garden and on a wander down a local lane. It’s a useful way to get children to look more closely at these less glamorous plants and fungi as there are a huge variety of different ones when you investigate.

Planting is best done with a long-handled teaspoons followed by the artistic arrangement of your other finds. Oh, and dinosaurs always look good (as do plastic pigs and Hex Bugs according to Oscar).

We then just watered the whole thing very sparingly before placing it near the window, but not in direct sunlight.

There are loads of sites devoted to the world of terrariums, some of which are less frightening than others – have a look here and here.

On another, completely unrelated note, I received my most exciting parcel ever last week. It contained an advance copy of my book. I should probably be cool and blasé about such news but I'm really not, so can I just say YESSSSSSS! (I may also have punched the air just then - something I hope you can overlook).

Sadly, it won't be available until February 9th but until then I shall lovingly stroke the pages of this one copy (at least when no-one is looking).