Bird Nestboxes and all the rest

Just like most of the country we have had some fairly severe winds to contend with, luckily we have avoided too much damage just the odd tree blown over and a couple of wall gaps blown down where they are next to trees that have been rocking in the wind.

Last night (Tuesday) managed to get to see United play Luton we won 2/1 but saying that Luton put up a good show especially in the second half when the wind seemed to play havoc with Uniteds play, as they say decent teams grind out a result and that's what they did. Following on from wins away at Crewe and Nottingham Forest it keeping promotion hopes well on track.

Tonight i planted my first lot of potatoes in a barrel in the greenhouse just to have a few just that bit earlier than the main batch, very seldom do i grow potatoes in open ground i prefer to grow them in barrels as they seem to have a lot cleaner skins and i don't have to bother lifting them in the autumn i just cut the tops of end of August time and lift them as i need them when the weather gets a bit colder and we might get a frost i just pop the barrels in the greenhouse and put some old sacking over them it's a bit like having new potatoes from June to the end of February the main thing to do if growing them this way is make sure you water them a lot and i mean a lot.

The council have started resurfacing the main road this week near to my home and never wanting to miss a bargain i have managed to get about 20 Tonnes of the plannings that were being removed prior to resurfacing to provide some hard standing base it is really good stuff if you can get hold of it because it packs down like the original road surface in about a month but as it is planed and relaid also free draining.

I have spent most of this afternoon putting up some bird nest boxes on the farm we have a couple of small wooded areas and as part of our effort to help the local environment this years plan has been to try and help and encourage more of the local wild bird population. We tend not to use any or very little sprays or fertilizers in habitat rich areas and so are hopeful that they will soon move in, the species that are most likely to take advantage are Chaffinch/Flycatchers/ Robins/Blue Tits etc plus one box for the local Tawny Owls. (see pics)