Frequently Asked Questions
I Want To Hang A New Birdhouse In My Yard (Minnesota, Urban). Should I Add Nesting Materials To The House?
I Want To Attract A Nesting Bird Couple To My New Birdhouse. The Most Common Birds In My Area Are House Sparrows And Cardinals. Should I Put In Some Nesting Material, Like Fabric Scraps? Or Just Let The Birds Collect What They Like?
Cornell Lab of Ornitology suggests providing a variety of nesting material for the bird to pick from, but do not put it in the birdhouse - birds like to arrange their own nests.
"Ideally you should provide nest material naturally by leaving or creating wild, natural areas on your property (perhaps hidden from your neighbor's view) where plants can grow into thickets, and leaves and twigs can fall and not be raked up immediately. This untidy debris gives a variety of material for the birds to pick through when they are building nests. They may even pick through your compost pile looking for suitable nest material.
Alternatively, you can put out concentrated stashes of nest material. It can be natural materials like straw, small sticks, and twigs, or manmade materials such as yarn and string. Try putting out any combination of the following:
Dead twigs
Dead leaves
Dry grass
Yarn or string—cut into 4- to 8-inch pieces
Human or animal hair (especially horse hair)
Fur (e.g. dog or cat fur)
Sheep's wool
Feathers
Plant fluff or down (e.g. cattail fluff, cottonwood down)
Kapok, cotton batting, or other stuffing material
Moss
Bark strips
Pine needles
Thin strips of cloth, about 1 inch wide by 6 inches long
Shredded paper
Among the strange materials birds occasionally use in their nests are snake skins, plastic strips, cellophane, and aluminum foil. Many small birds use spider webs to glue nest material together. Swallows, phoebes, and American Robins use mud to construct their nests. You might consider creating or keeping a muddy puddle in your garden for them.
What about dryer lint? Some people include this as suitable bird nesting material. Others recommend against it because it is porous and dries out poorly if it's rained on in the nest. Still others warn that wet dryer lint dries into a hard mass, providing poor nest insulation, however this may happen only if it contains laundry detergent or fabric softener residue. More information is needed before we can recommend offering dryer lint.
How to offer nest material
Place nesting materials, such as twigs and leaves, in piles on the ground—other materials, too, if they won't blow away.
Try putting fluffy materials, hair, or fur in wire-mesh suet cages, or in string or plastic mesh bags, attached to tree trunks, fence posts, or deck railings. The birds will pull out the material through the mesh holes.
Push material into tree crevices or drape it over vegetation.
Put material into an open-topped, plastic berry basket (such as strawberries are sold in).
Some manufacturers sell spiral wire hangers especially for putting out nest material. (One type looks like a oversized honey-dipper.) " http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBir...
By the way, no matter what nesting material you provide, the cardinals will not use the birdhouse, as they are not cavity nesters - they make their nest in the boughs of trees.
I Got 2 Guinea Pigs Today....?
I Was Wondering If It Was Ok To Just Feed Them Timothy Hay With Fresh Veggies Daily Instead Of Pellets As The Pellets Tend To Be Quite Expensive. Also, Is There A Website To Buy Cheaper Bedding? And How Short Do Their Nails Have To Be When I Clip Them? And Is It Ok To Have Straw As Their Bedding Or Is Carefresh The Only Ideal Bedding? Any Help Would Be Great, Thanks!
no they need the pellets, they also need vitamin drops if they are not eating enough vit c veggies everyday. don't use cedar chips as this can cause respiratory problems because of the oils in the wood, pine is ok, if your cavy has light colored nails you should be able to see the blood vessels/nerve bundle through the nail when held to the light do not clip too close to this as it is painful and they will bleed if dark nails just clip the sharp tip (the very tip) off and see how they move. guinea pigs are social animals and if left alone they will actually die (stop eating and drinking enough) if left by themselves just remember that
Can You Use Sawdust For Rabbits? ?
I'M Getting A Dwarf Lop On Monday And I Wanted To Know If You Have To Use Sawdust And How Many Toys Would They And What Sort Of Toys? Thx
Sawdust is not recommended because of the risk it poses to the respiratory tract and the eyes (an irritant) of a rabbit. It shouldn't be used, even as a *sub-layer* (a bottom layer with a layer of another product such as hay or straw over top) as rabbits do dig, and will tend to stir it up. Pine and cedar wood chips or shavings are also not recommended because of the oils in the wood. Carefresh or other soft animal bedding would be good; or you could try what I currently use: compressed wood pellets designed for use in horse stalls. Most feed stores sell them and they are very cheap, last a long time and are safe to use. As they get wet they break down into a soft layer and absorb the urine. Some pet stores sell the same thing, or similar product, for small animal use, but generally horse pellet bedding is cheaper.
Rabbits aren't always keen on toys. Neither of my two bothered with any of the ones they've had in the past. The most fun thing they ever had was an old cardboard box that I got after having an end table delivered. It was very thick cardboard, so I cut a hole at one end and put it in the room with them. They loved it, slept in it and eventually redesigned it so there were several 'windows' and an extra door they could peek through. It finally bit the dust when they created one too many holes, but that thing lasted for about six months. If you know of anyone who has an old box on hand you could try that. Also stuff an empty toilet paper cardboard with some hay as a treat, or you could try purchasing a durable set of baby keys or rattle; some rabbits like tossing those about. If you know of anyone going to a Home Depot or similar store, see if you can buy a short piece of concrete round tubes (google "Sakrete round tube" and you'll see it). Rabbits like to run through things, and these, cut into lengths short enough to fit in a cage or room, might be a great idea.
How Do I Start A Compost Heap?
The basics are simple but it is a bit of an art to get one to heat fast and finish quickly. However there is evidence that a slow pile produces more humus, which is the goal.
The pile is effectively built out of two elements, carbon- C and nitrogen -N. It is the balance between these two in the presence of invertebrates, fungi, and bacteria that allows an exothermic reaction to occur and produce the final decomposition.
Yard and kitchen scraps are layered with manures or dirt to achieve a ratio that is close to 30:1 C:N. Ideally one uses a thermometer with readings from 0 degrees to 200 degrees F and is long enough to read well into the pile to determine when to turn the pile. If you have layered the carbon to nitrogen to the ideal 30:1 the pile will shortly begin to heat up. There will be a steady rise in temperature for a day or two. Normally the pile will continue to rise until it reaches 120 to 149 degrees F, at which point it may suddenly stop rising. Keep on monitoring the temperature. If it stays up, fine. If it drops, turn again. Once it no longer rises in temp after being turned it is complete. Note this is predicated on being able to balance the carbon or 'browns' to the nitrogen or 'greens'. Also the particle sizes being added matter. If possible all material should be run through a chipper to mix and reduce the size. This makes turning much easier, too.
http://www.compostguide.com/ C:N ratios
Green ingredients (grass clippings, weeds, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, seeds, soft green prunings, seaweed, animal manure (sheep, poultry, horse, rabbit & cow))
Brown ingredients (dead leaves, straw, hay, wood shavings or chips, egg cartons, newspaper)
Particle size also affects the availability of carbon and nitrogen. Large wood chips, for example, provide a good bulking agent that helps to ensure aeration through the pile, but they provide less available carbon per mass than they would in the form of wood shavings or sawdust. To much carbon prevents the pile from heating.
As to smells, that is the best method of managing a pile if you do not use a thermometer. It should never smell bad! That is an indicator of a problem. If it smells fresh like turned soil it is working properly.
If you get it to wet it will begin to decompose anaerobically and produce hydrogen sulfide, the rotten egg smell. The best thing is to turn it and get air in.
If the pile has an ammonia odor, you have too much green material (grass clippings, food scraps, green plant material) and not enough brown (dry leaves, woody prunings, pine needles, dried out plants, saw dust). Add more brown material or a shovel of soil and turn it.
If you see ants then the pile must be to dry. Everything should be moist but there should be nothing dripping. If you piled it to dry, its own heat dried it or the summer did then you must turn it rewetting the layers as you go.
If it just sits there and wont heat up you have to many browns. To much carbon prevents the pile from heating. Go to a coffee shop and get some coffee grounds, any grain, seed or meal is a good source of nitrogen. Add some grass clippings in thin layers or get a neighbor to donate kitchen scraps.
Use compost as a mulch or top dressing. Work it into new beds and amend holes dug for new plants. Mix it with vermiculite and sand to make your own potting mix. Last, make compost tea. http://www.simplici-tea.com/
The reason we need to add organics to soil is to create humus. Good soil is equal parts sand, silt, & clay. These give soil its texture and are about 95% of soil. Organics give it structure and should be 5-7%. How the soil aggregates or forms crumbs affects how air and water move through the soil. The organic portion of the soil determines this. Basically it is almost impossible to add to much compost to existing soil.
During the early stages of the composting process, flies provide ideal airborne transportation for bacteria on their way to the pile. Flies spend their larval phase in compost as maggots, which do not survive thermophilic temperatures the bacteria and fungi digestion creates . Adult flies feed upon organic vegetation. If flies become a problem cover food scraps with a little soil from the garden.
In small-scale backyard compost piles, soil invertebrates aid the decomposition process. Together with bacteria, fungi, and other microbes, these organisms make up a complex food web or energy pyramid with primary, secondary, and tertiary level consumers. The base of the pyramid, or energy source, is made up of your organic matter including plant and animal residues.
Meat and dairy products are high in fat. They can cause an unpleasant odor if added to a passive pile or poorly-managed active compost pile. For a hot, well-turned compost pile, meat and dairy wastes are not a problem. However, it is better to run the wastes through a blender or food processor to reduce their size and speed their decomposition.
Fat, oil, & grease, known as FOG, can be added at 1% of the compost’s mass.
'An application rate, limited to a concentration of fat at 1% of the soil mass was reported as being the most desirable rate in that no negative effects were observed.'
Fat, oil, and grease have a high C/N ratio (90:1), if applied to compost they may affect the availability of N, due to N immobilization during its decomposition by nitrifying bacteria. The same is true of any high carbon ingredient like wood chips. Particle size also affects the availability of carbon and nitrogen. Large wood chips, for example, provide a good bulking agent that helps to ensure aeration through the pile, but they provide less available carbon per mass than they would in the form of wood shavings or sawdust. To much carbon prevents the pile from heating.
What should never be added are;
Feces either from your pet or human - They carry diseases and parasites, as well as cause an unpleasant odor
Diseased garden plants - They can infect the compost pile and influence the finished product.
Invasive weeds - Spores and seeds of invasive weeds (buttercups, morning glory, quack grass) can survive the decomposition process and spread to your desired plants when you use the finished compost.
Wood ashes - highly alkaline (high pH), and rich in potassium salts so it is good for sandy, acidic soils (low pH). However, the fine particle size of ash tends to plug the pores of clay soils leading to water penetration and drainage problems.
Glossy, colored paper - The inks are toxic to the soil microorganisms.
Pesticide-treated plant material - These are harmful to the compost foodweb organisms, and pesticides may survive into the finished compost..
Eucalyptus leaves and bark - allelopathic effects impact nutrient cycling and prevents some seed germination
Treated lumber - Will not break down.
Poison Ivy - It is a potent source of urushiol even after a year and a half (to sensitive individuals).
Walnut shells - Juglone, a naturally occurring chemical released by all parts of black walnut trees, can have a toxic effect on many vegetables and landscape plants.
Slugs and snails generally feed on living plant material but will attack fresh garbage and plant debris and will therefore appear in the compost heap. (Better there where you can find and kill them than in the garden. I dump them in soapy water til dead then compost them. Soap is a phosphorus source.)
http://compost.css.cornell.edu/Compostin...
http://www.primalseeds.org/compost.htm
http://ohioline.osu.edu/com-fact/0001.html
The compost should have many kinds of worms, including earthworms, nematodes, red worms and potworms. They will invade the pile from the soil or through drain holes if you have an enclosed bin.
Besides worms you will see many other creatures like sow bugs or springtails. All the creatures that move in are there because they like dead stuff. Bugs, big and little, are what make the decomposition happen.
How To Save Money From Water Bills?
I Need Help Finding Out How To Save Money On Water Bills Because Mine Are Too High. I Read The Article Here: Http://Www.Gomestic.Com/Personal-Finance/How-To-Lower-Your-Bills-Water.852619 And They Gave Me Tips, Can You Guys Check It And See If They Would Help Me?
Step 1 Don't let faucets drip. Check that all faucets--indoors and out--and all shower heads are drip free. Replace the washers as soon as the drip begins to cut down on waste.
Step 2 Wash your car with a bucket of sudsy water and use the hose only when you're rinsing it off. Wash the dog, the bike, the shed and whatever else you wash outside in the same way. You can sweep your deck and driveway or blow it clean rather than washing it off as well. Also make sure to have nozzles on your hoses so that whenever the hose is not in use it will not be running.
Step 3 Don't let kids play in the sprinkler or play with the hose. Get them a small kiddie pool instead. They'll have more fun and you won't be running the water day in and out. If you have a pool - especially a bigger one, keep it covered so you don't lose water by evaporation each day.
Step 4 Defrost food in the microwave instead of a sink of hot water. If you need to run hot water catch the cold water and use it for the dog bowl, the plants or to put a bottle in the fridge. Don't run the dishwasher or the washing machine until you have a full load to wash.
Step 5 Don't flush the toilet whenever you throw a tissue away or toss a cigarette butt out. It takes five to eight gallons of water for every flush. If you take a quick shower you also use less water than if you fill a whole tub.
Step 6 If you have to water your lawn, do it very early in the day when it's less likely to evaporate. Don't cut grass too short. When it's longer it holds the moisture in better. Also, use mulch or pine straw around trees and plants to reduce water loss.
Step 7 A few simple steps should cut your water waste and loss---and bill---down to a more budget friendly size.
Outdoor Design Ideas With Movable Garden Structures- Landscaping Lights
Visit Our Local Pine Straw City for information on delivery and installation
Charleston Afbfrom
http://pinestrawlandscaping.com/outdoor-design-ideas-with-movable-garden-structures-landscaping-lights/
No comments:
Post a Comment