Compost Cricket Corral

1- Residential Habitats -- Critters and Their Homes, 2- Food Forest Gardening, Blog Comments Off

Sep 042014

The BEFORE — area behind the Laguna Foundation’s native plant nursery before installation of Compost Cricket Corral, which will consolidate the compost pile and provide wildlife habitat.

Yesterday, I started prep work for a wildlife habitat installation, Compost Cricket Corral, at the Laguna Environmental Center, which is the headquarters and showcase educational property for the Laguna Foundation.

Staking out Compost Cricket Corral’s post locations, which will define three compost piles/bins. No T-square, but piping with a 90-degree elbow worked fine.

We will be installing vertical driftwood posts to replace the current stakes; the posts are to encourage insect activity.

See:

Insect Hotels — Inspiration Green

Insect Hotels – Encourage Beneficial Insects Into Your Garden

Creating Habitat For Native Bees | Deep Roots at Home

Compost Cricket Corral, that is, the new and improved compost pile(s), will be within easy access of the nursery’s work stations.

Stakes mark the pole locations for Compost Cricket Corral. Nice view of Stone Farm’s northern pasture, Irwin creek, and Mount St. Helena while we work!

This project will be completed in October by Sunny Galbraith’s biology students from Orchard View School, Sebastopol, California. Compost Cricket Corral will be our first wildlife habitat installation for this school year. Chirp chirp!

Enjoy your habitat garden.

Tony

Today’s Diversion — A Harlequin Bug on Impatiens Stalk

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Oct 172013

I have a paper to write, so I procrastinated in the garden. Was so fun meeting Harlequin Bug on a withered impatiens flower plant.

Harlequin bug on impatiens flower stalk.

Enjoy your garden. Habitat It!

Tony

Defensive Display Between Two Checkered White Butterflies

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Oct 112013

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf -- pic 2

Through my Canon 50D and 180mm macro lens, I witnessed the following sequence of photos. A male checkered white, ID’d by the sparse dark spots versus the female’s abundance of brown outline and spots, is approached by another male checkered white. Note how the grounded butterfly’s abdomen is used to ward off the approaching male.

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf -- pic 1

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf approached by another male.

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf -- pic 3

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf fending off another male.

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf -- pic 4

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf approached by another male checkered butterfly.

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf -- pic 5

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf successfully fends off another male.

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf -- pic 6

Male checkered white butterfly on sunflower leaf at rest, again.

Enjoy your wildlife food forest garden. Habitat It!

Tony

Habitat of the Month Contest — contest begins April 2013

4-Habitat of the Month Contest No Responses »

Apr 022013

Contest Entries

During each calendar month, Spore Lore will accept postings of residential wildlife habitats to Spore Lore’s facebook page, Habitat It and They Will Come.

Click to post your Habitat of the Month entry.

Contest entries must include:

1) The name of the garden habitat.

2) The 4 components of wildlife habitat:

SHELTER =

FOOD =

WATER =

SPACE TO RAISE YOUNG =

3) At least one picture of the the wildlife habitat.

Entry Awards and Contest Winners

All Habitat of the Month Contest entries will receive a “Habitat It!” bumper sticker. Habitat of the Month, as in the The Winner, will receive a signed copy of Tony McGuigan’s book, Habitat It and They Will Come. The month’s winning habitat will be chosen from a review of Comments (facebook) posted to the entry AND ALSO from Tony’s impression of the contest entry. In the case of a tie, two (2) winners, both declared “Habitat of the Month” will be announced.

Contest entries (postings to the facebook page Habitat It and They Will Come) will be accepted till noon (Pacific treefrog time) of the 28th day of the month (26th day for February). Contest winners will be announced by 6PM (Pacific treefrog time) on the 30th day of the same month (28th for February). Contest winners will be announced primarily at Spore Lore’s website (sporelore.com\Blog\Habitat of the Month Contest) and at Spore Lore’s facebook page (Habitat It and They Will Come).

To receive your contest entry “Spore Lore” sticker, and/or receive a book if your habitat is chosen as Habitat of the Month, please email your postal address to habitatofthemonth@sporelore.com; please include the name of your habitat in your email.

Please enter your garden habitat one time only. However, if significant changes have been made to the habitat and/or significant documentation (like pictures!) of the habitat is available, then the same habitat may be re-submitted as a new contest entry.

Create wildlife habitat and have fun.

Post your habitat to Habitat of the Month.

Good Luck!

Fine Print — Other Rules

There is no cash value for any contest rewards or contest prizes.

Participants/Entrants of the Contest give Spore Lore permission to leave contest posts on Spore Lore’s facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/HabitatItAndTheyWillCome, and to post Contest entries and Contest winner announcements to Spore Lore’s facebook pages (Habitat It and They Will Come, Spore Lore, and Tony McGuigan), as well as Tony McGuigan’s/Spore Lore’s other social media sites (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube) and Spore Lore’s website (sporelore.com). Spore Lore reserves the right to use the winner’s name (if provided in the contest entry), habitat name and habitat location (if provided in the contest entry), for publicity purposes only in connection with the Contest and for no other reason.

Spore Lore is not bound to announce contest entries/winner/winners.

GOVERNING LAW: Contest governed by the laws of California and subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Accordingly, all issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of the Contestant and Sponsor in connection with the Contest, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules (whether of the State of California or any other jurisdiction). The Contest is void where prohibited by any applicable law. Contestants, by participating in this Contest, hereby waive and release, and agree to hold harmless Spore Lore and all of its respective officers, directors, employees and representatives and agents, from and against, any and all rights, claims and causes of action whatsoever that they may have, or which may arise, against any of them for any liability for any matter, cause or thing whatsoever, including but not limited to any injury, loss, damage, whether direct, compensatory, incidental or consequential, to person, including death, and /or property, arising in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from their acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any prize, or their participation in this Contest, or any prize-related activity. By participating in this Contest, Contestants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of Sponsor. Except where prohibited by law, by accepting a prize, winner agrees that Spore may use the winner’s name, address (state), photograph, likeness, and/or prize information for advertising, publicity and promotional purposes and to the use of statements made by or attributed to winner relating to Spore Lore or to this Contest and grants to Spore Lore any and all rights to said use without further notice and/or compensation except where prohibited by law.

20130218 Food Ridge West Hugelkulture

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Feb 232013

Food Ridge West before final layer of garden mix.

It’s now Friday, so my back and body in general are nearly recovered. On Monday this week, I spent the whole day shovelling manure and compost on top of Food Ridge West, our raised veggie bed and animal habitat. Veggie bed — because the debris pile covered with manure/compost/gardening soil will be plantable this late spring. Below are three videos of this week’s progress with the hugelkultur Food Ridge West. Enjoy!

20130218 Food Ridge West Hugelkulture 1 of 3

Food Ridge West Hugelkulture now has a layer of pine tree limbs in the center of the better, more growth-supportive wood debris pile. Horse manure will be used to “burn” the pine and help it become a good veggie bed resource faster.

20130218 Food Ridge West Hugelkulture 2 of 3

Eleven yards of manure/compost are now on the hugelkultur. The compost corral is empty, almost — the rest will go to another site. Now, we are ready to give the hugelkultur a new hairdo.

20130218 Food Ridge West Hugelkulture 3 of 3

Cousin It has been hangin’ out at the hugelkultur! The compost/manure pile is on the hugelkultur! A bale of rice straw has been scattered over the compost to avoid erosion from the coming rains.

Food Ridge West before final layer of garden mix. The shredded rice straw bale is used to reduce the soil’s erosion from the coming rains. The final layer, of organic garden mix, will be added in a couple of weeks and by then the compost/manure under-layer will have settled some.

Happy habitat creations and don’t forget to sniff the daffy’s.

Tony

20130215 Food Ridge West — High Rise Hugelkultur Apartment Complex

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Feb 162013

Yesterday, Valentine’s Day ♥, was the start of new layers to our animal habitat/veggie bed hugelkultur, Food Ridge West. The new layers are pine tree prunings, horse manure, and organic vineyard compost and can be seen in my post Happy Valentines Day AND Garden What You Love.

Final touches to the pine limb layer are shown in this video:

A straw bale holding bin was constructed on our driveway to stockpile soil-making material till moving them to the hugelkultur. Also, the rectangle box, or “corral”, would be a good place for the compost company to dump the ordered organic vineyard compost.

Soil corral reinforced with cardboard corner. The cardboard gives structure to the straw housing and prevents leakage between the bales. The rough concrete driveway is lined with a cardboard floor and folded up the sides of the bales. Easier cleanup of the concrete and less leakage of the corral’s contents. The manure and compost impregnated cardboard will be composted, perhaps thrown in the bottom of another hugelkultur after we clean up this project.

A couple of pickup truck bed loads of manure were used to line the bottom of the corral so that the vineyard compost could be dumped on top. Shoveling out the pile into wheelbarrow loads then mixed the two soil additives to be dumped onto the hugelkultur.

Early stage of manure and compost bin. The bin was expanded with more bales, and a second tier of bales was added, to fit the incoming vineyard compost mix.

And here comes the dump truck!

Have a happy hugelkultur habitat day!

Tony

20130103 Barn Owl Neighborly Box — 6 more videos!

1- Residential Habitats -- Critters and Their Homes No Responses »

Jan 042013

Hey Followers,

Happy New Year! Yes, I took a break for a few days. Have been doing some garden work and filming video, but have cut back on my postings. Here to catch up a little — hope you enjoy the barn owl box videos. And please tell all your barn owl friends we now have 2 houses up! Will post “20130103 Barn Owl Skypad — wood shaving floor upgrade” on Sunday. Have a great weekend.

Tony

Barn Owl Neighborly Box 2 of 6 (video):

Barn Owl Neighborly Box 3 of 6 (video):

Barn Owl Neighborly Box 4 of 6 (video):

Barn Owl Neighborly Box 5 of 6 (video):

Barn Owl Neighborly Box 6 of 6 (video):

Barn Owl Neighborly Box 7 of 6 (video):

Adding wood shavings to barn owl box nest floor.

Using eye screws to secure barn owl box lid. No tools needed to reopen the lid.

Service height of barn owl box, about 9 feet high. The box can be raised another six feet, then the pole pin will keep the box held 15 feet off the ground.

The telescoping pole's pin has been inserted to gain full height of the box off the ground.

Angle iron (90-gree straps) hold the box, mounting board, and pole together.

A very large washer acts as a flange to take the weight of the box and keep it from slipping down the pole.

Job Complete -- Barn Owl Neighborly Box has been installed and is ready to recieve owls.

Happy barn owl habitat installations.

See you Sunday.

Tony

20121213 Barn Owl Neighborly Box 1 of 6

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Dec 172012

Today’s video shows Tony McGuigan, author of Habitat It and They Will Come, laying the prep work to installing a barn owl box on a pole along his driveway. Today’s footage shows the plans, the box, and the planned location of the pole. Part 1 of 6 videos.

Barn Owl Neighborly Box 1 of 6 (video):

From Tony’s project last year, Barn Owl Skypad (pic):

Barn Owl Box. Front panel opens for annual cleaning.

From the web (pic):

Barn Owl

Go to Designing & Building Barn Owl Nest Boxes for some great info on creating a successful barn owl box AND habitat. From the .pdf “Build A Barn Owl Box” on that site:

Simmons’ Barn Owl box has many advantages. It provides optimized protection from predators such as Great Horned Owls and raccoons. This is achieved by use of an ellipse-based entrance hole of unique shape and size and by an interior divider that separates the box into two compartments. The divider, visible via a transparent front in the drawing provides a safe living area away from the entrance. Should a predator gain access to the entrance hole, it is unlikely that it will fit completely through the hole, and the divider further prevents the predator from reaching around the divider to access the occupants.

Happy barn owl habitat making. See you tomorrow.

Tony

20121212 Hugelkultur 4 of 4

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Dec 142012

Heavy limbs weighing down the lighter sticks on Food Ridge West.

Today is my fourth posting of rebuilding hugelkultur Food Ridge West.

Go to Hugelkultur to see a description of this European garden art.

Today’s video shows the final stages of building the base of the hugelkultur. Its “keyhole garden” shape is discussed.

Hugelkultur 4 of 4 (video):

From Tony’s project (pics):

Heavy limbs weighing down the lighter sticks on Food Ridge West. This woody mesh of twigs, sticks, and limbs makes a good base for organic debris layers to come. Note all the nooks and crannies that will be available to garden critters. HABITAT!!!

Entrance to the keyhole garden hugelkultur, Food Ridge West.

Close-up view of entrance to the keyhole garden hugelkultur, Food Ridge West. The added layers of organic debris will rise over the vertical log (left, inside the keyhole garden bed), only to settle back down again next year. Each year’s added layers mean better soil for crops.