What to do as a gardener in winter
The winter garden, the trees are sleeping like a white sleep... Peace and quiet... And the gardener's worries never end. What work needs to be done in the garden on the eve of spring, we will recall in this article.
We take care of faithful helpers, birds
Winter, especially snowy, is a difficult test for the feathered defenders of the garden. Cold. Hungry. Help them now, and in the spring they will fully thank for their care. Hang two or three feeders in the garden, and the birds, getting used to the feeding place, will feed the chicks from your garden all spring and summer.
Feeding troughs can be very different: beautiful houses - decoration of the site, adapted improvised materials, do-it-yourself nutrient blocks. By the way, for the manufacture of the latter, you can attract children and grandchildren. This is both an educational process and a good reason to distract, at least for an hour, a child from a computer or smartphone.
Feeding blocks for birds
For manufacturing you will need:
- gelatin, 50 g;
- water, 100 ml;
- a pack of 200 g of bird food, or 1.5 cups of a mixture of cereals (millet, barley, wheat, oatmeal);
- braid or thin twine;
- molds for cookies or silicone soap, if they are not there, it does not matter, you can make it in an ordinary tea or coffee cup.
Soak the gelatin in a small saucepan, let it swell for 15-25 minutes. During this time, fold the braid or twine in half and put the ends into molds to make a loop for hanging. Over low heat, stirring, not bringing to a boil, heat until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Pour in the prepared grain mixture. Mix well and divide into molds.
If there are no molds, then we proceed as follows: we line tea or coffee cups with cling film or a plastic bag. We lay the twine, fill it with the prepared mixture.
Place the molds in the freezer for 20-25 minutes. Then we take out the nutrient blocks from the molds or cups, remove the film, lay them out on baking paper or cardboard to dry. Dry on the window for 3-4 days. The bird treat is ready. Can be hung in the garden.
Tits, goldfinches, greenfinches, siskins, buntings will be incredibly happy with this treat ...
Attention! You can not feed the birds with rye bread and its crumbs, salty foods: chips, nuts, salted lard. Do not add roasted nuts or seeds to the mixture. Food for cats and dogs is also not suitable food for birds. All these products can cause diseases and even death of garden defenders.
We make feeders for wintering birds
There are several rules for making bird "canteens":
- It is desirable to make a roof over the feeder to protect the contents from snow and water.
- So that cats and dogs cannot eat pichugs, we hang structures at a height inaccessible to predators.
- Forty and crows should not be fed. Their population is quite self-regulating, and they may well feed themselves. Therefore, it is advisable to make the walls of the feeders solid, leaving only small holes in the size of small birds, tits, sparrows.
Ornithologists believe that birds in winter need to be fed, not fed. So that they do not get used to easily accessible food and do not stop getting food themselves. Therefore, it is recommended to put top dressing in the feeder once a day, in the late afternoon, to provide food for a cold night.
Here are some ideas for an easy and quick setup of feeders.
Note! Some insectivorous birds, such as pikas and kinglets, do not eat grain forage. Offer them, and everyone else, hanging pieces of unsalted lard or meat.
Examine the trees and help them
Trees sleep under the snow in anticipation of spring, but mice are awake and can damage tree bark. Therefore, compact the snow next to the trunk and in the trunk circle.
Walk through the garden and look at the plants. If there are leaves curled up in lumps on the branches, they need to be cut, collected and burned. Because it was in them that caterpillars of hawthorn, white butterflies settled for the winter. In spring, voracious caterpillars eat buds, buds, and then young leaves, which greatly weakens trees: apple trees, pears.
Goldtails hibernate on the bark of apple trees and thin branches in their nests. They also need to be removed and burned.
On the bark of trees, the laid eggs of various insect pests can overwinter. Scrape them and destroy them.
If you find bright yellow eggs on young twigs of an apple tree, you know that this is a laying of a sucker. And black shiny small, up to 2 mm, eggs belong to the apple aphid. Before bud break, to combat them, spray the clutch sites with nitrafen, according to the instructions.
To prevent the caterpillars of the codling moth from reaching the branches, fasten trapping belts on tree trunks. They can be made from cardboard, burlap. And after bud break and flowering, the belt, along with uninvited guests, must be removed and burned.
If there is no snow cover, work can be carried out to destroy the larvae that hid in the soil for the winter. In the days of a thaw, it is worth loosening the soil under apple trees, raspberries, and currants. If an apple flower beetle wintered under an apple tree, a weevil under a raspberry, and a moth under a currant, then they will die in the nearest frost.
On your next exit to the garden, before the buds open, cover the near-stem circles of gooseberries and currants with a thick, 5-7 cm, layer of manure. He will not let the gooseberry and currant moths go upstairs.
These simple tricks will protect the garden from uninvited guests. And how to grow seedlings in February, you can learn from the article of my colleague here.