Giving a home to backyard birds

HOME SWEET HOME – THE BEST NEST

Blackbirds often nest in my petrea vine, close to the rich pickings in my vege garden. Last spring the vine was blown over in a storm and a nest and eggs were destroyed. To give the birds a more secure home I’ve installed a cavity nest box from Backyard Birds.

Although early spring is when birds breed, Keith MacLeod from Backyard Birds recommends installing nest boxes in autumn and leaving them up all year to provide shelter from storms or cold weather. This not only gives protection to the birds but will increase your chances of them returning to their ‘‘safe havens’’ when breeding time comes in the spring.

The box faces away from wind and rain. It’s out of the reach of cats but it is where I can keep an unobtrusive watch on the comings and goings of Mama and Papa blackbird. Or maybe a tui , thrush or silvereye family as these are locally abundant and nest in this type of box too.

VEGE GARDEN HYGIENE

Autumn is a good time to think about the health of your vege garden and take steps to avoid passing on diseases from season to season.

1. Take note while harvesting and clearing out beds of which varieties cropped well as well as those which disappeared behind a white veil of powdery mildew. Did wind, weather or location make any difference to a particular crop? Write it all down as a reminder for next spring.

2. Some varieties resist disease and crop better. Save seed from those plants which did exceptionally well. (Remember that hybrids won’t breed true.) Research better varieties to replace this year’s duds. If you’ve got the space, growing a mix of cultivars reduces overall exposure to disease severity and increases the odds that at least some will cope with whatever the weather gets up to.

3. Healthy soil grows healthy plants. Adding organic matter improves all soil types by feeding the microorganisms that create the fertility and structure of the soil. So be lavish with compost and manure mulches, which will break down slowly over winter ready to feed crops next spring and summer. Grow green crops where soil would otherwise be bare over winter.

4. Well-organised gardeners have an ongoing three- or fouryear crop- rotation plan. Families of plants move from bed to bed each year so there’s less chance that pests and diseases will build up and soil fertility can be managed.

For example, plant legumes in a newly composted bed. They’ll improve the soil structure and fix nitrogen.

Follow with brassicas. They’ll appreciate the extra nitrogen and like the partly broken down compost.

Alliums can go in next. Any clumpy soil will have been broken up by the sturdy brassica roots, leaving a fine tilth ideal for alliums which prefer a soil that is not too rich.

Next plant root crops as by now the compost will be well broken down and the soil will be dug over and fine. This means carrots and parsnips can grow straight and unforked without any obstructions from soil or fresh compost.

Then it’s back to the beginning with lots of compost and more legumes.

It’s not so easy in small gardens where there may be only one spot for tall climbing beans or one prime sunny location for tomatoes.

If you can’t change the place, you can at least change the soil. Use pots or dig out the soil and replace with some that hasn’t grown that particular crop for several years.

At the very least, grow something from a different plant family than the last crop, even if you don’t follow a strict four-bed

GET GROWING

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5. Clean up diseased leaves and pest-infested fruit. Burn or put them in the rubbish instead of composting them to reduce the chance of carrying over infection from season to season.

Remove mummies (dried out diseased fruit) hanging in fruit trees and any fallen fruit.

Clean pots, plant supports and bird netting before storing or using for another crop. Rinse with a dilute solution of bleach if there’s been disease present.