As I mentioned in this post, I wanted to protect these plants from chickens, moths and caterpillars. We began with chickens because had I kept the girls locked up for a few days. After planting these seedlings one of the English Game Hens had jumped up onto the planter box while I was standing right there, and then looked at me with a face that said, I’m about to eat all your seedlings! She was quickly shooed away. Had I not been there, the seedlings would have been eaten quickly.
My Other Half is a delicate genius as you may be aware. He chose to put this on hinges, to make access easy if required. He knew the box would be completely covered and he thought ahead. Yes, those are the kitties enjoying some backyard time.
You may have noticed, these photos were taken after the box has been covered in fly wire.
The solar lights are those LED colour changing ones. At night this looks pretty funky now. The baby spinach is really taking off.
Here is a shot with the completed box in place.
Some more recycling and some inventions – The Other Half bought a weather station many years ago and some of the plastic parts had disintegrated. He printed out some parts for it with his 3d printer, those are the red parts.
Here is our former cat door, which stands on a layer of brick pavers and then has brick pavers on top holding it in place. This is not a long term solution, it is only temporary while the new plants have a chance to settle in. Otherwise the chooks might dig too much around them and they might not survive it.
We also bought some cat grass and there are some sunflower seeds in this planter box. We’ll see if they grow. :)
Would you like to join in with Sunday Selections?? The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to River at Drifting Through Life, somewhere in your post
3. leave River a comment so that she knows you’ve joined in and can come over and see what you’ve posted.
Weekly Wrap Up –
Not much to report this week. Our main goal for this weekend is to install a chicken treat holder in the chook pen – inspired by this post and some cooling racks we found at Aldi. Click through and watch the time lapse video of the chooks eating the treats, it is super cool. :)
The Emmy Awards
This year the results could be *very* different. Alan Sepinwall from Hitfix has a great post about why that might be so. Here’s where you can catch the Emmys on TV in Australia.
What a very neat plant protection cage. The feeder is such a good way for the chickens to entertain themselves and have to work a bit for their food.
We’ve installed it, and our chooks are not sure what to think. My big mistake was putting in a treat they had never had before – a banana. They’re like.. what the heck is that thing? I need to put some sweet corn cobs in there and see what they think then.. :)
I love solar lights, but have never seen them in a planter. Do they help the plants grow?
I don’t think so, but they sure look pretty. :) I saw some great ones this week with a large cracked glass sphere which I was tempted by.. ;)
I’m very impressed with your garden creations. Yesterday I saw a Canada Goose tuck into a flower planter at the country park so I know how appealing plants are to birds!
We just did a little more planting today with some large pots, which I will share in a future Sunday post. :) Hopefully those will not be chook attractive.. :)
Looks great, what a wonderful idea to protect your plants. Lovely little kittens. Also great use of the 3D printer.
The good thing about the 3d printer is you can always reprint that item again another time once you have the design, so forever new parts. I said we should add a bird perch up there because native birds will sit on that metal pole if they don’t have another option provided to them.. probably that will be added next weekend. :)
A terrific way to protect your seedlings and they still get plenty of air and sunshine.
Fingers crossed we won’t even see those white moths this year.. I’ve been super careful about making sure none are around when I am opening the top to water it.. :)
We have chickens too and my hubby is always busy down in the vegetable patch. Lovely pictures x #SundaySnap
Chickens are so much fun.. ;) Thanks for dropping by my place! ;)
Wow – this is super cool! We don’t have a yard (just a small indoor aquaponic veg garden), but if we did we’d need one of these! Chickens just run wild everywhere here in Hawaii. Literally everywhere – the Post Office, the mall parking lot, even the green space between the buildings of our apartment community.
I would love to know more about the small aquaponic garden.. :) I’ve been to Oahu 4x and the Big Island once, the last time in 2013. I deeply love Hawaii and seek out bloggers who live there.. :) Thanks for dropping by my place!
What a clever hubby you have! It seems he thought of everything. The lights are a great idea.
He has just returned from fixing out LED lights out in the shed.. :) He is very good with electronics and building things. I’ve noticed that some of the solar lights are only working for 2-3 hours so it might be time to retire them and buy new ones.. :)
Love this. I am constantly plagued by creatures eating my young plants, I’ve tried so many things to defeat them. Glad to know there’s another kindred spirit out there!
If I can’t defeat the creatures, best to keep them out of the way entirely. ;) I don’t want to use pesticides, not even natural ones. The chooks are fantastic pesticides but the trouble is if they like the plant they’ll eat that too, which defeats the purpose. :)
It didn’t cost too much to put together as this was parts from a chicken triangle we had made when we got the new girls. We’ve decided to get chicks next time so we won’t need it again.
I almost wish I had done that bed entirely as baby spinach, we’d eat enough of it to justify that. But the chooks love the silverbeet and we will enjoy the brussel sprouts.. :)
And thanks for dropping by my place, I meant to add! ;)