Spring Cleaning

[Tammie]

:hi:

Hello Forum!

Raking up under the feeders a bit today, I ended up with 5 piles of hulls to haul away after the winter! The birds are having a grand old time spreading them all around again now. I'll finally haul them away when it dries up a bit more.
New migrants here today... a large flock of rusty blackbirds along with a few grackles, a redwinged blackbird and a couple of brown headed cowbirds mixed in, not to mention the starlings, of course. Right in the middle of all this was the tiniest little chipmunk! Not paying the least amount of attention to the bigger birds either. Had to chace a neighbor's cat away this morning too. :C
Hubby saw an American Robin this morning, finally! I think we can say spring has finally arrived although we could still easily be in for one more good snowstorm yet. Not safe for that until around the end of May! :-C But I can hope!

[Common2412]

Hi Tammie

I'm not familiar with the term "hull". My education is failing on this point. Please enlighten me.

Cheers

Steve

[Andrew]

Steve,
The hulls are the shells of peanuts.

Tammie,
I bet the hulls would make good stuff for potting as they would retain moisture. On the same note a buried cat is good for the roses! LOL

[Tammie]

Hulls in this case are from black and striped sunflower seeds. And Andrew, don't tempt me about the cat! Don't get me wrong, I love cats, would have a houseful of them if I wasn't allergic, but.... not near my feeders, flower beds or veggie garden!!

[Common2412]

Thanks. I didn't have a clue.

Cheers

Steve

[KCFoggin]

Weather certainly sounds promising Tammie. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that the snow is long gone.

I have finally decided to switch over to the sunflower hearts for the spring. Easy for the juvies to deal with and a lot less mess under the feeders but a bit pricey :(

I sure do miss seeing chipmunks. We don't get them down here in the south.

[Doug]

I have adapted large flower pot trays to catch the hulls under each of our feeders - many birds now just sit in the trays eating seeds from amongst the hulls. When they build up in the trays they go straight into our compost heap - they make smashing compost to improve the soil. The worms in the heap love them too.

[Andrew]

That's what I thought too, Doug, I think it might also improve the friability of the soil. Is that the case?

NB : I am watching a Buzzard above our house in the glorious sunshine!

[Tammie]

You know, it never occurred to me to use the hulls in the compost. I didn't know if it would work with them being so woody. How long do they take to break down? Thanks for the idea Doug!!

[Andrew]

I think they would break down quickly if they were kept damp.

Another idea is to line your plant pots' bottom third with a good mix of compost and hulls to provide good moisture retention. Putting them in the bottom will encourage the plants' roots to be stronger by going further down the pot.

I often have a bucket to put tea bags in and break them open and mix 50/50 with compost and do the pot thing. My petunias flowered a month longer than the ones in plain compost! So hulls should have the same effect even though they have less nutrients.