La Flamme Rouge **off topic discussion**

Lumen

When did this turn into magicbastarder's gardening channel? :pac:

buffalo

Lumen wrote: »

When did this turn into magicbastarder's gardening channel? :pac:

Are you jealous that nobody asked how to build a shed?

magicbastarder

a148pro wrote: »

Is this easy, as I really want to do it, I have frogs occasionally and would love if they started spawning in it

you'll definitely get spawning frogs - the pond above was dug in september and it's swarming with tadpoles now:

NamelessPhil

If we're talking gardening, raised beds FTW.

I planted, spuds, tomatoes, pumpkins, courgettes, broccoli and strawberries last year in three raised beds 2m X 1m.

There was enough food grown to supplement the household over the summer and I had three decent sized pumpkins for Halloween.

keane2097

It's kind of amusing clicking back to the OP of this thread where it was about lamenting the tour of UAE being shortened by two stages and we're now onto 'how to make your own wildlife pond' :pac:

keane2097

Not complaining - the pond talk is class, would like to see more pictures of ones people have dug.

EAFC_rdfl

magicbastarder wrote: »

you'll definitely get spawning frogs - the pond above was dug in september and it's swarming with tadpoles now:

that's brilliant, and you didn't have to do anything bar make the pond?

magicbastarder

i knew there were already frogs in the garden - overspill from the frogs in the back garden. i dug the front pond kinda as a reaction to the exceptionally dry summer we had in 2018; my thinking was if it happens again, it's somewhere for the frogs to shelter from the arid conditions.
we've two water butts we use to fill the pond.

anyway, if there's frogs in the area, they'll find it.

smacl

Lumen wrote: »

When did this turn into magicbastarder's gardening channel? :pac:

Wonder if you go over to the gardening forum is he talking about bicycles?

That said, I do like the idea of digging a pond, but suspect our cats would munch down the frogs and the dog would use it for a piddling pool. Other concern would be whether it would turn into a breeding ground for mosquitoes, though I guess a healthy frog population would keep the bugs under control.

KOR101

thesimpsons wrote: »

I've had more accidents requiring hospital care from home DIY.......

Yes, the restriction should be that nobody gets out of bed.

magicbastarder

thesimpsons wrote: »

I've had more accidents requiring hospital care from home DIY

what did you do to yourself while DIYing?

hesker

I snipped a tiny sliver off a finger nail with a con saw once.

Gave me pause for thought

magicbastarder

i've not needed medical attention from DIY, come close a couple of times though, when there has been a 'calmly put the tool down before looking at your hand' situation.

There have been a few live streams on the inCycle channel on youtube. One on at the moment about the Tour of Flanders. Damn sight better than the same 5 or 6 races Eurosport have been repeating for a month now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIcXFH8xLUE

Ryath

Some day I'll have a pond! I've the hard work done but at the moment there's a in-ground trampoline in it!

thesimpsons

magicbastarder wrote: »

what did you do to yourself while DIYing?

Learned to always wear steel toe capped shoes after almost loosing 2 toes. Another time got good few stitches in hand when a drill and I had a fight.

magicbastarder

i ran a forstner bit into my thumb a few months ago. thankfully it hit my thumbnail first (i think - happened rather quickly) which kicked my thumb out of the way and prevented worse damage,

Lumen

smacl wrote: »

Wonder if you go over to the gardening forum is he talking about bicycles?

That said, I do like the idea of digging a pond, but suspect our cats would munch down the frogs and the dog would use it for a piddling pool. Other concern would be whether it would turn into a breeding ground for mosquitoes, though I guess a healthy frog population would keep the bugs under control.

Living in Wicklow and being (even if I say so myself) a bit of a midge magnet, I won't ever have a pond.

I had a two part strategy for reducing midges in the garden.

Part 1 was growing walnut trees, which are supposed to repel them. That plan will only take ten years or so to bear fruit

Part 2 was putting up a load of bat boxes, because apparently they consume vast amounts of midges.

I love bats. They're adorable! Oh, wait...

magicbastarder

smacl wrote: »

Other concern would be whether it would turn into a breeding ground for mosquitoes, though I guess a healthy frog population would keep the bugs under control.

i reckon it's all about keeping a balance. interestingly in the back pond, the vast majority of the tadpoles have disappeared. so something is probably eating them.
i've never noticed too many midge larvae in the pond, but this is what i got when pulling some excess plant material out some time last year (i lifted the plants out and sat them on a garden sieve sitting over a bucket of water, to allow all the critters to fall out into the water).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOMz4VC9eOA

smacl

magicbastarder wrote: »

i reckon it's all about keeping a balance. interestingly in the back pond, the vast majority of the tadpoles have disappeared. so something is probably eating them.
i've never noticed too many midge larvae in the pond, but this is what i got when pulling some excess plant material out some time last year (i lifted the plants out and sat them on a garden sieve sitting over a bucket of water, to allow all the critters to fall out into the water).

Fantastic array of fauna you have there. Do you have any decent sized rocks in the pool to provide the tadpoles with some shelter from predators?

magicbastarder

nothing much bigger than a grapefruit - the pond is probably about 8 or 9 foot across its longest axis, so is certainly not a large one.
we live in the suburbs near DCU, a lot of that life probably came in on pond plants, but i have seen other creatures - such as diving beetles - which almost certainly made their way here on their own.
and i have to admit that the frogs were helped here - a relative had a pond which was punctured by a heron, so we rescued the spawn from that and translocated it to ours (which is actually illegal, you need a licence to handle spawn, unless you're a teacher).

a148pro

Lumen wrote: »

I love bats. They're adorable! Oh, wait...

The bats are out too, I thought it was early because it's still cold but have seen a few at dusk.

I love bats too. But it's not the bats that are the problem, it's the people who like to eat the bats, and pack them in alive in close quarters with just about every other animal that walks for live sale.

I can see a serious worldwide clamour to impose a ban on any country doing that in future, I can see the trump tweets already!

a148pro

magicbastarder wrote: »

interestingly in the back pond, the vast majority of the tadpoles have disappeared. so something is probably eating them.

You needn't tell the kids but apparently they're partial to each other!

Mod Note: backseat moderation snipped.

CramCycle

I thought the current thinking is that it's not bat related at all.

a148pro

CramCycle wrote: »

I thought the current thinking is that it's not bat related at all.

Not sure but last I saw there was a suggestion bats are the reservoir and then other animals, probably pangolins or civet cats are the "amplifier" that caused it to transfer into humans. I think sars was a similar route and there's some genetic similarity between the virus and other viruses known to be found in bats.

But that may well be theoretical. Will be interesting to see.

Lumen

a148pro wrote: »

The bats are out too, I thought it was early because it's still cold but have seen a few at dusk.

I love bats too. But it's not the bats that are the problem, it's the people who like to eat the bats, and pack them in alive in close quarters with just about every other animal that walks for live sale.

I can see a serious worldwide clamour to impose a ban on any country doing that in future, I can see the trump tweets already!

Unfortunately my cat eats bats and cats can pass coronavirus at least to each other and probably to humans.

Tenzor07

Lumen wrote: »

Unfortunately my cat eats bats and cats can pass coronavirus at least to each other and probably to humans.

Not unless you eat your Cat for lunch!

Lumen

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Not unless you eat your Cat for lunch!

Unfortunately my cat has a habit of standing on the bedside table at 3am and sneezing in my face.

Cats are dicks.

Tenzor07

Lumen wrote: »

Unfortunately my cat has a habit of standing on the bedside table at 3am and sneezing in my face.
Cats are dicks.

Easy solution

a148pro

Lumen wrote: »

Unfortunately my cat eats bats and cats can pass coronavirus at least to each other and probably to humans.

If you eat your cat first you'll be grand

Do cats actually eat bats?