Milk Bottle Planter project - improvements

 I started working a little while ago to create some colourful hanging planters to go in the community garden I'm working on from recycled milk bottles (see original post here) so I thought I'd give a little update on developments and improvements I've made. I'm currently working with a wildlife and gardening theme - so fruits, veg and animals!

I have been working with acyrilic paints - which probably aren't ideal for painting onto a plastic surface but mostly I'm just working with materials that are easily available to me! Acrylic paint does have a tendency to flake off a little and if they're to stay outside they they need to be varnished to withstand water.

Froggy planter gets the waterproof test!

Finished planters get a few layers of this spray varnish to protect them from the elements

Hedgehog and froggy planters

So far I've done a hedgehog and frog as examples and I'm working on an elephant. 

Can you tell what it is yet...?

The idea is to do this activity with different groups so I've been working on ways to make it as easy and effective as possible. Now I'm going to prime the milk bottles with white acrylic paint to help the coloured layers to adhere better and which should also make it easy to draw a simple design in felt pen before starting to paint.

I'm hoping to make animal planters with the after school gardening club I'm running but I'm saving it for a rainy day activity... Of course I'm hoping that we'll be able to have as much outside time as possible - but when the inevitable rainy session arrives I'll get a chance to try it out as a session!

Have a Hoot!

Here's a video from the wonderful Gavin Repton, who came along to film at Have a Hoot! an owl event at Potteric Carr this February half term:


It was a glorious sunny day and over 60 people turned up on the day! I feel very lucky that this is what I do for a living!

Spring Things

Tomorrow morning I'll be rising early to lead an early spring walk at Potteric Carr (although I don't think the weather is going to be very spring-like...). I've been researching lots of spring facts and here are some of resources I've come across. The Woodland Trust loads of fantastic spotter sheets on their nature detectives website, and I found one on first signs of spring and on blossoms and catkins.

Looking into different trees, I was trying to remember the name of the French liqueur made with the early leaves from blackthorn - and I found this article on the Guardian on how to make epine. I'll drop in the fact about the cyanide in the leaves giving the drink it's almond flavour!

The BBC's nature webpages have some good information on hibernation. I've come across this website on British Butterflies before and I find the calendar to search which species can be seen each month. Here's what you might see in March. Bat Conservation Trust have a good article on a year in the life of a bat.