h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello. What a good idea you have for using mirrors to control the views your garden offers; I'll have to give that a try. There is a call on the front page for gardening advice. If you haven't already, why not post your mirror trick?

JTG

I would not write to gardening advice they probally know already. It is just we have this area that nothing grows so we thought we would put mirrors. My husband was designing it yesterday and it will have a couple of archways and trellis and will look like you can go through to another garden. We have lots of little interesting bits in our garden. The mirror idea came from our house really as we have one wall in our living room which is all mirror. Our bedroom has a half mirror wall and so does one of our bathrooms.

I have just read somewhere that it is not such a good idea as birds can fly into the mirror. Poor birds!!! We will have to decied if we are still going to do it. We were going to make it look like an arch way so perhaps the birds would not try to go through arch. At the moment in our garden we have a couple of pigeons chasing Magpies, squirrels chasing the magpies great fun to watch. The squirrels have just managed to get nuts out of a squirrel proof container.

Mmm... that's a serious consideration. Would hanging a bead or bamboo curtain in front of the mirror reduce the risk of birds flying into it? You could snip some of it away so that you still get a good reflection. Maybe a few of those glass sunlight catcher things hung in front of the mirror would deter the birds. It would be a shame to give up on the idea.

Not much can compete with the ingenuity of a squirrel when it comes to getting food. We have a bird feeder attached about two thirds of the way up our kitchen wall. For a long time we couldn't figure out how the squirrels were managing to get onto it. Then, one day, I happened to see one hang by its back legs from the eavestrough, then drop down and grap the bird feeder as it fell past. It had obviously done it before; but who knows how many experiments it took before it hit upon the successful technique... the clever little chap.

JTG

WAs at the Botanics today and it was really lovely, do you have Botanic gardens near you John. They give me insperation, I love the rock gardens which have lovely paths and a little river cascading down the rocks. We came home and sat on the sun loungers and fell asleep sure bliss.
Yes we will have to make a decision on the mirrors but it will probally be after the hols which are three weeks.

The Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton are not far away; I drive past them on the way to work. They are situated on several pieces of land at the extreme west end of lake Ontario, Burlington Bay.

http://www.rbg.ca/

The Rock Garden is the main attraction of the RBG. It was built during the depression by convicts (I think) in a natural bowl. It must have been quite a feat. There are two ponds at the bottom, fed by a narrow waterfall and stream. It's a prime location for wedding photos in the summer. The lilac festival at the Arboretum draws a lot of visitors too. They have quite a large collection of lilacs that drifts down into a valley with spring flowering trees like flowering dogwoods and redbud on either side; it's a very pretty setting... and the fragrance is wonderful! You're right; the botanical gardens is a great place to come up with new ideas. I always come home wanting to try something new after a visit.

JTG

Clicked on to your www sight but sent me off to where ever!!! I did not know you were from Canada.
We had a lovely day today wheather wise and spent it in the garden. It makes such a difference when the weather is good.
I planted up some marigolds and fushsas and put them on our roof garden.

Hello Castle! and welcome. Please look at my homepage, {click on my name} you will see that I am in the middle of a garden makeover. You are SO lucky to have a hubby interested in gardening. I am a single-parent so this is a major undertaking for me......the only person helping me with the "heavy" work is my son-in-law. When I started the job, I did have a boyfriend helping me, but we broke up.
I am 45, divorced, with 4 offspring, 3 grown-up from my marriage and a 7 year old with ADHD. HE is hard work! It's a full-time job, just looking after him. Hope to bump into you all over the h2g2 site, Castle, if you would like to chat with me one-to-one, my details are on my homepage. TTFN
Eat Grimsby Fish! Preferably in Cleethorpes!

I poped over to your home page Galaxy Babe and was quite ####################################################################I did'nt . Just reading you posting and did not notice you were gardening must have missed that bit. I am 48 with three k

Was writing away and mentioned what I had seen on your page and you probally know what it was, then Net Nannie made all the squiggles. I did not think we had net Nanny just Cyber Partol, as my daughter is 13 my husband did not want her to go onto any dodgy sites. Well just will say i have three children two groen up Men now and as I said above one 13 year old. No grandchildren yet which I would love. You son does sound like a lot of work as I have seen programmes on the television with sorry I have forgotten the lettering but I no what it is. Will now try again to #############################################################################I got away with it this time. Well you can see I did not.