Uncategorised

Grow your own birdhouse…

… by planting a tree and become part of a Guinness World Record attempt at the same time! Not restricted to the UK, Saturday December 5th between 11am-12 noon is the time to plant your tree to participate in this record attempt.

To take part all you need to do is get a tree, plant your tree, take a photo and then email your photo. The image opposite is from a selection of fun posters available for downloading. This is not just a long term bird project.

To get involved from outside the UK you can see details here. Please note that the time for this record is based on GMT so perhaps you might want to look at a world time converter for your area.

Here, in the UK, if you haven’t already picked up a free sapling from your local garden centres its not too late… many are likely to be open late tonight for Christmas Shoppers. You can choose to plant other trees of your own choice and the BBC Breathing Places website has details there.

Celebrities here in the UK are mucking in too including Strictly Come Dancing presenter Tess Daly who says: “Grab your wellies, roll up your sleeves and come help us set a brand new Guinness World Record. Join us for Tree O’Clock on Saturday 5 December and help to make life leafier for all of us!”

Instead of the show catchphrase ‘Keeeeeeeeeeeeep Dancing’ for this Saturday let’s make it ‘Keeeeeeeeeeeep Planting’ 😀

I picked up my free sapling last week from a wooden crate outside Dobbies Garden World in Perth. To find other UK Garden Centres and stores with tree give-away schemes take a look through the extensive list here.


Other bloggers have been chatting about Tree O’Clock too so hopefully between us all we can pass the word around the world in time to really make this tree planting record count. I hope so.

Wishing you all a great weekend… be it tree planting, dancing or Christmas Shopping.

9 thoughts on “Grow your own birdhouse…

  1. Hello Shirl,

    This is a fun, useful, beautiful idea, wish I could participate here in Alaska. Two feet of snow and frozen ground to pickax a hole into is a bit of a damper though. I look forward to reading about your experience.

    Cheers from Last Frontier Garden,

    Christine B.

  2. Shirl,

    Oh no I'm in big trouble! Yesterday I pulled up about 40 tulip poplar saplings in my woodland meadow. This 3 meter x 3 meter area has threatened Dwarf Crest Irises a lot of them and the trees were trying to move in.

    Planted 5 camellias on Sunday though.

  3. Hi Shirl

    I picked mine up from that same crate too – mine was a Rowan and I was out at 11.25 am on Saturday planting it. Glad the ground wasn't frozen.

  4. Hi there Lisa, Christine, Randy, Patsi, leavesnbloom and Cheryl 🙂

    Lisa, yes, I thought it was too 😀

    Christine, it definitely was. Yes, I was looking at your snow picture photos. What a beautiful landscape you have there in Alaska. Plenty of trees too 😀 LOL… yep I had an experience right enough 😉

    Randy, LOL… oops! Now… you could have potted them up and had a car boot sale/donated them to Tree O’clock 😉 Yes, it is a balance and decisions have to be made when one plant/bird/wildlife species threatens another. Now, Camellias I have not grown. They always look so exotic too… good luck with yours 😀

    Patsi, yes, I did. I liked the leafier too. Oh… that’s a pity the link isn’t available any more. Gosh, just popped by your blog… your plants are looking great and you’ve yellow flowers… that must brighten your day 😀

    leavesnbloom, I wondered if you might 😉 Unfortunately I didn’t notice any colour codes in the crate I picked up my sapling up from. Funnily enough a Rowan I didn’t want as I have one already and don’t have room for two. Yes, as Yan said in your posting Rowans are popular in Scottish gardens. I didn’t know about the planting location though. Yep, the ground was okay for planting. Now, the weather people say this about to change though 😮

    Cheryl, looking at your profile and your latest posting I can see why you are sorry you missed this. It was a brilliant idea 😀

  5. Hi Shirl

    Thanks for popping over to my blog yesterday.

    You certainly had a busy time on Saturday – I love the decorations on your tree and your new tree will love those sheltered conditions in your garden.

    I agree it was very hard to tell which sappling was which.

  6. Forgot to add Shirl

    I would not like you to have that little sappling unnamed! Pot it up and on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday take it up to the garden centre – out the back 🙂 and there will be someone there who used to be in the forestry business and he should be able to identify it as he picked out the Rowan for me.

    Hope that helps

    Leavesnbloom

Leave a Reply