Nancy Reading

Well as suggested above I laid out the shapes in a kind of design. Here it is minus one of the lengths of stick:

laying out hanging mobile design

I then carefully tied lengths of fishing line to each shape. It is quite fiddly to tie fishingline - I hadn't realised! I did lots of half hitches in the hope that they won't just come undone again.

attaching the string to the fishes

Then starting at the bottom as Anne suggested I got that bit balanced, then attached the next layer, then the next. I used a hook on one of the crop bars to hang it from once the mobile started to grow. As it got heavier it became more difficult to bring it away from centre, but if the supporting strings are too close they tend to slip even closer....Eventually I succeeded in hanging the complete assembly above the pond.

first attempt at hanging mobile complete

I'm not completely happy with it. I feel it is too long, and that I should have fewer, denser tiers of fishes. I'd also like more assymetric rods to make the shapes spiral further away from central. I'd quite like the dragonflies at least to have something less bulky as the support rod than the sticks, but fence wire (which is easiest for me to get hold of) probably won't be strong enough for the weight of the hanging.

Zaytuna Farm,
I have merged your topic into this topic. I hope that helps.

Thom Illingworth wrote:Comfrey seems to be the permie miracle plant.  Has anyone tried replacing lawn with a bed of comfrey?   I'm wondering if it was planted directly into the lawn would it overtake the area and eventually eliminate the lawn?

I suspect this will depend on your climate, the grass and the comfrey variety - however I have tried plantng comfrey direct into turf with indifferent success. That was with planting root cuttings into a slot cut in the grass with a spade. Many of the root cuttings did not survive. Although those that did survive grew well, it did not give the mulching effect I was hoping for. When I combined planting  the comfrey roots with a corrugated cardboard sheet mulch however, I got near 100% success. The comfrey just needed a little help in getting started. This comfrey is now making good coverage in it's second year.

bump!

hint - I like to put a link in my signature, that way it is seen by everyone that read my posts.