I'm all for encouraging Wildlife into our garden. Nest boxes, Bird table/ feeders , Bird Bath, log Pile , a patch of nettles, bug Hotel and lots of plants to encourage them !
Well, I have been a wildlife gardener all my life (74). An elderly neighbour visited me and said jokingly that he thought the gardener who managed my vegetable plot was ok (a few straight lines) but that I should get rid of the gardener who managed the flower bed! they were too untidy, and I had nettles! shock horror. I explained to him that my garden is a cottage/wildlife garden and that I encouraged wildlife to visit and stay with me i.e. my army of frogs and toads who keep the snails and slugs down, the birds who feed on the greenfly. Also the lovely silvery slow worms who live in my compost bins. This gentleman had been in his time a gardener on a huge estate and had had to garden by strict rules. He eventually came to appreciate my garden and visited often and even brought me seeds from his garden for me to grow, hence I now have a beautiful patch of Angels Fishing Rods. I couldn't think of any other way to garden, so try to spread the word.
Not many frogs and toads here but plenty of newts. They probably ate all the frog and toad spawn til there were none left.
Total access for hedehogs but none turned up.
Yes, really impressed with the false sunflower hollie hock. I'll probably move it for next year, I just put it where there was a space but I like the real insect attracters near the front where I can admire the plants and the visitors
I like a wildlife garden as some of you may guess by my forum name, that said in my view a lot can be done in a 'formal' garden as really it is all about growing the right plants and not using chemical pesticides. OK so my form of wildlife gardening at home is not the purist view but it works for me.
I am also a member of the Residents and Tenants assoc and soon to be a meber of our local park Friends Group. Luckily within our immediate area on the estate we have some quite large areas of wooded area and open ground. The R&TA is very environmetally active creating wildlife habitat the spaces, also the plan for the park is to restore the formal gardens but also to carry out large amounts of wildlife friendly improvements across the open informal spaces of the park.
For me this bodes well for the future as there is a big drive to involve the local young people to help carry out this work and learn to maintain their wildlife spaces.
I've really got into wildlife gardening this year, partly spurred on by a miserable crop of veg despite the lovely summer and put that down to lack of pollinating insects. My kids and I built a bug hotel last weekend with hedgehog boxes and a frog/toad hibernaculum and already its populated with lady birds, frogs and toads and the odd beetle!
I invested a lot of time in the summer on the net finding out about the right sort of plants and am filling the beds and pots with those as well as dedicating a few areas of the garden to wildflowers and there comes with it a huge sense of satisfaction that although to some I may appear completely nuts, to me we're doing our bit, not only to enjoy seeing wildlife in our garden but that we're helping it's future!
Wildlife gardening is so rewarding and some of the above comments about guerilla gardening has made me want to now move onto the verges near me but I fear they would be destroyed by the councils mowers come spring
you might find the council more sympathetic than you think. In London Fields in Hackney they have planted up an area as a "wildflower meadow" (think more Olympic Park style pictorial meadow than rampant weeds). It's been absolutely beautiful, and there is a lovely scent too. Very popular with the locals. Full of bees (and Mums taking pictures of their kids amongst the blooms)
Posts
I'm all for encouraging Wildlife into our garden. Nest boxes, Bird table/ feeders , Bird Bath, log Pile , a patch of nettles, bug Hotel and lots of plants to encourage them !
hollie hock, those are your false sunflowers on the pic I posted earlier on this thread. Look good don't they
In the sticks near Peterborough
Well, I have been a wildlife gardener all my life (74). An elderly neighbour visited me and said jokingly that he thought the gardener who managed my vegetable plot was ok (a few straight lines) but that I should get rid of the gardener who managed the flower bed! they were too untidy, and I had nettles! shock horror. I explained to him that my garden is a cottage/wildlife garden and that I encouraged wildlife to visit and stay with me i.e. my army of frogs and toads who keep the snails and slugs down, the birds who feed on the greenfly. Also the lovely silvery slow worms who live in my compost bins. This gentleman had been in his time a gardener on a huge estate and had had to garden by strict rules. He eventually came to appreciate my garden and visited often and even brought me seeds from his garden for me to grow, hence I now have a beautiful patch of Angels Fishing Rods. I couldn't think of any other way to garden, so try to spread the word.
Not many frogs and toads here but plenty of newts. They probably ate all the frog and toad spawn til there were none left.
Total access for hedehogs but none turned up.
Yes, really impressed with the false sunflower hollie hock. I'll probably move it for next year, I just put it where there was a space but I like the real insect attracters near the front where I can admire the plants and the visitors
In the sticks near Peterborough
I like a wildlife garden as some of you may guess by my forum name, that said in my view a lot can be done in a 'formal' garden as really it is all about growing the right plants and not using chemical pesticides. OK so my form of wildlife gardening at home is not the purist view but it works for me.
I am also a member of the Residents and Tenants assoc and soon to be a meber of our local park Friends Group. Luckily within our immediate area on the estate we have some quite large areas of wooded area and open ground. The R&TA is very environmetally active creating wildlife habitat the spaces, also the plan for the park is to restore the formal gardens but also to carry out large amounts of wildlife friendly improvements across the open informal spaces of the park.
For me this bodes well for the future as there is a big drive to involve the local young people to help carry out this work and learn to maintain their wildlife spaces.
UW
I've really got into wildlife gardening this year, partly spurred on by a miserable crop of veg despite the lovely summer and put that down to lack of pollinating insects. My kids and I built a bug hotel last weekend with hedgehog boxes and a frog/toad hibernaculum and already its populated with lady birds, frogs and toads and the odd beetle!
I invested a lot of time in the summer on the net finding out about the right sort of plants and am filling the beds and pots with those as well as dedicating a few areas of the garden to wildflowers and there comes with it a huge sense of satisfaction that although to some I may appear completely nuts, to me we're doing our bit, not only to enjoy seeing wildlife in our garden but that we're helping it's future!
Wildlife gardening is so rewarding and some of the above comments about guerilla gardening has made me want to now move onto the verges near me but I fear they would be destroyed by the councils mowers come spring
you might find the council more sympathetic than you think. In London Fields in Hackney they have planted up an area as a "wildflower meadow" (think more Olympic Park style pictorial meadow than rampant weeds). It's been absolutely beautiful, and there is a lovely scent too. Very popular with the locals. Full of bees (and Mums taking pictures of their kids amongst the blooms)