"keep what you've got but make it better" When I moved into my current house I wanted to introduce a whole array of full sun loving plants but annoyingly, we had tress blocking out the sun giving us a few hours of full sun a day(light shade all day though) I also wanted a large pond but the leaves were would make too much maintenance. I had two options, cut the tress back/down or invest that money into a compromise. There are many other things you can do, I've set up a open muck heap/'brown'/'green' things all mixed together and the Robbins love it, I've made stick piles, I've planted moss which is doing great, a very small tussock meadow area which is tolerant of shade, creeping plants which go up the fence, 5 log piles(I work at a DIY livery yard, they were going to burn all the wood so I took it for them- they were okay with it) You should work around nature, nature shouldn't work around you ;P
I love the 'keep what you've got and make it better' advice Chris, but all I inherited when I moved here was a mossy patch of grass overwhelmed by 20 year old, completely out of hand Lleylandii, and I think they might be the exception to that particular rule? Some have already gone, and the south-facing fence I have replaced them with will, I hope, provide a home for some plants which will please me and the local wildlife a bit more than their gloomy, dusty, nutrient leaching, death-dealing, shade-creating predecessors did.
(p.s.There's a massive clump of hideous Hypericum out front too which might be another exception to the rule I think.)
Ah - do they. I have had a couple in the garden (a few trimmed horrors still linger, waiting for the funds for more fencing...) but I have seen more in the belt of woodland which surrounds us here, and that - oddly - is mostly deciduous.
I found this website incredibly helpful when deciding what todo, of course there are exceptions to that quote eg, invasive species, plants out competing and supressing others, impracticality, health and safety etc I was coming more from the sense of that tree has obviously been there for a long time and in that time it has created a micro habbitat with its own biodiversity in the garden, trimming the tree back would be a light environmental stress which in this case a mature garden can easily handle but chopping the tree down may cause the food chain in hers/his and others to essentially collaps ;3
Thanks for that Chris. It looks just the sort of information I'm looking for. I plan to plant up a garden which I can enjoy, and that definitely means one without leylandii. There are plenty more around me here, so I did not feel too bad about getting shot of slightly more than half of mine. (It was done well before the nesting started). The rest will go next winter probably. Near the house I plan to have a patch of lawn enclosed by borders with perennials & shrubs, and on the other side of that the remainder of the garden is going to be much more natural, so I am keen to find advice and information as to which plants/shrubs/trees are wildlife friendly. I've been surprised at how often that kind of helpful info is still missing from plant descriptions.
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One thing I was told is as follows;
"keep what you've got but make it better" When I moved into my current house I wanted to introduce a whole array of full sun loving plants but annoyingly, we had tress blocking out the sun giving us a few hours of full sun a day(light shade all day though) I also wanted a large pond but the leaves were would make too much maintenance. I had two options, cut the tress back/down or invest that money into a compromise. There are many other things you can do, I've set up a open muck heap/'brown'/'green' things all mixed together and the Robbins love it, I've made stick piles, I've planted moss which is doing great, a very small tussock meadow area which is tolerant of shade, creeping plants which go up the fence, 5 log piles(I work at a DIY livery yard, they were going to burn all the wood so I took it for them- they were okay with it) You should work around nature, nature shouldn't work around you ;PNothing wrong with a prune but make sure to make a log pile with the left over
I love the 'keep what you've got and make it better' advice Chris, but all I inherited when I moved here was a mossy patch of grass overwhelmed by 20 year old, completely out of hand Lleylandii, and I think they might be the exception to that particular rule? Some have already gone, and the south-facing fence I have replaced them with will, I hope, provide a home for some plants which will please me and the local wildlife a bit more than their gloomy, dusty, nutrient leaching, death-dealing, shade-creating predecessors did.
(p.s.There's a massive clump of hideous Hypericum out front too which might be another exception to the rule I think.)
Goldcrest's like it though...
Ah - do they. I have had a couple in the garden (a few trimmed horrors still linger, waiting for the funds for more fencing...) but I have seen more in the belt of woodland which surrounds us here, and that - oddly - is mostly deciduous.
http://wildseed.co.uk/page/habitat-creation-and-enhancement
I found this website incredibly helpful when deciding what todo, of course there are exceptions to that quote eg, invasive species, plants out competing and supressing others, impracticality, health and safety etc I was coming more from the sense of that tree has obviously been there for a long time and in that time it has created a micro habbitat with its own biodiversity in the garden, trimming the tree back would be a light environmental stress which in this case a mature garden can easily handle but chopping the tree down may cause the food chain in hers/his and others to essentially collaps ;3Thanks for that Chris. It looks just the sort of information I'm looking for. I plan to plant up a garden which I can enjoy, and that definitely means one without leylandii. There are plenty more around me here, so I did not feel too bad about getting shot of slightly more than half of mine. (It was done well before the nesting started). The rest will go next winter probably. Near the house I plan to have a patch of lawn enclosed by borders with perennials & shrubs, and on the other side of that the remainder of the garden is going to be much more natural, so I am keen to find advice and information as to which plants/shrubs/trees are wildlife friendly. I've been surprised at how often that kind of helpful info is still missing from plant descriptions.