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Post by chrism on Apr 12, 2019 19:58:35 GMT
Having started gardening ‘properly’ last year (bad timing!), I couldn’t get enthused about how it all hung together. My better half and I re-focused on our long-standing love of garden wildlife, and are going to start to convert our small back garden to a wildlife garden.
I’m overdue in cutting the lawn which may be an advantage, because we plan to have longer patches of grass.
If if anyone has any tips, they’re more than welcome!
I’ll be taking photos as things progress, and will share them.
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Post by SueA on Apr 13, 2019 7:36:50 GMT
I love wildlife too chrism & I suppose my garden is largely wildlife friendly & I don't use any pesticides/insecticides/fungicides/slug pellets etc. It's a good idea to have some areas of longer grass but you don't have to let your lawn go if you like to keep that neat. I've tried growing crocus along the edges of the lawn & leave the grass around them long until the crocus leaves start to die off, the only problem with that is the grass spreads back into the borders & I have to weed it out to stop it swamping the plants, I would love a wildflower meadow instead of the lawn but would have to rethink the borders if I did that as they wouldn't really fit together. I do have a grassy/wildflower area by the pond which I leave alone all through summer & winter for the frogs etc. to hide in & just tidy up a bit in spring to stop it taking over. |
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Post by Cherry on Apr 13, 2019 8:03:47 GMT
Good ideas from chrism and SueA. Very refreshing in a large, or not so large, garden.  |
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Post by sweetpea on Apr 13, 2019 17:45:44 GMT
First and possibly most important for wildlife to come to your garden is to install a pond. Once you have that the creatures will arrive, everything from amphibians to (in our case) badgers and foxes.
The pond will attract insects which in turn will attract bats and some birds.
A patch of nettles and or comfrey is good also places for nesting birds such as trees or shrubs if you have room but as I say, a pond first and foremost. Good luck.
ps Buddleia
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Post by chrism on Apr 15, 2019 18:22:34 GMT
Thanks for your replies! Does anyone have suggestions re native plants I can insert as plugs into taller grass?
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Post by chrism on Apr 16, 2019 6:24:06 GMT
First and possibly most important for wildlife to come to your garden is to install a pond. Once you have that the creatures will arrive, everything from amphibians to (in our case) badgers and foxes. The pond will attract insects which in turn will attract bats and some birds. A patch of nettles and or comfrey is good also places for nesting birds such as trees or shrubs if you have room but as I say, a pond first and foremost. Good luck. ps Buddleia Thanks, sweetpea. I have an ex-patio bucket pond that I sunk into the ground last spring and despite the landscaper’s best endeavours to destroy the existing micro environment, it recovered well. I’ve had five clumps of frog spawn this year, and even last year, had a variety of frogs in the garden. I’m sure it’s why there were few slugs about. I have a nettle patch for butterflys but the comfrey is a new one on me. I’ll definitely give that a go. Cheers. |
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Post by Cherry on Apr 16, 2019 6:28:51 GMT
I always had comfrey growing next to the compost bin. It is a wonderful addition to compost and can be used to scrape out the veg peelings from the kitchen bin. I loved my comfrey.
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Post by grindle on Apr 16, 2019 6:29:28 GMT
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Post by sweetpea on Apr 16, 2019 9:28:35 GMT
re comfrey it is a bee magnet but it can tend to spread so keep an eye on it and remove any unwanted bits while still small before they grow longer roots
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Post by chrism on Apr 16, 2019 18:45:19 GMT
Excellent. Thanks, everyone. I’ve really got a buzz about all this. Bees. Buzz. Boom boom! It’s the way I tell ‘em!
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Post by chrism on Apr 17, 2019 15:55:53 GMT
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Post by SueA on Apr 18, 2019 7:33:10 GMT
I can see what you're aiming for now chrism, I would have liked something like that but we wanted to keep some lawn so that we could see the birds/hedgehogs on the ground, I'm still thinking about trying that at the end of the garden going towards the pond though. The only thing I've read is that if you leave the lawn down & just plant or sow wildflowers into it the grass will take over & crowd the wildflowers out, most people say to remove the grass to start with but you can always give it a go & see what happens. I believe Yellow Rattle helps to establish wildflower meadows as it keeps the grass under control so maybe buying some plugs of that would be worth a try? |
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Post by chrism on Apr 18, 2019 20:31:27 GMT
I can see what you're aiming for now chrism , I would have liked something like that but we wanted to keep some lawn so that we could see the birds/hedgehogs on the ground, I'm still thinking about trying that at the end of the garden going towards the pond though. The only thing I've read is that if you leave the lawn down & just plant or sow wildflowers into it the grass will take over & crowd the wildflowers out, most people say to remove the grass to start with but you can always give it a go & see what happens. I believe Yellow Rattle helps to establish wildflower meadows as it keeps the grass under control so maybe buying some plugs of that would be worth a try? Definitely the plan, SueA. In absence of the budget or the energy, I plan to get yellow rattle plugs in as soon as we’re back from holiday in mid-May. |
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Post by chrism on Apr 19, 2019 19:41:31 GMT
Over the last two days: bluebell heads have appeared from the bulbs I planted last autumn 🎉🎉; California poppies have popped up in the area the buddleia was grubbed up (we last sowed them well over a decade ago); various flower heads are popping up in the sparser lawn close to the poppies. Give nature half a chance, and it’s amazing what pops up, and soon.
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