GBDW - Wild About My Garden


In contrast to last month's pets theme, Gardening Gone Wild's design feature for this month is Wildlife in the Garden. Whilst I didn't deliberately design a 'wildlife garden' per se when we moved here, the needs of wildlife was one of the things I did keep in mind. After all, I wanted a garden of year-round interest myself and by thinking about that, it only takes a small step for it to mean a year-round interest for birds, insects and other beasties too - my favourite visitors are the bats in the summer. As a result I've chosen many flowers loved by insects, especially bees and butterflies - eschewing double formed varieties of plants such as Echinacea as these aren't so attractive to them. Berried shrubs and trees mean food in the winter for birds - we currently have 37 species as regular visitors or spotted nearby - not bad and the list has steadily increased year on year.

My main philosophy however, has been to ensure the garden is attractive to the smaller beasties such as invertebrates. As a freshwater biologist in my third career, I became a firm believer in looking after the populations lower down the food chain: do this and the rest will follow. This means becoming a lazy slow gardener, such as not being too hasty in clearing away all those leaves in the autumn, as they make a marvellous garden mulch. At this point some of you will be throwing your hands up in horror and exclaiming 'slug and snail haven!' and yes you're right, but I also have some very fat frogs in the garden ready to pop out to gobble them all up and I love hearing the regular sound of thrushes using the gravel path as an anvil to crack open snail shells.

Slow gardening also means leaving most of the faded summer blooms in situ over winter rather than cutting them down, thus leaving lots of seeds for the smaller birds to feed on and many insect larvae hunker down for winter in the stems too. This has an added bonus since we've had the problem of squirrels nesting in the loft (remember - one person's nice attractive wildlife can be another's garden pest), it means I still have lots to feed the birds which, unlike the birdfeeders I'd been putting out regularly, don't feed the squirrels as well. Thus the squirrels have stopped nesting in the loft this year and I've only needed to use supplementary bird feeders when it's been extremely cold. An extra bonus has been lots more birds foraging in the central part of the garden this winter instead of sticking to the edges.

Shelter is also important - I use the garden prunings which are too thick for shredding to create small log piles which are then tucked away towards the back of the borders - these are attractive to insects such as beetles: most species are beneficial to the garden. The rotting log piles, garden leaves and compost bins in my garden means the microscopic garden populations - the fungi and bacteria - have plenty to thrive on, which in turn helps other invertebrates such as my lovely worms - the best garden helpers of all. The birds are currently taking up residence in the trees in and surrounding the garden, plus the Clematis cirrhosa 'Balearica' (a wren's nest in the latter) in a big way at the moment. My quest for shelter for all kinds of wildlife also means there's a good excuse for friends to give simple, but very welcome home-made birthday gifts such as the pictured ladybird (aka ladybug) and bee haven my friends S & L gave me last week. All you need is a thick slice of tree branch (apple in this instance) drilled with lots of inch deep holes plus two T shaped brackets fixed to the back for attaching it to the fence and you can have one too!

Apart from squirrels and smaller mammals such as mice and voles, I don't have the more 'gardener challenging' wildlife visitors such as foxes, rabbits, deer or badgers. Whilst I love seeing these animals (and most of them have been seen close by), their presence in my garden would be a test for my love of nature. This is currently happening on the allotment, where foraging badgers have taken a liking to crops such as sweetcorn!

If you would like to know more about wildlife gardening, The Wildlife Trust has a very good Wild About Gardens section on its website which also reminds us that gardens are an extremely important haven for wildlife as they form a nationwide patchwork of green areas much larger than all the land set aside in the UK as nature reserves. The RSPB also has lots wildlife gardening information here, including a look at the issue of unwanted garden visitors.

Garden Bloggers' Design Workshop is hosted by Gardening Gone Wild.

Comments

  1. Elizabeth Musgrave19 March 2009 at 17:13

    I like your slow gardening and am definitely a practitioner! We have badgers here in winter and they do challenge my love for wildlife. They can really create mayhem!
    I could also do with some more thrushes (or fewer snails).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mr. McGregor's Daughter19 March 2009 at 19:13

    I like the slow gardening philosophy. It's a great way to help the critters. The allotment badgers sound a lot like our raccoons, whose favorite feast is also sweet corn. I've heard that electrified fences are a big deterrent to them. The power is turned on a night & off in the morning. That probably isn't an option down on the allotment, so you might have to resort to caging (the corn, not the badgers).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous19 March 2009 at 20:15

    I like your terminology: 'slow gardening'.
    A nice book, that's really worth the purchase (I bought it for about £ 8.00) is 'No nettles required - The Reassuring Truth About Wildlife Gardening' by Ken Thompson. It's easy to read, but very interesting... (I have a few articles on my blog about this book, but they're in Dutch unfortunately...)

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP19 March 2009 at 20:28

    Eek - I got my scheduling wrong and posted on the wrong day! Ah well, it's good to have your comments!

    Elizabethm - the badgers have also created mayhem up at the plant! I won't be growing sweetcorn this year...

    MMD - you're right, we don't have electricity up at the allotment so electric fencing's not the solution. I hear that caging isn't much help either as they just dig underneath them :(

    Anne - I'm so glad you mentioned this book :) I wanted to include it in my piece but felt my post was overlong already. It's one of my favourite books. I have his others too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. VP19 March 2009 at 20:29

    Oops - the badgers have created mayhem up at the plot, not the plant!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous19 March 2009 at 20:36

    The more wildlife in the garden the better, even if some are more welcome than others. The badger appears to be visiting our allotments then popping into our garden for a final bout of hole digging. It's like having a visiting JCB digger and equally unstoppable.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Unknown19 March 2009 at 21:01

    I love that you have had 3 careers. How exciting. I think that people that always keep learning can never grow old : ).

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anna19 March 2009 at 22:17

    A most thoughtful and informative post VP which I really enjoyed reading. Thank you :) So glad that you do not have squirrels nesting in your loft this year, as I understand that they can do great damage to electrics etc.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gail19 March 2009 at 23:50

    Good evening VP...if you're still up or good morning if you read this when you wake up~I do like the term slow gardening, too.... I am really slow to get around to clean up and there are plenty of leaves, seed heads, trees, bird houses, wood piles and walls for all manner of critters to live, find food and shelter. It certainly makes for a more interesting garden...gail

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous20 March 2009 at 08:52

    What an interesting, and informative, post.
    As you know I'm more than happy to encourage the wildlife on my plot, and that is as important to me as growing things!
    I'm most definitely a slow gardener, and have only just tidied up the plot having left everything over the winter!
    Enjoy the weekend! xx

    ReplyDelete
  11. Helen/patientgardener20 March 2009 at 12:16

    I must remember to do my wildlife in the garden post. Found a dead Greenfinch on the bird feeder this morning - not pleasant to deal.
    Did you see the programme on BBC2 last night about Darwin's experiments with Jimmy someone (him of the pig farm)? I did smile when the snail expert referred to the Thrushes as murderers!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. petoskystone20 March 2009 at 12:25

    great post! glad the squirrels are finding more hospitable roosts. the largest guest we have had here is a fox--who burnt the wind leaving once toddlers started stomping around the back porch!! since then the rabbits are slowly coming back. we have a young one in the hedge in front of the house.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Roses and Lilacs20 March 2009 at 12:50

    This is a very interesting post. It's the first time I've heard the term slow gardening. Leaving the foliage and seed for wintering birds is an excellent practice as is attracting beneficial insects that prey on garden pests.

    I'm off to do some research on 'slow gardening'.
    Marnie

    ReplyDelete
  14. Monica the Garden Faerie20 March 2009 at 14:33

    I also didn't set out to create a wildlife garden, but that's what it is. I think if you have a variety of plants you just attract wildlife because of the nectar, seeds, berries, cover, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous20 March 2009 at 19:01

    Hi VP. The most disruptive creatures on my plot are the moles, but they really do little harm and I love them. I'd like to think I'd feel the same way if we had badgers...

    Thanks for the Wildlife Trust link, I've added it to the allotment society resource list. Another good guide is this one from Natural England.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Carrie20 March 2009 at 20:06

    I'm growimg lots of flowers for the 'nice' insects and sunflowers for the birds next winter. Also I have a bug B&B which is a bit poor at present but I will improve the area in time. http://growourown.blogspot.com/2009/01/other-stuff.html
    Also, if I can find the time I'd love a little pond, though I don't think we're really aloud so shhh!.

    ReplyDelete
  17. VP23 March 2009 at 11:45

    EG - after your squirrel saga, I'm expecting detailed posts about your JCB badger very soon

    Life with Kaishon - that's my philosophy exactly

    Anna - thankfully they were a little better behaved than that and kept to the loft insulation!

    Gail - it was morning and it'll be early morning for you right now! I love how easy it is to make our gardens OK for wildlife - for me its a built-in thing to do :)

    Flighty - glad you enjoyed it, especially as I see you've been posting about fox newton at the same time :)

    PG - that's sad, but it happens. I see you've done your post now, I enjoyed it :)

    Petoskystone - luckily for us the rabbits keep to the land a few hundred yards from the house. The only rabbit we've had in the garden was when next door's pet one escaped!

    Roses and Lilacs - welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed the post and it's inspired you to research further :)

    Monica - absolutely.

    Simon - we had a mole at our previous house - our previous cat caught it :( Thanks for another great link :)

    Carrie - your secret's safe with me, but why wouldn't it be allowed? Is it because of health and safety? If so, I think there are design work arounds that can be used...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Carrie26 March 2009 at 13:39

    yep, health and safety ruins all the fun! I'll get around it somehow, there shall be water on my site!! Do I sound convincing, I'm not good at breaking the rules :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. VP26 March 2009 at 22:41

    Hi Cariie - thanks for getting back here! There are ways around it if H&S the issue e.g. fencing it off, covering the pond with netting so that people don't fall in etc etc.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Nan Ondra27 March 2009 at 23:37

    Sorry it's taken me so long to get here, VP; you know how hectic spring can be. I'm so glad you shared this post for the GGW Design Workshop. You make a good point that attracting wildlife isn't necessarily a matter of doing *more* work: it can actually be *less* work!

    ReplyDelete
  21. VP30 March 2009 at 08:38

    Hi Nan - your visit is always welcome and it's a busy time here too!

    I'm glad you picked up on this - everyone thinks that wildlife gardening needs lots of work, it often just needs some slightly different choices to be made and a relaxed attitude towards the gardening tasks. The latter means you get to enjoy the garden more too :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ...
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl...
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape...
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing ...
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the...
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee...
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi...
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso...
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter, ...
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener...
Read more