wildlife gardening.

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animartco
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wildlife gardening.

Post by animartco »

I would like to come in here to describe how much we can help wildlife by making our gardens wildlife friendly. It isn't just a matter of putting up a bird table. Food is not the main problem for wildlife. Habitat loss is the reason why we are in the middle of an extinction event. A large percentage of land in Britain consists of gardens, and if we take the trouble to turn our gardens into wildlife habitat we would be doing a vast amount of good.
It IS possible to have a stunning garden that is also a superb wildlife habitat. It really is. And the watchword is Plantalot!!! Wildlife needs cover. Lawns concrete and bare earth are of very little use to most animals. What we all should do is plant more trees and shrubs. It doesn't matter what you plant so long as it is thick and covers the ground.
Don't believe the people who say you should plant native plants. Wildlife aren't that particular. Indeed they positively thrive on something different to what they would find in the hedgerow. Plant the most beautiful plants you can find in the garden centres. Just plants lots! And you will end up with beautiful creatures all around you as well as beautiful plants.
Of course there are a few more do's and don'ts but I await some reactions first? Cheers Gillian (ecologist)
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Mo
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by Mo »

It would be nice if you could chose which wildlife you encouraged.
We seem to have planted grass for moles, cabbages for rabbits and white butterflies, spuds for rats, strawberries for blackbirds, cherries for crows.
And by not cutting the grass in the orchard to let the wildflowers seed we now have docks and nettles seeding as well - and it's all too long for the mower (mechanical and human).

It is true that we have frogs and grasshoppers in the long grass, and the blackbirds also like the berberis (stain the path purple). And the goldfinches enjoy things when they go to seed.

Don't believe the people who say you should plant native plants.
I understood that insects were adapted to particular food plants.
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fabindia
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by fabindia »

animartco wrote:It IS possible to have a stunning garden that is also a superb wildlife habitat. It really is. And the watchword is Plantalot!!! Wildlife needs cover. Lawns concrete and bare earth are of very little use to most animals. What we all should do is plant more trees and shrubs. It doesn't matter what you plant so long as it is thick and covers the ground.
Don't believe the people who say you should plant native plants. Wildlife aren't that particular. Indeed they positively thrive on something different to what they would find in the hedgerow. Plant the most beautiful plants you can find in the garden centres. Just plants lots! And you will end up with beautiful creatures all around you as well as beautiful plants.


Totally agree. I planted about 400 feet of native hedging years ago but given time, probably have 3 times the diversity of the original planting as other species move in. Grass lawns are certainly a very poor habitat, and in parts of the world where the summers are hot and lawns need constant watering (think USA, Australia, etc.), lawns are a positive ecological nightmare.

I have let parts of the garden grow really wild, i.e. just not done much with areas. The problem is that these tend to get overgrown with brambles, dock, etc.

This year, I also planted more of a wildflower meadow, but again there is more to it than just letting the grass grow. My soil is very rich, so I have tried to grow a summer meadow. It does look really beautiful at its peak but to be honest, it doesn't last for more than a few weeks. Now comes the hard work again. I'll have to cut it all back for the winter and turn over as much soil as I can, as what you need to do is minimize the growth of grass, so this year I am going to plant some yellow rattle to be in the ground over winter.

Here are some pics from about a month ago. Cornflowers, corn-cockle (don't believe the scare-mongering about these being poisonous, they are but so are many other garden plants), poppies, ox-eye daisies, field marigolds, plus a hundred and one other weeds.

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Michael
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elliebear15
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by elliebear15 »

Gosh that wildflower meadow looks lovely. It's a shame it doesn't last so long.
animartco
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by animartco »

Mo wrote:It would be nice if you could chose which wildlife you encouraged.
We seem to have planted grass for moles, cabbages for rabbits and white butterflies, spuds for rats, strawberries for blackbirds, cherries for crows.
And by not cutting the grass in the orchard to let the wildflowers seed we now have docks and nettles seeding as well - and it's all too long for the mower (mechanical and human).

It is true that we have frogs and grasshoppers in the long grass, and the blackbirds also like the berberis (stain the path purple). And the goldfinches enjoy things when they go to seed.

Don't believe the people who say you should plant native plants.
I understood that insects were adapted to particular food plants.

adapted to particular food plants
Yes, and no. if species are closely related the insect can cross over. Many of the foreign plants grown in garden centres are closely related to native species, and a large percentage are actually scaled down versions of native plants. This scaling down is very important because a wild plant grown in a garden with its rich tilled soil will grow long leggy and completely out of control, and you will spend half of your time in the garden treading over everything while constantly attempting to cut it back. This is the great problem with growing wild native plants. They just do not provide sufficient cover for wildlife. Nests are not built in bendy year old shoots. The plant has to be mature with thick hard stems close enough together to allow a nest to be attached to them.
Understand this advice is a generalization. There are of course some really lovely native species. A Rowan tree for instance has not been altered much by horticulture, apart from the production of a range of colours of berry.
Sadly though , when it comes to wildflowers, they tend to be far more picky about habitat than garden flowers. I have been trying to get cowslips stitchwort and fumitory to grow in the garden for ages. If you find a beautiful rare wildflower growing in your garden then keep it, nurture it and put a feather in your cap! But believe me, the ones that WILL grow like stink are pests and you are doing the wildlife a disservice by growing them.
fabindia
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by fabindia »

The easiest thing i think you can do for wildlife in the garden is to plant a native hedge. Take down those horrible wood panel fences and plant Hawthorne, field maple, dog rose, etc. You'll be rewarded by a haven for birds, insects, frogs and hedgehogs. Folk think they are hard work but I only cut my native hedge once a year, in the winter when there is little else to do in the garden. Easier in my option than looking after a wood panel hedge, that needs constantly painting, repairing and putting up again after gales.
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animartco
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by animartco »

fabindia wrote:The easiest thing i think you can do for wildlife in the garden is to plant a native hedge. Take down those horrible wood panel fences and plant Hawthorne, field maple, dog rose, etc. You'll be rewarded by a haven for birds, insects, frogs and hedgehogs. Folk think they are hard work but I only cut my native hedge once a year, in the winter when there is little else to do in the garden. Easier in my option than looking after a wood panel hedge, that needs constantly painting, repairing and putting up again after gales.

Oh yes Fabindia hedges are great. But the best ones for wildlife are actually the non native conifers, because they provide much needed winter warmth for small birds. Of course if you really feel the need to plant native, then yew, although this is discouraged for field boundaries. Hawthorn or blackthorn work best as field hedges because they can be allowed to get very thick. In a normal sized garden you don't have that much space. I would recommend berberis. It is denser than hawthorn and much more attractive, and largely evergreen. There are several different species at different heights. In fact I think one of them is native.
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Meanqueen
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by Meanqueen »

I have a conifer hedge at the bottom of my garden separating me from the garden behind. They have put up a fence between us, and the neighbour suggested I cut down my hedge because it is past it's best. There is nothing wrong with it, it grows slightly higher than the fence, and there is a lot of ivy as well, which they don't like. I would rather look at my hedge than a boring brown fence. I have frogs in my garden which I think come from their pond, I don't have a pond.
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fabindia
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by fabindia »

Meanqueen wrote: I would rather look at my hedge than a boring brown fence.


That's the attitude :-D
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elliebear15
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by elliebear15 »

Our neighbours planted a cherry laurel hedge, right up to the boundary line.
It's horrible.
I think laurels may harbour a reasonable amount of wildlife, but there were so many other lovely choices they could have gone for >shrug<
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Mo
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by Mo »

fabindia wrote:
Meanqueen wrote: I would rather look at my hedge than a boring brown fence.


That's the attitude :-D


And your hedge will still be there when their fence has rotted or blown down.
Our boundary used to be our neighbours privet hedge which died along one side of our L shaped boundary in a hard winter. Since then her fence has rotted and blown down twice. OH has planted a double hedge on our side, holly then conifer. I'm slightly worried that this may lead to confusion as to where the boundary actually is.
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fabindia
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by fabindia »

Mo wrote: Since then her fence has rotted and blown down twice..


Our neighbor (though there is a path between them and us so nothing to do with our ditch and native hedge) took out a privet hedge a few years back. Since then, kids have pulled off some of the palings, it has blown down several times and needs painting. Even with a privet hedge, you can get away with cutting two or three times a year. Far less work in my book.
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Bridgets Mum
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by Bridgets Mum »

My wildlife star plant of the year is ivy. We have had a wren, a robin and 2 blackbird nests in different parts of the 'hedge'. Probably there were more than I didn't spot. My neighbour's two young pheasants like to roost in our ivy covered tree and I have seen an owl sitting there. The ivy flowers were COVERED in hover flies and butterflies, plus the odd bee and a couple of wasps. Honeysuckle has been a good nest site too, but then so has an old step ladder behind a shed. Right now the nasturtiums are still flowering away and being visited by bumble and honey bees.
This year, for the first time, we left an area of grass uncut until October. Lots of knapweed popped up which the bumble bees loved. We've had less frogs than usual but far more toads.
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by fabindia »

Bridgets Mum wrote:The ivy flowers were COVERED in hover flies and butterflies, plus the odd bee and a couple of wasps

Apparently, ivy s a good source of food for bees late in late summer, through Autumn but the honey isn't very good, at least for human consumption.
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animartco
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Re: wildlife gardening.

Post by animartco »

Bridgets Mum wrote:My wildlife star plant of the year is ivy. We have had a wren, a robin and 2 blackbird nests in different parts of the 'hedge'. Probably there were more than I didn't spot. My neighbour's two young pheasants like to roost in our ivy covered tree and I have seen an owl sitting there. The ivy flowers were COVERED in hover flies and butterflies, plus the odd bee and a couple of wasps. Honeysuckle has been a good nest site too, but then so has an old step ladder behind a shed. Right now the nasturtiums are still flowering away and being visited by bumble and honey bees.
This year, for the first time, we left an area of grass uncut until October. Lots of knapweed popped up which the bumble bees loved. We've had less frogs than usual but far more toads.

Yes ivy is a great plant! The bees it attracts when in flower! You can hear it buzzing from the other side of the garden. Although I think my bumble bees must shush away the hoverflies and butterflies! Honeysuckle and Hazel are good for dormice, which are a garden species, but you've got to live near a corridor. Most of East kent is good for dormice in gardens- if you don't dig it all up and kill everything off! Not only dormice but newts toads slowworms and butterfly chrysallids are destroyed by digging from autumn to spring. The only thing anyone needs to dig is the vegetable patch. The only other reason to put a fork in the ground is in lifting and planting perennials, and you never actually dig over a perennial bed, just separate out bits. Oh OK also loosening deep rooted things like brambles and dock. Nettles are best dealt with by lightly loosening the soil beneath them and then it all comes up like a mat. Why work when there are easier ways to do it, Especially if those easier ways are not harmful to wildlife?
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