Wildlife friendly town garden

Flowers, Trees, Lawns, Infrastructures, Maintenance & anything else!
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saint-spoon
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Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by saint-spoon »

My garden isn’t big by any stretch of the imagination but I have got some grass and a few beds around the edges.
I have recently ownership of the adjoining fence with my neighbour (long story but he has issues) and replaced the old rotting 8’ fence with a 4’ on with a trellis on top, the idea is to have a honeysuckle and climbing jasmine providing flowers. I have planted some sunflowers around the boarders so hopefully will get some of those and I have a couple of pots of wildflowers seeded so hopefully we will get some results. Unfortunately I managed to kill off my lavender but the buddleia is doing fine (apparently now is the time to deep prune). Dandelions I have aplenty, and there are patches of clover in the grass which is good for bees, but I have no daisies something which I would like to rectify. Any ideas as to get daisies into the lawn?
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wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by wildlifemad »

If you've got any friendly neighbours who have them in their lawn it may be worth asking them if you can dig a couple up & pop a bit of compost in its place the grass will soon grow (hopefully!!!!) Otherwise,just googling it, it seems Bellis Perennis is the wild form & available from Chilternseeds.co.uk, they are a good company who I have used many times over the years & not over-priced. Just a thought, if you have room in your borders a good plant for the bees,hoverflies & butterflies is Verbena Bonariensis which can be bought as seeds or plants, they flower all through the summer & are 3 ft ish tall so can just be dotted in around the border as they do not spread out much & as long as its not a really hard winter will come back,otherwise save some seed. Happy growing!!
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saint-spoon
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by saint-spoon »

Thanks for the tip.
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Freeranger
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by Freeranger »

SS you might like to consider clover for your garden as well. Bees go mad for it here.
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saint-spoon
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by saint-spoon »

I already have patches of clover, especially good for bumble bees I am told. I haver some bare patches that died off due to us inheriting a trampoline and it shading the turf, so I intend to reseed it with mmore clover and some daisies as well as some grass.
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Meanqueen
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by Meanqueen »

I bought a packet of sunflower seeds one year, for £1, wasn't sure how high they would grow so I planted them in plastic storage boxes. They grew and grew and grew then I realised they would need support so I moved them alongside the garage where I attached lengths of string to hold them flat against the wall.

It ended up that they grew taller than the garage, so all the flowers were up in the sky.

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saint-spoon
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by saint-spoon »

I was out at the weekend with my two girls planting sunflowers in the back garden 9and one in a pot on the kitchen windowsill). the day after we had planted them Teaspoon (Snr) was asking if we could go and see if they were growing {rofwl}

I have ordered some assorted wildflower seeds so hopefully I will have a veritable hay meadow around the edges and in the shady areas (ordered shady area seeds as well)
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cgisby
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by cgisby »

I'm city based with an alright sized garden, trying to make it wildlife friendly as best I can. This year I'm experimenting with a lot of different "wildlife friendly" plants, mostly trying to help out my bees and frogs the most, but butterflies and birds are more than welcome. Last year though, I found every herb I planted (and let flower) was covered in bees, thyme in particular, so not only are you helping them out but you're growing something for yourself

Also something that randomly grew in my garden, i think it was Borage, was covered in bees too
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saint-spoon
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by saint-spoon »

funnily enough I have a planter in which I have planted some borage seeds and the Spoonettes were most delighted to see the little shoots coming through yesterday afternoon.
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steveindenmark
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by steveindenmark »

"You have managed to kill off your lavender"

Are you saying that because it looks dead at the moment?

I leave my lavender well alone until the middle or end of May. Mine looks dead at the moment. But I know that by the end of May there will be lots of new growth on those parts of the plant that looks dead. That is when I will prune it.
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saint-spoon
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by saint-spoon »

steveindenmark wrote:"You have managed to kill off your lavender"

Are you saying that because it looks dead at the moment?


No it has been very dead for around two years now... so I dug it out.
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cgisby
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Re: Wildlife friendly town garden

Post by cgisby »

Almost back into Spring now I was just wondering how it went for you last year?
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