GYO Needs Your Help!

[Emma Ward]

Hello everyone,

I've noticed that, over the last couple of weeks, a prickly hedgehog-shaped visitor has been making regular visits to my garden and this got me thinking about something...

I think most growers are familiar with the benefits of encouraging a variety of wildlife into the garden - but how many of us actively do so on a regular basis? Sometimes, despite our best intentions helpful creatures still suffer and have trouble finding food or shelter. So, how much do you do to create a haven for birds, bees and other animals? Do you think it's a worthwhile exercise?

Please select one option from the poll, then let us know why you have chosen this answer on the thread below. Some of your responses may be edited and published in the June issue of Grow Your Own.

Thanks
Emma

[Two_Sheds]

- I grow limnanthes, wallflowers, crocus, daffs etc for insects
- I leave a nettle patch (which gets covered in Peacock butterfly caterpillars)
- I don't cut down my sunflower & sweetcorn plants until April (insects hibernate in the stalks
- I leave a dustbin lid of water for the birds to bathe in
- I don't have hodgepigs, although I'm sure one visited the back garden last year (I saw poo)
- at home I feed the birds every day, and have 2 large shrubs (camellia & choisya) that the blackbirds nest in
- I leave hair (from my hairbrush) and feathers (from my parrots) in the garden for bird nesting material - in the vain hope that they'll stop robbing straw from my hanging baskets
- I use slug pellets rarely, and selectively, and under cover so that hedgehogs don't have access to dead & dying slugs
- I don't spray aphids, I squish them if they get out of control. The ladybirds need something to eat
- I grow calendula for hoverflies
- I leave the seedheads on sunflowers for the birds, ditto verbena bonariensis (I saw finches feeding on them this winter)
- we have a mature ivy along our lotty fence, which most people have ripped out, but I leave my bit because birds nest in it. Ditto a bit of bramble. I have resigned myself to frequent pruning

[rustylady]

I have bird feeders which are regularly topped up. I grow plants which provide seedheads and cover for birds. Windfall apples are left for the birds. I have a regular frog visitor, but haven't seen the hodgepigs for ages. Blackbirds are nesting (one in the passionflower which I was planning to prune this spring). Sparrows are feeding babies im the garden already. All in all we live together, and I am proud to say that none of my regular visitors (mostly birds) are afraid of me.

[Nykied]

I have lots of birdfeeders which I always top up with feed and fat balls, plus I'll be planting various flowers to attract pollinating insects and bees. Why, I'm not entirely sure, as I'm scared of bees and if I get stung on my right arm, I'll get lymphodema

[Buleste]

I have solitary bee nesting boxes along with a Ladybird box, Toad home and 2 bird feeders. I'm also trying to companion plant with lots of borage and some hyssop for my brassicas. If I can find some room I'll try to get a hedgehog home. I also try to use Nematodes where possible. If they don't work it's late night slug hunting and practising the slug clog dance.

[Snadger]

I have constructed a pond from an old bath! Last year I didn't want to, or have to, use any slug pellets as the frogs got them all. I had loads of frogs and didn't see a slug at all!
The pond is full of frogspawn at the mo and hopefully my 'slug munchers' will hatch and go about their business again this year!
The dragonflies buzz around it and blackbirds use the pond as there watering hole whilst nesting in the eaves of my old shed.

[Pumpkin Becki]

I feed the birds all year round from a variety of feeders, with a range of foods to cover as many types of birds as possible.

I have nest boxes sited round the garden as well as a native hedge which I don't prune until June/July time incase anyone is nesting in it.

I grow flowering plants covering as long a season as possible to help the bees, and I have introduced some native species of flowers into our garden, which are an excellent source of nectar and pollen.

I leave 'untidy' areas in the garden for hedgehogs to nest in, and leave my herbacious borders unpruned until March/April to provide winter habitats for ladybirds, lacewings and other beneficial insects. When I do prune, these go onto an open compost heap so that any little creatures can crawl out again.

[Paulottie]

I have a small pond and leave out hibernation boxes for frogs, insects, hedgehogs and slow-worms. In the summer on the allotments. We leave a few patches of nettles, a couple of budhlia and an area of long grass and there is some mixed hedging for nesting birds.

I'd never buy bird food but will leave out any grubs I turn up in a dusbin lid, I grow sunflowers for them and leave the heads out in winter. I only cover the fruit bushes at the last moment removing the net immediately I have taken my harvest for them to enjoy the residue.

[SueA]

I wouldn't dream of using any form of slug pellets or chemical pesticides, I try to use barrier methods & encourage 'useful' wildlife. I have a small wildlife pond, lots of birdfeeders with homemade & bought food, grow lots of bee friendly flowers, leave logpiles around, have a toad house, ladybird house & bee house (non of which I've noticed being used but I do think the toad house may be used for shelter by frogs/mice/toads/bugs etc!) I leave areas of the garden a bit 'untidy' so that wildlife can hide there & leave seedheads on plants during winter. When I've seen hedghogs I've put out dishes of cat food for them but the cat isn't too keen on that! I didn't see any at all last year which was worrying, I have gaps in the garden boundary where they can come & go & quite often they run along the 'ginnel' between our house & next door as a short cut.

[Emma Ward]

It's great to see a variety of approaches here I was wondering, for those who do actively encourage wildlife into the garden - how do you rate your success?

Looking forward to hearing from more of you!

Thanks
Emma

[Pumpkin Becki]

Pretty darn fantastic I'd say!

My OH never saw a scrap of wildlife in the garden until I moved in with him particularly, birds of the feathered variety, and now we have a huge range both at our old house and our new self build.

We had a semi-tame lady blackbird we called Tallulah, who used to bring all her newly fledged babies into our garden (she'd have about three sets every year!), so she obviously trusted us and the supply of food and water available. Its really important to feed birds throughout the year, not just in the depths of winter, and its especially important during the nesting/fledging period.

[ginger ninger]

I built a Wildlife Hotel last year with relative success, I've had my resident toad stay over winter, solitary bees, lace wings not to mention all the spiders. I have a cat, so all bird feeders are very high up, I have to use a step ladder to fill them. I plant flowers to attract the hover fly's, bees & butterfly's, although I don't like there offspring (caterpillars), I don't mind the wasps as much now since I noticed them flying of with small caterpillars. I'm limited to what wildlife visit as I live in the town centre...must add it's not an allotment...I have a small back garden built on a concrete bass.

[oldie]

I have two wood piles in different parts, bird tables and nesting boxes an old tree trunk with holes drilled all over it for bugs. I also have a 10 metre section of hawthorn hedge now in its second year. Small pond going in this year.

[SueA]

Although I don't think the 'bought' wildlife hotels etc. have been a great success as the insects & animals seem to prefer holes, cracks & logpiles, I think all the other things I've done have increased the number of wildlife visitors to my garden.
There are lots of bees & other insects who are attracted by the flowers & act as pollinators & ladybirds, lacewings & hoverflies who prey on less useful insects. Apart from when the weather is very bad as it has been over the last couple of years there are also all kinds of butterflies & a few rarer visitors such as the hummingbird hawkmoth also.
There are moths & insects flying around the garden in the evening which attract the two pipistrelle bats which circle around the trees & occasional visits from hedgehogs although they seem to have diminished in numbers in the neighbourhood but I like to think they feel welcome here.
There are toads & frogs who help eat the slugs & snails but I don't think they have big enough appetites to tackle our booming population & the birdfeeders, shrubs & trees have attracted lots of birds who now nest here & help keep down the aphids, larvae & grubs.
All in all I think it's a fairly harmonious & natural set-up!

[peanut]

I do as much as I can think of to encourage wildlife into my garden......

Birdfeeders dotted around the garden, containing different foods, such as peanuts, fatballs, rolled oats and sunflower hearts.
Birdtable for scraps, rolled oats, sunflower hearts etc
Never use any chemicals.
Companion planting.
Lots of various wildflowers, self sown flowers/weeds allowed to stay if they're good for insects/birds.
Nettles patch.
Wild patches of un-cut grass, to provide a "corridoor" for frogs/insects bugs etc.
I always leave my perennial borders until April before cutting them back....providing seedheads for birds and hibernation sites for insects.
Dog hair is put into a fatball feeders and poked into hedges for nesting material.
All bugs discovered, such as caterpillars, leatherjackets, vine weevil larvae etc are popped into a dish and put down for the birds.....they're usually gobbled up faster than I can find them!
Dried plant stems, especially hollow ones are cut into lengths and bundled together for hibernating homes for insects.
Various large water dishes are placed around the garden for birds to drink and bathe from.
Bird boxes are up....this year Blue Tits are in one and Blackbirds have nested next to one!
Most of the plants I buy/grow have to be beneficial to wildlife...especially Bees.

Forgot to add.....my log pile!