Gardening helpers

[Raindancer411]

Hi All

Whilst having a mooch around in the garden my usual friend came down to give me a helping hand.. Who else has helpers in their garden? Also, what plants do people grow to encourage more "helpers" into their garden?



This is my helper... He is following in his dads footsteps...

[Two_Sheds]

I have several blackbirds who come down and help me out. I'm currently digging up lawn, so finding lots of Chafer grubs for them.

[selfraising]

I'm growing teasel this year for the birds and hopefully will have a good number of frogs again to help with slug clearance duties!

[MrsC]

Robins are fab aren't they, I have a 3 regulars in my garden and another at the allotment. Lots of blackbirds too. Frogs also and hedgehogs, they come right upto the back doorstep in the summer

[Two_Sheds]

I went to a nursery yesterday, and there was a robin inside, singing away like he owned the place.

[smallblueplanet]

Cool shot of your robin raindancer!

[Rossa]

Fab shot of the robin raindancer. Had a mummy blackbird haveing a real good shower in our birdbath today. great to watch. Still looking for a few bees to take up the free offer of a bee house but no joy yet.

[Raindancer411]

Thank you Rossa and Smallblueplanet I have a really good one of him that I will have to put on here.

TwoSheds, its lovely to hear them sing and they always seem to be around the garden centres dont they.

Its great to watch the birds in the garden, I have noticed a lot more activity this weekend so far...

[rogesse]

So that explains all the blackbirds - I've just dug up a large patch of lawn!

[Jenny22Cumbria]

Aww - great pic! I used to have 2 robins visit whenever I did any digging (originally for the worms I unearthed I think, and then for the mealworms I'd put out) but I haven't seen them for a few weeks. They're probably off nesting somewhere.

I hope they do well but I'm a teensy bit jealous of the gardener who'll get to see their nest etc! I really wanted to put up a robin nesting box this year but as they have to be put quite low down and we have a dog I didn't think it'd be a good idea. Any babies that fell out of the nest wouldn't have had a chance against Amy

[Raindancer411]

Jenny - Yeah, we only really see him at the moment, but I have seen her in the garden a few times. Think she maybe on the nest which is where he is taking the mealworms. I know what you mean about being a teensy bit jealous. We had a old box my dad put up and they used that but got scared by next doors cats and abandoned it I have put up another one in hopes that they may go there (More cat proof and hidden in the honeysuckle). I guess that once they fledge I will get to see them then though... This robin is the son of the one from last year and I saw all those babies move into the garden for closer feeding lol... He must have remembered where the food came from!

[FB.]

We have a hedgehog nesting in the corner of our veg plot in a large, wooden, multi-chamber box placed there for just that purpose.
We can hear grunting/snorting/scrabbling/scratching and all sorts of strange noises on-and-off during the daytime. We sat quetly in wait a few nights ago and in the low-light, we just about managed to see it leave the nest and quickly run through a gap in the fence around 8.45pm.
The noises are still coming from the box, as of yesterday, when we were working on our veg plot.

Apart from that, we have plenty of semi-tame birds come down while we're going about our business (but they're not quite hand-tame). We find that ignoring them is the best way to avoid frightening them. If you stare straight at them for any length of time, they get suspicious and fly off.

[Alison Adams]

We are fortunate to have most of the 'helpers' mentioned above and a couple of other less familiar ones too - friends of our son (aged 7 today, happy birthday Charlie !) sometimes call round, not for him, but for me ! They want to help me clear stones and dig over the new veg plot, its even more fun that football or bikes apparently ! As a reward, I have dedicated a 1m square raised bed to them to grow any of my seeds they want. They have chosen multi-coloured and 'golfball' carrots, a cherry tomato and 2 strawberry plants to share - its brilliant. They really do work hard and they are thrilled at the idea of growing their own stuff. We will start planting their carrots this week. The weird thing is, they all have gardens at home, but prefer to come to ours because its "more interesting" !

[MrsC]

We are fortunate to have most of the 'helpers' mentioned above and a couple of other less familiar ones too - friends of our son (aged 7 today, happy birthday Charlie !) sometimes call round, not for him, but for me ! They want to help me clear stones and dig over the new veg plot, its even more fun that football or bikes apparently ! As a reward, I have dedicated a 1m square raised bed to them to grow any of my seeds they want. They have chosen multi-coloured and 'golfball' carrots, a cherry tomato and 2 strawberry plants to share - its brilliant. They really do work hard and they are thrilled at the idea of growing their own stuff. We will start planting their carrots this week. The weird thing is, they all have gardens at home, but prefer to come to ours because its "more interesting" !

I think maybe it might have something to do with the fact that you let them dig and don't mind them getting dirty lol Kids love being giving the freedom to do that IMHO. Not enough kids get the opportunity to go digging in the soil with sticks lol