How can I improve my garden for wildlife?

[herring99]

Bit of a vague one I know, but I'll start with what I have got.

The garden is 30ft by 30ft with a stretch of trees/bushes running behind it with a road after this. The setting is a typical suburban garden. In it I have established a shrub border down one side (buddleia, pyracantha, cotoneaster, fuscia and trimmed the ivy on the fence to flower and fruit and let bramble grow within it). This has so far payed dividends for thrushes, blackcaps and woodpigeons on the ivy and other garden birds like tits, robins to hide in.

The back border has gooseberry, cherry (and rhubarb, for me not the birds) and the birds eat the fruit. The other side has an incomplete pond on it and a few shrubs behind. The pond needs the edging complete but due to the birth of my son I never got round to that. So far damselflies and newts have bred in the pond and a common frog has also been present (only found this when I nearly strimmed it in the autumn!). There is a patch of lawn in the centre which I use for the feeders. All the borders are mulched, which attracts hedgehogs for the slugs (which devour any border plants the wife tries to plant) but unfortunately also attracts cats as they like to use it as a cat litter.

The patio has potted herbs which attract micro moths, the buddleia also attracts insects as does the ivy in late autumn.

I've had a look at a few websites but they really didn't have anything for the next stage after the garden is becoming established and tended to concentrate on bigger gardens than mine.

Any help/advice/or peoples personal experiences would be appreciated.

Herring

[Johnny1]

I can't really add to what you already have, my formost recomendation to anyone with a garden is to build a pond, then after that provide shrubs and trees for berries and cover, add a few feeders and thats about it. From what I can see you have already done this. of course there's the obvious things like bird and bat boxes.My garden isn't much bigger than yours about 60ft x 40 but add all the neighbours gardens and you have a fair size bird habitat. Whatever you do good luck and enjoy it.

[moose1991]

Sounds like the garden is perfect anyway. Best thing to do now is sit back and enjoy it.

[herring99]

Glad you both think I'm doing ok, but I still feel I could do more, like getting a bathing area stuck on the pool for the birds and trying more potted plants on the patio targetting moths/butterflies. (That is if the young nipper gives me enough time o do them in the summer :bounce: )

When will it be safe to finish the pond edging so as not to disturb sleeping amphibians? I've read people are beginning to look for frog spawn, so it must be soon?

Cheer

Herring

[David FG]

I would agree with the previous posters - you seem to have everything in place. I suppose you could try a 'bog garden' next to your pond, but I think you just have to wait.

[Johnny1]

Where I am here in Lancashire the frogs are starting to spawn now. I don't think they would be bothered too much whenever you did the work unless it means draining it or using cement which can be unpleasant if it seeps into the water. Or is your pond one of the pre fabricated type? When I made my pond I left a shallow area where the birds bathe and drink. it can get hectic with 20 starlings all trying to bathe at once!
Potted plants can add to your garden but you have to bear in mind plants in pots need looking after - feeding and watering, on hot days it can mean watering twice a day!

[Nina P]

Hi there Herring, have you got any bedding plants in mind for attracting insects? If so how about Poached egg plant, annual which seeds itself about, and grasses the birds love to hide in them and eat the seeds, then there are the colourful penstemmons that attract insects and are very nice as cut flowers too, annual cosmos are very good as cut and come again flowers with insects attracted to the bright colours, island beds of shrubs like hebe that also encourage butterflies, anything else try and PM me for any other information, as I am unsure exactly what you would like to encourage, and vegetables can be as good as any others for all wildlife too, just let me know what your target is and I'll come up with a range for you to plant. Nina P

[Lady19thC]

Your garden sounds lovely. One thing I did not notice-do you have a bath with either a drip or a mister? This really attracts some of the non-feeder birds to my yard, here in the US. The sound of dripping water and the activity of birds spashing around attracts the curiosity of other birds. We always have a surprise in our bath! Finches and other species love to drink straight from the drip, instead of the bath, for cooler, fresher water. They just sit on top and lean over. I would like to purchase a mister, this year, as well, and therefore, probably another bath, and see how that goes!

[Richard D]

How about a small stack of cut logs (preferably native). They'll provide shelter for frogs and toads as well as harbouring insects.

Regards

[weather]

Here are a couple of sites that might interest you.

http://www.wildlifegardening.co.uk/

http://www.wildlife-gardening.co.uk/

Mike

[herring99]

I have a woodpile (a disused wooden border edge) stacked near the pond, but I had let this become overgrown and had forgotten about it till Richard D mentioned it. Hopefully it has attracted enough of the local amphibians to combat the slug problem.

I didn't think of a putting a mister in, but will try and extend the pond area to include a shallow bath section.

Looks like the borders may have to be attacked this year as well by planting a few wild flowers.

Thanks for the tip and links, looks like I will have enough to go on with this year B (:

[romancitizen]

"My garden isn't much bigger than yours about 60ft x 40 but add all the neighbours gardens and you have a fair size bird habitat. "

This is a good point - look at a colour airial photo of your neighbourhood and you will be surprised at how green it looks - and don't forget this is the 'bird's eye view'.

I went to a lecture recently at which it was stated that the ground covered by gardens in the UK is approximately equal to the area of woodland. If you put up bird boxes and have some reasonable cover, you can easily have 3 nests in your own mini nature reserve. Multiply that by the 15 million or so gardens.......

[mcdowella]

Is there some way of encouraging ivy to fruit? I have some ivy scrambling over a fence, but I've never seen it fruit? Do I just have to wait a few years?

[herring99]

How old is it (check the width of the main stem?) Mine has fruited for the last three years but really took off two years ago after a firm pruning in the spring (don't go mad, just trim back some of the foliage and don't remove any of the main branches!). I will probably do mine again this year to encourage fresh growth. If anyone knows a better way they better say soon or it will be too late.........

[memphisminstrel]

Native hedging is good, I have planted some out 'back'. (hopefully the wild bunnies won't destroy it all) I use www.wigglywigglers.co.uk. They give a lot of good info out.

[Limeybirder]

has your pond got a fountain? Or do you have an outside tap that you could hook a hosepipe to?

If so this will attract many more birds especially migrants they home in on the sound of trickling water.
I have a hose pipe with a fine mister attachment that sprays up into the air and the bushes either side of it catch the water which then drips into a birdbath. Birds flock to my birdbath whenever I turn on the tap especially during migration on hot days. I appreciate Hampshire isnt as hot as Florida but I am originally from England and I know having water dripping into a bird bath works wonders because I tried it at Dungeness when I worked there. Tired migrants would home in on the sound and have a bathe and drink before continuing on there way; plus all your resident birds will take advantage of it.

The only other suggestion is to plant a weedy/wildflower strip in your garden, plants such as teasel will attract finches especially Goldfinches and it will also provide cover for the more skulking species. My dad had a Grasshopper Warbler visit his once and in our old yard in Cheshire we had Lesser Whitethroats nesting in a rank overgrown patch of scrub no more than 5 square feet in area.

Good luck, I am obsessed with my yard list and making our yard a wildlife haven, so far I have tallied 78 species in just 6 months so all the hard digging, planting, experimenting etc has certainly paid off. B (:

[Luca's Ade]

May I suggest a wildflower seed mixture

http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/mixture.htm

Also bee, ladybird and lacewing housing. And a dry stone wall, I don't mean a proper one, but when you are out and about pick up the odd rock and stack then up against a fence.

[herring99]

Thanks again for all the suggestions and help. The Mister idea really sounds good, but with a possible hosepipe ban approaching I may have to wait before trying this out.

Here is an update of things that have happened so far this year;

Pond - edging almost complete. Mixing concrete manually is a real drag, as is moving the edging stones. I really wish I'd hired a concrete mixer! New arrivals, 2 pond skaters and for a short while in March a common frog took up residence. No frog spawn so I guess no luck with mating. I did a clear out of some of the collected leaves around the shallows, but had to stop after a bit and search through the bucket for wildlife after discovering a newt hanging on to a leaf. Many dragonfly nymphs, water beetles, rattails, worm things and lots of micro stuff and a few newts were found showing the pond is really developing.

Garden - Planted some foxglove and ox-eye daisys in the reamaining bit of border. Some have survived the cats dig and cr*p raids but half have been lost. I hate cats and they smell bad as well! All other plants are doing well except for the Jasmine which sadly has expired! Recently I installed a rain butt and composter. Both are doing great and hopefully I will be self sufficient by autumn on the composting front.

Bird box.....interesting stuff. Two female Great tits are trying to lay claim to this. Lots of posturing and singing. The male who was around to begin with is keeping a very low profile. It will be interesting to see who wins this.

Things are really progressing so maybe a bit of patience is called for. This year I have already picked up 5 new bird species, 1 butterfly species and over 20 new moth species recorded in the trap (still my first year of trapping). See the attached photo of a Nut-Tree Tussock.

All the best

Herring

[christianbirder]

Sounds like the garden is perfect anyway. Best thing to do now is sit back and enjoy it.

After all they have Devizes for Chippenham!

[willowa]

Your garden sounds good but if you are like me it is never finished.
I have two large bay trees the Blackbirds live in. I grow lillys in pots they attract hoverflys. Im going to plant a Goat willow ( native pussy willow) NOT WEEPING It provides pollen early in the season for the bees. Lavender. rosemary, mint, and sage all attract insects. The Bluetits hang upside-down on them to get insects.
I have just started to grow flowers in pots as my garden is mainly evergreen.
My wildlife pond thread shows my pond with a gravel edge one side and a lawn edge the other side. The main thing in a wildlife garden is to use no chemicals.
The more I plant the more wildlife comes. We have hedghogs breeding under the shed. Toads,frogs,dragonflys, mini beasts in the pond. I just keep adding to it. I am going to make a Bog garden soon. My garden is 75ft X 15 ft. You have got lots of tips now from lots of people.
you could post a few pics when you get time I would love to see your garden :t: