Our HUGE garden project. Ideas on wildlife friendly plants and garden tips please

ixwood

Love the pics!! FAB!

aliasojo

ixwood wrote: »

Love the pics!! FAB!

Ok...I'm getting paranoid now. How come you saw them? Step by step instructions please?

ixwood

lol. Only joking. I can't access them either.

aliasojo

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

That's very bad!

ixwood

It might be easier for others if you didn't have to register. Photobucket and the like is easy and free. You'll be able to put them directly in threads too.

aliasojo

Nope, there is definitely nothing in group rooms other than the 'create group room' option.

I suspect you may have to add the email address of everyone you want to share with so they can see too, at a guess?

rhiwfield

BM,

Cant see photos on your link but one or two ideas on wildlife.

See this LINK for detailed guidance on ways of improving your garden for wildlife.

One of the hardest bits to take on board is that the interests of wildlife sometimes dont coincide with your own views. Ponds are great for wildlife but the best garden ponds for wildlife dont include fish, which will eat invertebrates and young amphibians. Mind you, I get more enjoyment watching an emerging dragonfly unfold its wings and young frogs leaving the pond than watching fish

If you think of the food web, then think of plants for invertebrates and shelter for the larger animals that feed on them.

Ivy is an excellent wildlife plant but some people cant stand it and rip it out.

Most wildlife enthusiasts bang on about native plants. This is because invertebrates use these as food plants for their young. If you plant native plants you will encourage wildlife to breed in your garden as well as visit.

Adult invertebrates are more likely to be attracted by flowers for nectar/pollen. If you've got a plentiful supply of invertebrates then you'll see the garden visited by birds and bats in search of food. If you havent already got them invest in some field guides to wildlife (e.g. butterflies, birds, moths)

One last thought is that you should leave some areas/corners of garden untidy. It saves on gardening time and nature loves untidyness!

blue_monkey_2

In regard to the pond, we will have 2 ponds, one for the wildlife which will be shallow and left 'as is' and the other which is being built as a specific Koi pond. We do know that the 2 do not mix and when we designed the last pond we have sectioned a bit of the pond off where the fish cannot get to, the fish will not be in there though and will be moved in the next few weeks before the frogs start spawning.

When the top end of the garden is done this will be left untidy (as it is at the moment really) and some old wood logs put there, so yes, we have thought about this as well. We also have a huge meadow that backs onto the house.

Thanks for all of your posts, we have 4 weeks yet so there is lots of time to prepare as the guys only just started today, I'll post back some more later and will get the links sorted out to the album/pics.

ixwood

Lovely space. It's going to be brill!

blue_monkey_2

Thank you. Can you really see it this time..... I did them while the kids were digging up all the worms to put on the bird table ready for the birds morning breakfast!!