BugFriendlyGardener

Why don't my birds love me any more....?

Sam Glendinning wrote (see)

Yep. You do im afraid. They have wiped out all the birds in my dads garden. Hes in a suburban area aswell.

They wont have been 'wiped out; they will just be avoiding a trouble hotspot. Unfortunately it is disappointing when this happens in the place where you are keen to watch 'your' birds.......

Wildlife friendly suggestions for bare fences....

Got a bare fence ? perhaps behind a narrow border or lawn.....

no.1 : Try growing raspberries if you've never done so before. Best to put a framework of wire on the fence. I use 3 strands. Raspberry canes are cheaply bought or if you know someone growing them already you can get offshoots from them for free. Don't plant them too close to the base of the fence and you'll have something very beneficial to bees and then get a crop for yourself or the birds.

no. 2 : For supporting climbers and to create an additional wildlife habitat...put up 2" square plastic mesh so that if sits about 4" away from the fence. I use long vine-eyes in the posts and in the middle of the panels (depending on the type of panel) I put small wooden platforms. This helps support the mesh and when your ivy etc are established, gives birds are starting point for nesting. Wrens and titsespecially like foraging in the gap between the fence panel and the mesh 'screen',

Gardening For Wildlife

Also, buy your snowdrops "in the green" in the spring. all the gardeing mags will have ads in the back . Or google Eurobulbs.

Snowdrops are one bulb that  establish poorly from dry as sold in the autumn. "In the green" means they will be sent to you in growth which can then be planted and it's easier to see the finished effect.

Gardening For Wildlife

As already suggested...the book "No Nettles Required" by Ken Thompson is a MUST read. I can also recommend the RSPB Wildlife Gardening book by Adrian Thomas. This is now generally regarded as the best all-round book on the subject. Can also recommend a website www.foxleas.com that is by a leading exponent on this subject.

Talkback: Planting snake's head fritillaries

I bought & planted 40 bulbs in autumn 1993 in a damp,shady front garden,in the grass. Only 12 came up and flowered but had 44 flowers by 1997. Flower counts then went 32,32,42.52,63,58,87,113,120,154,118,197 in 2009. then 175 & 139 by this year. I have dug up quite a lot forcustomers gardens ( I am a pro gardener) but they self-seed readily. I have also sown seed sowed when ripe into seed trays and covered with grit. Left out all winter and came up like cress. THink they took 4 years or so before getting to flowering size.

Wildlife gardening...hopes for the future

I sincerely hope the current trend in the promotion of wildlife-friendly gardening continues apace. I am 50; I have gardened in this vein since first seeing Chris Baines' TV programme "Blue Tits And Bumblebees : The Making of a Wildlife Garden" and his book from 1985. I have been a jobbing professional gardener since 2003 in the KT22 area of Surrey and I only advertise  as a "Wildlife friendly gardener". There are MANY gardeners working this area..we border 'stockbroker belt' Cobham & Oxshott but the take up of my 'specialist' services is very slow. Over the fence conversations with owners neighbouring gardens that I work in, would surprise you greatly in how oblivious most people are to our interests. I have to express that the wealthier garden owners around here have NO urge whatsoever to be wildlife-friendly. It's all brick-paved driveways; chemically-treated lawns and clipped evergreens. It's such a shame that huge swathes of Surrey are populated by people with this way of thinking. I am friends with another local more generalist gardener and very few of his customers will tolerate a compost heap or even leaf bins. I took on a 3/4 acre garden in August 2011 that the owners have been in for 23 years and every ounce of garden waste has been dumped in that time. I have just produced his first batches of compost and leaf mould and he is seriously amazed at what he has been wasting. His more elderly neighbours still burn all their leaves. My polite protestations have,so far, fallen on deaf ears. Just one years worth of bee-friendly perennial planting have made a noticeable impact upon the activity in the same garden. I work in 22 gardens and only two do not have compost heaps. Some are supported by green-waste bins that take the hard to process spikey stuff etc but in the larger gardens I store waste and have one winter bonfire and use the wood-ash for fertilising those gardens that grow fruit. I am lucky that in some of these gardens, I get a completely free rein and can plant whatever I like so I feel I make a significant impact. But a large percentage of the 'gardener-employing' public have grown up with gaudy bedding and hanging baskets and the obsession with tidyness, so it will be a long haul to change this prevailing attitude. So, PLEASE continue to do your bit and encourage your friends,family and neighbours to do theirs

Chocolate cosmos

Put the pot in unheated greenhouse in late October-ish. Start watering again in late March or so and bring out when the waether warms up. I have two 8 year old pots that have survived under this regime.

Wildlife friendly suggestions for bare fences....

Wildlife gardening...hopes for the future