Proud to say I do all these and I have a wildlife filled garden. As I get increasingly interested in the wildlife the virtuous cycle of wildlife gardening continues: the more I notice (& get distracted) - the less I garden - the more wildlife I get. 😊
I think as time goes on I'm preaching to the already converted :D it's good to hear other people's successes though, I'm glad it's all working so well for you too!
incredibly useful! thank you so much! i have done all of the above except build a pond, because i find them aesthetically unappealing and difficult to maintain when they are very small, as my garden is. i had a sunken bathtub for a while but cleaning it out in spring and setting it up again for the new season proofed to be a downer, so we scrapped it eventually. but while it was there it really attracted hover flies and damsel flies and was a great drinking fountain for many birds, insects and small mammals! brilliant for watching wildlife actually!
Hi Ivy, did you have oxygenating plants in your pond? They shouldn’t need cleaning out, even small ponds. If they do need cleaning, there is a misbalance with not enough plants.
it was more like too many plants. Yes, oxygenaters too. but there was so much moss and then stuff from outside, leaves etc. that fell inside, it all became a smelly tangled mess. maybe in a few years, if we keep the garden, i’ll try again.
This is a fab list, Jack, thanks for sharing! I thought my garden was quite wildlife friendly but there are some tips here I have yet to try so I'll be making a few improvements :)
Yes, lots are quick and easy - and good idea to focus on one thing at a time too. I'll be looking out for dead wood as I'd never thought of using it instead of discarding it!
I love these ideas! My husband and I took some of our grass out this year and tried to replace with water-wise perennials (we live in Utah). Planted some wildflowers, shrubs, and a serviceberry tree for birds. I love what you said about letting herbs go to seed because I've done that, it was just out of laziness. Happy to hear my laziness paid off!
Thanks for this post. So many good ideas. I grow several species of milkweed for the monarchs, but this year two strange things happened. One, my common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, grew so tall and so fast that its stalk near the ground could not support it. Around mid season, it started turning black. Second, I had an oleander aphid infestation in two different species. Whole plants coated orange. My feeling is that the habitat is off somehow and I need to tune into what’s growing around them.
It will be interesting to hear how that develops in the next few years - this year has been a funny one in the UK, very wet and cold in spring, which set a lot of wildlife back, so it could be some key predators of the aphids weren't as prevalent, but that also means there is a big food source waiting for them in future. Not sure what happened to the milkweed, hopefully it comes back next year. Sometimes these things happen with perennials and it's hard to know until it happens again and becomes a pattern. Or sometimes it was a one off! Most of time I find.. :)
I sure hope it was a one-off! I am going to plant some companion repellents early in the season next year. We shall see. I have serious water and soil degradation problems I'm attempting to mitigate, so the ecosystem is surely unbalanced. Plus, our weather in North Carolina has been weird too, unpredictable. Very hot summer. Do you ever cut back your perennials in early spring to keep them from getting too tall?
I don't really, it's possible for many, people call it the Chelsea chop, but what I'm trying to do with the wild way of gardening is to remove all of that unnecessary care. So for instance, if something is struggling I would let it die and replace with something more suitable for the conditions rather than worry about keeping it alive. In your situation, I would concentrate on attracting aphid predators rather than trying to repel them. For instance, overflies, ladybirds, small garden birds, they all eat aphids.
Ah, brilliant. I had this cat move into the front garden, and it's scared off the birds. That could be the factor! Thank you for taking the time to chat!
Proud to say I do all these and I have a wildlife filled garden. As I get increasingly interested in the wildlife the virtuous cycle of wildlife gardening continues: the more I notice (& get distracted) - the less I garden - the more wildlife I get. 😊
I think as time goes on I'm preaching to the already converted :D it's good to hear other people's successes though, I'm glad it's all working so well for you too!
I imagine it’s hard to reach the unconverted. Great list though.
incredibly useful! thank you so much! i have done all of the above except build a pond, because i find them aesthetically unappealing and difficult to maintain when they are very small, as my garden is. i had a sunken bathtub for a while but cleaning it out in spring and setting it up again for the new season proofed to be a downer, so we scrapped it eventually. but while it was there it really attracted hover flies and damsel flies and was a great drinking fountain for many birds, insects and small mammals! brilliant for watching wildlife actually!
Hi Ivy, did you have oxygenating plants in your pond? They shouldn’t need cleaning out, even small ponds. If they do need cleaning, there is a misbalance with not enough plants.
it was more like too many plants. Yes, oxygenaters too. but there was so much moss and then stuff from outside, leaves etc. that fell inside, it all became a smelly tangled mess. maybe in a few years, if we keep the garden, i’ll try again.
Saving this for when I move house soon with a lovely garden to get to work on
Very exciting, it’s always fun to dream up what to do in a new garden!
This is a fab list, Jack, thanks for sharing! I thought my garden was quite wildlife friendly but there are some tips here I have yet to try so I'll be making a few improvements :)
Thanks Julianne! It seems like a long list but hopefully most are quite easy to do. I’m focussing on bird boxes this winter.
Yes, lots are quick and easy - and good idea to focus on one thing at a time too. I'll be looking out for dead wood as I'd never thought of using it instead of discarding it!
I love these ideas! My husband and I took some of our grass out this year and tried to replace with water-wise perennials (we live in Utah). Planted some wildflowers, shrubs, and a serviceberry tree for birds. I love what you said about letting herbs go to seed because I've done that, it was just out of laziness. Happy to hear my laziness paid off!
ha! Yes, I like to think our physical laziness is balanced by intensive consideration of wildlife :D It sounds lovely what you've done at yours.
Thanks for this post. So many good ideas. I grow several species of milkweed for the monarchs, but this year two strange things happened. One, my common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, grew so tall and so fast that its stalk near the ground could not support it. Around mid season, it started turning black. Second, I had an oleander aphid infestation in two different species. Whole plants coated orange. My feeling is that the habitat is off somehow and I need to tune into what’s growing around them.
It will be interesting to hear how that develops in the next few years - this year has been a funny one in the UK, very wet and cold in spring, which set a lot of wildlife back, so it could be some key predators of the aphids weren't as prevalent, but that also means there is a big food source waiting for them in future. Not sure what happened to the milkweed, hopefully it comes back next year. Sometimes these things happen with perennials and it's hard to know until it happens again and becomes a pattern. Or sometimes it was a one off! Most of time I find.. :)
I sure hope it was a one-off! I am going to plant some companion repellents early in the season next year. We shall see. I have serious water and soil degradation problems I'm attempting to mitigate, so the ecosystem is surely unbalanced. Plus, our weather in North Carolina has been weird too, unpredictable. Very hot summer. Do you ever cut back your perennials in early spring to keep them from getting too tall?
I don't really, it's possible for many, people call it the Chelsea chop, but what I'm trying to do with the wild way of gardening is to remove all of that unnecessary care. So for instance, if something is struggling I would let it die and replace with something more suitable for the conditions rather than worry about keeping it alive. In your situation, I would concentrate on attracting aphid predators rather than trying to repel them. For instance, overflies, ladybirds, small garden birds, they all eat aphids.
Ah, brilliant. I had this cat move into the front garden, and it's scared off the birds. That could be the factor! Thank you for taking the time to chat!