Month: July 2020 Page 1 of 2

Going native

On 30th July 2020

In Gardening for Wildlife, Our Local Wildlife

Top 8 Native Irish Plants That You Really Should Know — This tree is going to be too large for an average sized suburban garden
Think about how large it needs to be before you go out and get an oak, chestnut, etc…

It may be too late to plant a wildflower meadow, but you can think about native plants. And you usually put them in late winter, so you can start planning for where you want to put your new friends.

We start with trees because they are the structural bit of the garden. It is like having a frame to then hang things one. Trees are that frame.

Shrubs/Hedges/Small Trees

Hazel (Corylus avellana) - British Trees - Woodland Trust — Hazel

If you have a regular sized suburban garden whatever you do, do not put in a proper tree. Think beech (which isn’t native anyway but naturalised), oak, chestnut, etc. That is a tree. Do not put one in unless you are prepared to keep it in check.

Instead go with more modest plants like hazel, elder, rowan (the elements’ tree!), cherry, hawthorn, birch, etc.

Try and get a tree which bears fruit.

Shady Trees

Black Alder - The Grove 3D Trees — Alder

Trees which grow in the shade or in watery type habitats are alder, willow and blackthorn. I mention these because they aren’t too large.

These trees also produce leaf litter which are great for mulching and insects.

Fruit trees

You discover something new every year. So this year I discovered that my overripe fruit was being used by insects and when they fell on the ground, worms, etc would eat them. Having a native fruit tree is such a pleasure.

Image may contain: plant, tree, flower and outdoor — Here is the cherry tree in my garden

Image may contain: plant, fruit, food and outdoor — Here is the fruit it gave (some strawberries mixed in there!)

Where to put them?

As far away from the house as possible. A tree’s roots grow as far as their crowns. So think about what your tree looks like and if it has a huge crown, it will have a massive root system. It makes sense right – except for beeches. I have seen innumerable numbers of beeches upended in storms because of very shallow root system. So be careful when choosing your tree – just stay away from very large trees.
The smaller shrubs can be used to make an interesting hedge that bears lots of fruit. A fantastic planting to try is: dogrose, hawthrown, blackthorn, hazel and elder. The elder can get out of hand so make sure you keep it control at all times. This hedge will give you a lot of beautiful flowers through the year, smell amazing in the summer and give the birds and insects plenty to be happy about until the dog days of winter.
Fruit trees like cherries and plums can be the centre pieces of a garden. Use them to ‘anchor’ plantings. you could have two fruit trees (no more) in a regular sized suburban garden, and then have a pond and some smaller plants amongst them. The fruits then can be shared between you and your wildlife.
Remember trees give shade – so think about the amount of shade you can live with.

Where to get them from?

You can contact local garden centres to ask them about their native tree stock. You can also ask Conservation Volunteers, although I have heard that they tend to order their stock from abroad. But ask around. I got my trees from a garden centre and friends!

Good luck! Never too early to start planning for what trees/shrubs you are planning to put in over the winter!

Tomorrow: Tree Lore!

Lawns vs Wildflowers

By ElementsFGS

On 29th July 2020

In Gardening for Wildlife, Our Local Wildlife

Plants to consider

So now you should have figured out what your garden does through the year for sunshine and shade, AND you know the type of soil which you have. Unless you invest heavily in infrastructural changes, then you are going to have to work with what you have. This is yet another great thing about native plants. They already have this place sussed out!

Do not worry if you have only concrete – you can still have a garden that attracts wildlife. I’ll talk about that right at the end.

All Categories - Wildedges — A field of common wildflowers

Rethink the lawn

I really want you to rethink the lawn. The idea of the lawn came from the 18th century when people had too much money and time – made from usually very questionable sources (think sugar plantations in the Caribbean, just sayin’). The time for the lawn is now past. It is a green desert, a waste of space. It is also full of chemicals, sprayed on to keep plants which are good for bees, spiders, butterflies, away. WHY???!!! There is no reason apart from it is ‘tidy’.

If you do have a lawn, and cannot bear to let the entire thing go, then you could do it in small spaces and create ‘artistically wild’ spaces. So let it grow out in patches. You can now see this in the more enlightened councils where they let the grass verges grow out to host a plethora of grasses and wildflowers such as cuckoo’s flower and corn marigolds.

The flowers we have in them are so important for wildlife – dandelions and nettles are also edible for us and really good for us too (although if you are planning to do this, make sure your land has been free of chemicals for a few years.) But there is nothing lovelier than seeing the once barren and tired lawn now covered in clover, buttercups and daisies buzzing with bees.

Also, they are way easier to maintain. Just cut it two or three times during the growing season. Put a sign in your lawn saying it is an Ark.

Ark Wildlife Limited (@arkwildlife) | Twitter

Wildflower meadow

Bees & Butterflies Wildflower Seed Mix No Grass — Beautiful and costly but well worth it

If you really want to go the whole hog, then you could replant the laws as a wildflower meadow. Or you could do just the edges, or again in patches.

Before I get into this, you must know that the time for planting wildflower meadows is past. You need to do this either in late winter but I much prefer doing it in early spring. Around March. This is because I once planted it in the autumn and we had such a rotten spring that all the seeds rotted and we had next to nothing.

So, plant it around March/April. Nothing later.

Here is how you get a foolproof wildlife garden.

Rotivate the soil. This is the hard part. You can dig it with kids as well. I have found that if you don’t do this, then you don’t get nice seeds. If you are a no dig philosophy, then wildflower gardens will have to come naturally for you.
Get a good wildflower mix. Ecoseeds is a great place to go to. Make sure they send you native Irish mixes. They are expensive because they are tedious to collect, but Eco Seeds’ mixes are more or less foolproof. However, once you have put them in, you don’t mow the lawn for the entire season. Think about that. It pays for itself and it is so very very pretty. Whatever you do, do NOT buy them from those cheap discount stores. They are mostly sawdust.
Make sure you have the right soil. Many wildflowers are for arable soil – that’s how they started anyway. If you have wet, clayey soil, it is not going to work. Much better you think about having a pond instead. how do you find out what kind of soil you have? Walk out into the garden on a dry day. If you socks start filling with water, you have clayey soil. Grass does badly in clayey soil anyway. You cannot get it to grow.
Make sure you have loads of sunlight. You cannot plant a wildflower garden in a dark shady place. Opt for plants which thrive in the shade e.g. comfrey, borage and alkanet. I’ll talk more about these tomorrow.

How to put in a wildlife garden

Between mid March and April, rotivate (till) the soil.
Remove all the grass and weeds. The soil needs to be nice and clean. Yes, it is a real hassle, but if you have an army of children, or even one or two, they will enjoy doing this.
Make sure the soil’s texture is nice and crumbly – you may need to sift the soil. Mulch it, etc.
Scatter seeds. They will come with instructions about how much per sq metre. Then, using a straight rake (borrow one, or buy one, it is a worth while investment), gently rake the seeds into the soil. It should only go down like a little less than an inch. Do not rake them in too deeply… they will struggle to get out.
Get a board out – like an old plank and place it on top of the soil and step over it. Or you could let the kids jump on the plank – they love this bit. This helps the seeds to bed in and stops them from flying away. Or eaten by birds.
Water it. Keep it moist, but not soaking. Never let seeds dry out when they are growing. Once they are established, they are a little hardier.
Now, you just WAIT. The first shoots should be out in two weeks time and in a month’s time you should see them come up about three inches or so. They will grow like the proverbial weeds over May and by June you should have some flowers.

If you want to mix out own mix of wildflower here are some you can get in a garden centre and DIY it yourself.

Cornflower, nastursium, sunflowers, calendula, poppies, foxgloves (these are poisonous, so be careful).

Nettles

So I have to say something for the nettle. It gets so much of bad press but it is hands down one of the best plants to grow for the garden. You just need to keep it in check. You can also use the leaves for mulch. It is full of great good things for the garden. plants like the nettle bring up the nutrients in the soil to the surface where you can reuse them.

Plus all kinds of insects love them. If you have them growing in your garden, consider yourself lucky. Just create a good corner for them – they love the shade. Let them live there. Sure what were you going to do with it anyways?

Red Admirals, an endangered species of butterflies, loves them.

OK, that’s how to destablish a lawn, grow a wildflower meadow and become an advocate for nettles.

You can then do flower ID, and insect ID with the kids. Press flowers, make pictures, create presents using resin, etc…

Enjoy!

Once upon a time…

By ElementsFGS

On 28th July 2020

In Our Curriculum

Little Red Riding Hood - Lefft ☆ Paddy Donnelly — Paddy Donnelly, Red Riding Hood

I thought we’d take a break from gardening (again) today and talk about forests.

The forests of the fairy tale, and these are the fairy tales we get from the Germanic tradition, the Brothers Grimm, were collected at a time when the folk and oral traditions were dying out. The brothers, like many intellectuals of the day, were inspired to collect the tales which they regarded as a ‘pure’ form of culture; in this they were not unlike Wordsworth and Coleridge, who wrote the Lyrical Ballards which were a reaction against the highly-stylised poetry of Pope, Spencer, etc.

These young writers and academics were sickened by the corruption of the elite and yearned for a time when people could return to a ‘simpler life’. Nothing ever changes right? So they thought that they would go around to record the stories of the ‘folk’ – hence the name, folktales.

This was not just an act of nostalgia, but revolution. The Romantics – think Beethoven, Wagner, Verdi – were now experiencing the fervour of rebellion against their aristocratic overlords, and these stories were meant to show that these simple tales were just as relevant as the ‘high culture’ which were enjoyed by the upper classes and capture that deep indigenous knowledge.

Yeats and other Irish artists did the same thing and for the same reason – which is just as well, as many of the Irish myths and legends were recorded by them before they disappeared for good.

Hansel and Gretel Illustrations – Charlotte Steel — Charlotte Steel, Hansel and Gretel

The fairy tales the brothers collected had been knocking about for centuries and it has now been verified that they are one of our oldest myths and stories. They are in fact so old that the characters in them are NOT real people but archetypes. An archetype is a symbol of a quality which lies inside all of us. So the dragon, king, queen, princess, etc they all operate on a symbolic level and they all live within.

Children, of course, understand this. Children do not take these stories literally and it is the job of adults not to take them literally. They know that the thrill and the delight, but also the safety, of the encounters with the Big Bad Wolf. The Big Bad Wolf is not out there, it is inside each of us, as Angela Carter’s wonderful interpretation of the ‘Red Riding Hood’ story shows – being ‘hairy on the inside’.

The wicked stepmother is not a real person, but an expression of antipathy – the antipathy we need to go out into the world, sometimes forced out – to learn something. To struggle. We then make our way back home, to the Father, the home – reunited, but changed. And where is the Mother? Like the Earth, the Mother is the element which invisibly journeys with us, that holds us.

But because they are also archetypes, all of these are found inside each and every one of us.

Perimenopause and her Forgotten Archetype - Rachael Crow — The four seasons, the female archetypes

Thus, when we tell stories to children, especially fairy tales, we are introducing them to an age old form of the narrative. One where there is peril and danger, the breaking of bonds, casting out into the wilderness, battle and struggle, fortitude and courage, overcoming and finally evolution and change.

That is the power of the story.

So fairy tales do many complex things in a very efficient amount of time. This is why they work so beautifully. They are like pebbles, well worn by time into beautiful pieces of art. Of course we don’t do something as silly as tell children why we tell them this or over explain anything. There is no need to.

Children simply receive the story as it is in order to interpret it for their own age. And you can be sure that it isn’t the age which you or I were born in. They figure out the meaning for themselves. They have to. Just as the children in the fairy tales battle their way out of the murk.

That is the beauty of the fairy tale.

What inspired this post? Well, today we were scouting Hillsbrough Forest and because it used to be a commercial forest, there were deciduous as well as coniferous trees. (Oddly there weren’t very many native woodland trees, but no matter.) The contrast between the two types of forests is always startling.

The light and life in a deciduous forest which loses its leaves annually is in sharp contrast to the dark tall coniferous trees which keep theirs. The straight, narrow fast-growing trees which make them so commercially attractive crowd together to shut out the light and it is in THESE forests – think of the Black Forests 0f Germany – which these stories take place.

The trees all look alike, their uniformity is unending and if you do not know your way around, you could, like babes in the woods, get lost. In many ways, that is a metaphor for life.

During many Forest School sessions, I have sat in both kinds of forests and told stories, and always those stories mean a little more than they would in the comfort and safety of being tucked up nicely in bed. Forest School brings the immediacy of the habitat, the unhemlich nature of the place, where the whispering wind through the leaves, the rustlings and sussurations, murmurings and stirrings, lend themselves to the telling of the tale.

We tell stories in Elements because stories are what give our lives meaning. They inspire us, keep as as warm as campfire glows, lend us courage when we need it most. These are the thoughts behind the stories we tell. I thought it would be nice to capture them on a page.

Stephanie Sim

78 Best Mother Holle Illustrations images in 2020 | Holle, Fairy ... — Mother Holle

Some easy wins…

By ElementsFGS

On 27th July 2020

In Gardening for Wildlife

OK, so may you don’t want to redesign your entire garden and just want to have a few manageable changes.

Here are three things you can do to make the garden a better place.

Let it go

Allow corner of your garden to ‘go’. This means selecting corners of your garden which can become places you can left leaf litter pile up, leave your sweepings and compost, let go a little wild. This will encourage insects and earthworms, and in turn this will help birds. If it is possible a nettle patch will also do wonders.

woman with wings: cooking from the nettle patch — Nettles are good for gardens

Sadly nettle have a bad rep, but they are a really important plant for butterflies and moths who lay their eggs on them. They are also very good to eat! (But only in spring). And their seeds can be collected and sprinkled on salad for a peppery taste.

Other things you can do – delay time between cuts. Let your lawns grow out a bit. The clover and dairies are very good for bees and other pollinators. And the grass harbours spiders and other insects, which is good for birds.

Finally, let your hedges grow out. You are not allowed to cut your hedges between March and October anyways. I know it doesn’t look great, but I can promise you loads of wildlife are using it.

Feed the birds

The Best Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeders You Can Buy Online

OK, so you don’t think having a wild garden is your thing. But you can feed the birds. By the way, all of the above will provide plenty of natural food for birds, but if you want to set up a birdfeeder, do so.

Here are some tips on how to feed birds. Just so you know, birds now have plenty of food in the wild so they won’t come to your feeders as much. They don’t tend to feed their young grain, but eat it for themselves. The young are given insects.

Get a birdfeeder. A simple one. The one above is a peanut feeder. The birds which will gravitate towards it will be the tits and starlings. If you get a seed feeder you will also get the same, but also the finches. Like chaffinch and greenfinch. It takes about two weeks for a feeder to get established. Once it is, keep topping it up – your birdy friends will rely on it. I tend not to top it up in the summer though. I’d start around mid October when food is scarcer.
Give them your leavings. Birds are happy with crumbs, literally. If you have crumbs or leftovers, and have a high enough table to leave them on to deter rats and mice, you can leave them there.

Make sure whatever you leave out for them has no salt.

3. Finally you can give them your old fruit. Apples, soft fruit, etc all can be left in a corner of a garden for insects and birds to discover. I just tend to throw mine out towards the back and the blackbirds and other thrushes will find them.

Blackbirds feeding on apples - Stock Image - C004/2084 - Science ...

Build a bug hotel

If you leave your garden wild, bug hotels come naturally to it. But you can make ones if you prefer to have a more organised garden.

Why Every Garden Needs a Bug Hotel - Thames Valley Landscapes

The principle is simple… bits of wood and straw to enable the bugs to live and feed. This is a great example of a bug hotel and you can build it using leftover scraps. Make sure that the wood you choose is untreated or has been weathered.

So here are three things you can do without having to massively redesign your garden. Tomorrow, we start with looking at things we can do to create a garden for wildlife.

Masala Tea – aka Chai

By ElementsFGS

On 25th July 2020

In Cooking with Children

Spiced Tea (Masala Chai) Recipe | Saveur

First a word about tea…

What is tea? Tea is simply leaves which have been dried (or maybe not dried), and then scalded with boiling water to infuse the leaves that gives you a liquid which is drinkable. You can drink tea hot or cold. You can make tea from any edible leaf or even fruit.

The tea which is used in masala tea is regular builders tea. The leaf has been fermented and then roasted to within an inch of its life which gives it that brown colour.

The word masala means mixed.

In this case it is the spices which are mixed to then give you this wonderful tea. Excellent for anytime for day.

Don’t forget you can talk about the history of tea, the health giving benefits of it, where it come from, etc if you are making it with a child. Children love masala tea, much more than coffee and it is very gentle on the stomach.

Ingredients:

Tea – ‘builders’ tea is good. You want five or six bags – it has to be strong.

1.5 litres of water – you’ll want to make a whole load and then heat it up every time you want a top up. I can get the tea to last two days and it gets better each day as the spices infuse more.

Spices – here you can take your pick. But in general you have

Cardamom
Cloves
Star Anise
Ginger
Cinnamon
Black Pepper (yes!)

My own personal combination, if you have nothing else is cardamom, black pepper and ginger. But just figure it out for yourself. It does smell like mulled tea.

Sugar/Xylitol – to taste

Milk (whole milk is best). Cow milk is a huge part of Indian culture but if you want to substitute it with a vegan option, that’s cool too.

The secret to good masala teh is a strong tea and infusing the ingredients.

Preparation

Boil the water and the tea bags. Till they are quite infused.
Throw in all your favourite spices.
Simmer on low heat for about ten minutes. The kitchen should smell amazing now!
Remove from the heat and serve with milk and sugar to taste.

Traditional masala teh is served with milk. You cna choose to not have any sugar and it will still taste amazing but it sill also taste great with sugar. If you put cinnamon in, it will have a natural sweetness.

Have it with an Indian dessert like gulabjam or rasmalai.

Enjoy while putting your wildlife garden together.

Spanich and Rice Curry Soup

By ElementsFGS

On 24th July 2020

In Cooking with Children

Spinach: Nutrition, health benefits, and diet

This can also be used for Nettle Soup. Although it is not the right time of year for Nettle Soup. You’ll have to wait till next spring! However, if you do grow lots of spinach this is one of my all time favourite recipes. It combines spinach with curried rice. A real winner all round!

Ingredients

Three handfuls of spinach
1 litre of water (for the soup)
Rice – two handfuls (one handful per person)
Water – estimate for the rice. I’ll show you how!
Spices: Cardamom (1 pod is enough), cloves (2 or 3), pepper seeds, cinnamon, garam masala, mustard seeds (everything in small quantities – half a teaspoon per handful of rice). If you can’t get any of the above, just use a teaspoon of curry powder per handful of rice.
Salt to taste or a stock cube of your choice
Fresh garlic (optional)
Oil

Cook the rice. This is the recipe for a bryani/pilau rice. It is so easy to make it is like falling off a log. Here’s how.
In a saucepan, heat some oil till it is fairly hot, but not smoking. Throw in the spices/curry powder you are using. Fry for about ten seconds. Make sure it doesn’t burn. Take the pan off the fire if it start to burn. The frying releases the oils and flavours.
Put your rice and fry it for another minute or so till the rice is coated in oil and spices.
Then put in the water to cook the rice. The way my mother taught me was an inch of water just over the rice. Add a bit of salt to give it a flavour.
Now is the most important part. Get a fitting lid and put it over the rice, when the water has boiled, turn it down to simmer. DO NOT REMOVE THE LID, DO NOT STIR THE RICE. It is the steam that cooks the rice and the steam rises through the natural tunnels which are created by the water and rice. If you stir the rice the tunnels are destroyed and the rice will not be fluffy.
Watch the rice so that the water doesn’t overboil, keep it at a simmer. If the pot overboils you can just take the lid off and keep it over the pot loosely so it doesn’t do that again. But get a pot which is large enough so that it won’t overboil and you’ll be golden.
It should be done in twenty minutes or so. You can remove the lid after ten minutes to see if everything’s ok. If the rice is still a bit crunchy and there is no more water left, add a bit of water to complete the cooking. When it is done, leave the lid on, turn off the heat and then let the rice finish cooking off in its own steam. The rice should smell amazing now.
Take the spinach and blitz it with some water. It will now be an amazing green liquid.
In a new pot, put the spinach liquid and bring to a boil. If you want, you can add a garlic clove, but it won’t be necessary BECAUSE, when your rice is cooked, and your soup is ready, put the rice into the soup and then let it simmer for a few minutes.
Your Spianch and Rice Curry soup! If you have paneer, you can put it in now… maybe tomorrow I’ll do how to cook paneer.

As you are cooking, you can let your child taste the spices and talk about where they came from! It’s very interesting to see how disgusted they are when it is in concentrated amounts, but how when worked through the food these small amounts bring the entire dish to life. There is a lesson in there somewhere… maybe less is more? Good things come in small doses?

Also you can talk about rice and how it is one of the seven grains of the world. The best thing about this recipe is that there is no chilli so kids can eat it. IF you want to zing it up you can add ginger (sliced like matchsticks and fried with the spices) or fresh cut chili at this stage as well.

It is full of iron and the various spices have protective qualities e.g. cloves are good for digestion, as is garam masala, cardamom is good for dental hygiene and has anti bacterial properties. All spices are good really.

You can also talk about India, as a country, it’s gods and culture, animals there – cooking is an entry to the whole world!

This is the place where Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati got married — Here are Shiva and Parvati wishing you bonappetite!

Enjoy!

Why garden for wildlife? And some dos and donts.

By ElementsFGS

On 24th July 2020

In Gardening for Wildlife, Our Local Wildlife

We take a short break now, just in case you are losing the motivation to do this, to say why we should garden.

Gardening is good, for start. Children especially love gardening and if you can start gardening early it is a serious life skill which they will have and be able to pass on. Growing things, being outside, getting exercise, using different tools, working with the seasons… the list goes on. Then you can grow your own food. I mean what is there to NOT like about gardening?

But gardening for wildlife? That’s even better.

It is not pretty much shown that there is MORE biodiversity in suburban and urban gardens than there is in the countryside and farmland. This is because there are more variations in garden habitat than there is in farmland. Gardens are now an important lifeline for not only our local birds, but migrant ones as well.

Why is biodiversity important? It is important because it creates resilience in the environment. A biodiverse habitat is one which is healthier on every level. Birdsong, bees, flowers, insects… they create a sense of life which in turns give us a sense of life. Think about a humming patch of brambles compared to a concreted over garden. I think you know what I mean.

So here are some dos and don’ts for gardening for wildlife

Do start small. I have given a masterplan and once this bit is done you can start seeing where you can begin. Keep working on the masterplan for a couple of days to get to REALLY KNOW you garden. If it is very large garden section off an area which you want to transform. A small win is much more heartening than running out of puff half way and having nothing to show for it.
Do be patient and have faith. When you garden you work with the fourth dimension – time. This is very difficult, especially if you are a new gardener and have no idea what you are doing. But start small and manageable. Do things which have easy wins (I’ll go through this as we go along.)
Do use native plants. Where possible, use native plants. Now this does not mean ripping out old established exotics, as they are called. Keep them especially if you love them and they are adding to the garden. But when you are getting in new plants make sure they are native. Here’s why:-
1. Native plants do better in this climate. (Yes, that is just so obvious, right?)
2. If they escape they will not become an invasive nuisance.
3. They just support a better range of wildlife. It has been shown that native plants tend to support up to four times more wildlife, especially insects.
4. They decompose better.
5. Their leaves can be composted and/or used as mulch. Exotics tend to take much longer to decompose and can end up clogging your garden.
Start simple. If you have no idea what a tool does, do not buy it. Work with what you know.
Invest in a beginner’s gardening book and a gardening journal. Even get one aimed at children – this way you can both learn together! A gardening journal will help you record what you have done if you have a poor memory. It is also a great way to chart your progress, success and failures.
Do enjoy it! Please, enjoy gardening. If it is too much hard work, just get a birdfeeder. I will talk about some easy wins in my next posting, in case you don’t want to go an an all out assault on the garden.

Here are the don’ts

Don’t use any kind of -cide Whatever happens, DO NOT ever use any kind of herbicide or pesticide. These are deadly to wildlife. Salting, slug pellets, Roundup, etc… they are bad for the wildlife and really REALLY bad for the soil.
Don’t think of weeds as weeds We are now rethinking our dandelions, buttercups and daisies, nettles, dock and willowherb. Manage them so that they are part of your garden, rather than pulling everything out. It will save you time as well! They are critical to wildlife and biodiversity. Learn to live with them.
Don’t spend loads of money Gardening is not meant to be an expensive hobby. Share everything – from seeds to tools and information. One of the best places to go to is an allotment to get information of how you could do things. Join a local gardening club. They will have loads of good ideas for you too!

I’m sure I have left out loads of things, so if you have any ideas, leave it in the comments section below!

Tomorrow: Easy wins!

Take a look at your site

By ElementsFGS

On 23rd July 2020

In Gardening for Wildlife, Our Local Wildlife

How to grow a Wildflower Cottage Garden - Lovely Greens — Wildflower Patch

Welcome back to day two.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter, it is FREE.

Have you decided the kinds of animals you’d like to attract? Good. Now before we take a look at the plants, we need to look at your site. The site and the wildlife – plus what else you want out of your site and the work you want to put into it – will determine the kind of garden you will have.

Taking a look at the site is a lesson in mini geography.

Draw a map

Draw a map of your site. It doesn’t have to be to scale, just in the right shape. Make sure you have key features in the site. It should include

Your house
Fences/ Borders
Any other important features like oil tank, a pond if you have one, seating area, paths, levels, decking, etc.
Where the sun rises and sets THROUGH THE YEAR. This is called the ASPECT
Wind direction

A word about Aspect

Aspect is the most important factor in the garden. It will determine what kinds of plants you have and it may even determine you reconfiguring the garden. When you do the aspect you may discover that your shed is in the sunniest part of the garden, which is a waste of space.

How to do aspect?

Get your compass points – N, S, E,W.
The East is where the sunrises and it then travels to the West, mostly in the Southerly direction. This is why South facing sides are sunnier, better, warmer. You really want a South Facing garden.
This about how the sun travels in the winter AND the summer. Is there any part of your garden that is in permanent shadow? Is there a part which gets lots of wind?
Shade all of this on your map.

Soil, etc

Now you are ready for the last bit. Look at your soil.

Is it clayey? Retains lots of water? Sandy? Lets the water drain out.

Soil can be easily improved over the course of the year. You can do this by mulching. This is introducing compost to sandy soil.

You can also introduce sharp sand into clayey soil – although this is harder. Once you have done this, you are ready to move to the next step.

Long, narrow garden plan with a series of circular lawns. | Narrow ... — Here is a complete garden plan

You don’t have to do a super complicated plan. Just get to know your garden. I suggest you spend about three days doing this in short bursts – like half an hour each. This is because ideas will come to you as you do this.

Vision board

Get a vision board or a little folder which you keep ideas as well. Collect these as you get to know the kinds of wildlife you’d like to attract.

Tomorrow: The Benefits of Gardening and Wildlife Gardening

Creating a secret garden on a rainy day

By ElementsFGS

On 22nd July 2020

In Gardening for Wildlife, Our Local Wildlife

Plants for a wildlife garden / RHS Campaign for School Gardening — From the RHS website for school gardening

Sometimes it is hard to know where to begin with creating a wildlife garden. But nothing could be simpler. Today we have a rainy day and gardeners love planning on rainy days.

I will walk you through how to do this.

Rule No 1: Have a variety of habitats

Wildlife gardens are mini ecosystems, so you need to have different types of places for your creature friends to live. Any garden, no matter how small can be a wildlife garden. You just need to have different types of places which support different types of wildlife.

Wildlife Friendly Garden Planting workshop — Transition Stirling — Transition Stirling

So, first think about the types of wildlife you’d like to support with your garden.

Here are some beings you could consider:

Insect life: Bees, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, spiders
Soil: Earthworms, beetles, woodlice. Some people love snails and slugs, and that’s fine, but you then have to bear in mind to garden so that they don’t destroy your efforts
Pond life: Frogs (frogs in slugs btw), water invertebrates like beetles, etc (for some people with larger ponds you could have dragonflies and damsel flies)
Birds: Garden birds and migrant passerines and thrushes like blackcaps and fieldfares
Mammals: Hedgehogs

Tomorrow: What kind of plants would you like to have?

Going Bats!

By ElementsFGS

On 20th July 2020

In Gardening for Wildlife, Our Local Wildlife

Bats are some of the most charismatic wildlife which we have. They are funny and lovely and adorable and very useful. They eat insects and are an important indicator that our ecosystem is in good nick.

There are many things which you can do for bats and many of them involve you doing nothing at all.

Bats often hibernate in roof spaces in the winter – so just leave them to get on with it. There is no need to call pest control – bats are clean and quiet.

Bats also use trees for this purpose. If you have trees in your garden, especially older ones, if they aren’t about to fall on your house, just leave them there.

The Northern Ireland Bat Group are a very active group which holds talks and activities for children. They also tell you have to identify your bats!

Link onto their page to see how you can get involved or indeed find out about the bats in your area.

Here are three fascinating facts about bats:

You can use a bat detector to detect the kind of bat – it works on a series of clicks and pips – essentially bats have different kinds of calls. The bat detector makes their sonic frequencies audible to human beings.
There are 8 types of bat in Northern Ireland. They are Common pipistrelle, Soprano pipistrelle, Nathusius’s pipistrelle, Leisler’s bat, Brown long-eared bat, Whiskered bat, Daubenton’s bat, Natterer’s bat.
Bats have nurseries where mothers and young roost together and look after their young. A female bat mates before winter, overwinters and then becomes pregnant when spring arrives.

Here are some bat related activities from the Bat Conservation Trust.

You can make an origami bat, a bat hat and learn to draw a bat. Bats are our friends! We should love them. If you find a bat call the Northern Ireland Bat Group and they will come and rescue it for you!