The Garden:
1. Should wildlife be considered when designing/creating/changing/maintaining all gardens?
Yes because gardens nationally cover a significant percentage of the land surface
2. Is an informal garden preferable to a formal one for wildlife?
Not always, a mixture of habitat types is best the wider the variety of habitats the more species will be supported - particulary in large gardens
3. Should there be a lot more plants than hardscaping?
Probably, but hardscaping has its place also, invertebrates and reptiles like this kind of landscaping.
4. Should they contain ponds &/or water features?
yes again because it adds to the variety of habitats
5. Are plant corridors necessary?
I think they are of most value in large gardens
6. Should our grass lawns be mowed short?
Ideally there should be a variety of lengths with wildflowers being occasionally allowed to flower
7. Should we use local 'native plants' or are non-natives just as good for local wildlife?
I think there should always be an element of native species preferably of locale provenance, the more the better, but people should always be allowed to choose. Non-natives botanical species wth proven invasive qualities should be banned from sale
8. Should we recreate natural habitats (for eg.meadows) with the same 'native'/wildflowers?
I'm not sure this is truly possible within the garden environment - only an imitation unless your garden is huge or has never been improved with fertilisers - an imitation is better than nothing though I suppose
9. How would this be a 'garden' as opposed to 'wilderness'?
It would be a garden because it is artificial, the delicate natural ecosystems involves invertebrate populations and fungal communities that are unlikely to ever reach the garden environment unless situated immediately adjacent
10. Are wildlife gardens likely to require less maintenance?
perhaps but maintenance will still be required to prevent natural sucession or to remove nutraints from the system through regular cutting or mowing
Providing Shelter, Food & Water for Wildlife:
11. Should we provide housing for refuge/breeding/hibernating?
These things help
12. How? Wooden boxes? compost heap? woodpiles? uncultivated areas? planting?
as many of these things as possible variety is key
13. Should we provide food?
yes but not so much as wildlife becomes dependant on your supply, a regular supply can become a breeding ground for disease and causes problems if you move. Natural foraging opportunities through the provision of native plants or opportunites for invertebrates are highly more valuable in my opinion
14. How? Purchased wildlife foods? Plants (alive & dead)? Natural prey?
see above a vareity is still preferable
15. Anyone wonder whether generous artificial (fast food) feeding leads to overweight
or 'lazy' wildlife, a dependency on being fed or a loss of natural instinct to forage or hunt?
I haven't seen evidence of this but think natural foraging has to be better for birds so I dpon't feed when natural food is plentiful
16. Providing water - treated tap water in refillable containers or in ponds, streams & water features?
Ponds streams and water features best as they provide the kind of water that is naturally available.
Wildlife Products being Marketed/Sold:
17. Are products perhaps concentrated on a handful of 'attractive'/cute garden visitors eg. birds, butterflies, bees, hedgehogs, ladybirds? A small percentage of visitors? Anything for beetles - a vast, often forgotten group of garden visitors?
yes but I don't think artifically provided foods are the best thing for supporting these species groups
18. Are we too reliant on attractively packaged, ready-made wildlife solutions rather than using what we already have, recycling things, home-made solutions?
don't think that really matters but there should be more attention given to where products come from and how are they grown or manufactured
19. What items do you have x how many?
fat balls and British produced seed enough to keep up with demand
20. Any products had little or no uptake so far?
no, all popular
21. Did you look into how/where was best to site the items in 20?
no my garden is tiny!
22. do you feel there is too much hype/marketing of these products?
only into lack of publicity about how they are produced or where they come from
23. Do you feel attractively packaged (often celebrity endorsed) wildlife foods and products are over priced for what they are? Eg. peanuts, suet/fat balls, bird boxes, drilled pieces of silver birch for ladybirds?
no if the celebrity endorsement or attractive packaging makes more people buy them (and they are from sustainabe sources)
24. Are the wildlife foods/products you buy sourced/made locally with a low 'carbon footprint'? Do they come from sustainable sources?
as far as I can tell.....
25. Is wildlife being destroyed or evicted elsewhere for the wood needed for the wildlife products we buy to help wildlife in our gardens?
yes very much so and for the food we provide for our garden visitors too
Which Wildlife?:
26. Do you consider/encourage all lifecycle stages of creatures and differing needs? Eg. Do you encourage the caterpillar as well as the butterfly?
yes
27. Do you consider needs through autumn & winter months or do most in spring & summer?
yes
28. Have you also made provision for the needs of nocturnal visitors eg. moths?
yes
29. Do you consider the extent of natural food webs? Most of which is in healthy 'living' soil invisible to most of us and sadly affected by chemical feed & weed treatments, eg for lawns?
Yes I do no more pesticides or fertilisers in my garden!
As a Gardener:
30. Friend or foe? How do you decide which is what?
Only a foe if it eats something I wish to eat to the point where the plant is significantly damaged and even then I prefer exclusion to elimination
31. What don't you tolerate and why? Is it one stage of a life cycle or part of a food chain (prey providing food &/or predator to control population of others)
I tolerate everything though I take slugs and aphids off the plants I want to grow things on I prefer exclusion if possible - I wouldn't want to lose these animals completely even in my small garden - they're too important for other animals to eat!
32. Do you kill any 'pests'? By chemical, biological (introduced pests) &/or mechanical (removal by hand) means?
Removal by hand, soapy spray indoors for aphid control.
33. Do you discourage/distact 'pests' with barriers, companion planting &/or plant choice?
Companion planting (thought the slugs ate my marigolds!!) and copper is fairly sucessful thought the tape needs to be double the width at least
34. Do you have pets that pose a threat to the wildlife you encourage? Do you site wildlife things out of danger? Does your cat wear a bell to give birds etc. a chance?
Three pesky cats one white and three legged and no threat, one fat and lazy no theat and one bouncy naughty one very much a threat and belled up to the hilt...
35. Is your garden too tidy? Do you leave spent plants to provide food & shelter through winter & to decompose for wildlife in the soil such as earthworms.
nope have created a messy hibernaculum with turf and rubble, a soil pile / bank structure and pond under construction
As an Observer/Custodian of Nature:
36. Is the increased popularity in encouraging & observing wildlife because
a) we want to do our bit to help save/increase biodiversity (ecological)?
b) we yearn to move back to more natural open spaces and an escape from modern life
(romanticism)?
c) it is the thing to be seen to do (a green 'trend)?
d) we've realised the benefits to the garden (horticultural)?
e) we want our children and their's to know/appreciate/enjoy nature (educational)?
f) wildlife can increase our enjoyment of the garden (feel good factor)
or a mix of two or more of these? Rank in order of importance?
All of the above but definately different for different people
37. Do you think, as humans, we tend to try to order/control what can visit our patch of earth? Do we try to harness some wildlife as garden pets?
yes as indicated by the 'Save Our Songbirds' type mis-informed people who wish to control natural predatory species - thought weirdly not domestic ones....
38. Are there any well meaning actions you can think of/know of that are deterimental to the creatures we are trying to help?
tidying up, poorly sourced feed stuff that destroys natural habitats, creation of bog gardens or other features using peat that has then destroyed natural habitats, weeding, ragwort pulling, poorly sourced plants taken from natural environments resulting in damaged natural habitats or scarce species becoming scarcer, movement of frogs, fish and spawn along with water that transfers and spreads diseases, intoduction of diseases and pests in soil with newly bought plants the list goes on I think
Finally:
39. Can there be such a thing as 'Wildlife Gardening' as one is natural and wild and the other is harnessing and changng the natural environment?
gardening with improvements for wildlife is possible
40. Anything further/different you wish to add?
No