[John]

Hi Badgerwatcher

First of all may I extend a warm welcome to WAB.

What an incredible first garden to go to. One that I would think would be the envy of almost anyone on this forum.

I would endorse what Julie has said regarding the garden. Leave it be for a while and try and do a long term plan for it. With the wildlife you already have making the wrong decisions could lose you the Badgers and Foxes and I don't think you want that.

Having wild areas in a garden is a must if you want to encourage all forms of wildlife and you seem to have an abundace of this. The only thing that seems missing (as you haven't mentioned it) is water. If you haven't got that on your land perhaps building a small pool may help to encourage birds to bathe and drink, Frogs and Toads to take up residence and also possibly Newts as well.

I wonder what the Dragonfles and Damselflies will be like next year. It sounds like a garden that will draw them in.

Finally with all that wild space you need to plan some feeder stations carefully. You could have a bumper winter with some incredible birds visiting you. As it gets colder birds will become more dependant on human intervention. I have 3 feeder stations on the go in Winter and each of them is crawling with birds when it gets cold and I have only been here two years.

Keep us in touch with how things are going and if you can post some photos so much the better.

John