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Old 23-02-2006, 10:32 AM
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nightshade nightshade is offline
Knight Commander of the Wild Empire
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: N.E.SOMERSET
Posts: 9,041
Wildlife Garden; The Minimum

I altered my garden when I noticed the lack of sparrows,the cheeky little
circus troupe that says spring and summer were just not there!
The formal pond softened,and became a 2mtr."stream"with a deep pool and large areas of shallows,which will eventually be shaded by three types of hazel.Solomons seal and pachysanda along with ferns like harts tongue take care of the ground cover
The fence covering of non native shrubs were taken up and bare root natives planted hazel hawthorn dogrose dogwood alder etc.
I have a soft spot for Iris ,especially the small blue varieties,
The garden already had a couple of trees, planted when I first moved in, a Rowan and a Weeping Birch to these I added a crab John Downey and a cherry along with a willow and another apple tree
The rest of the cast is a bamboo nigra, an elder black lace, varigated privet
buddlia, honeysuckles and white jasmin
There is a border chorus of native and non native flowers mainly perennials
big showy cosmos in particular,there are many more plants too many to list
The minimum would for me be the Buddlia,there are three types.
Apple tree
Birch
Flowering currant
Hazel
Cherry Pie (Heliotrope Aborescens, best of this type)
I thought this would be easy but there is really nothing I would leave out
I even miss the eucalyptus I cut down years ago at nearly 40 feet the tree hummed with bees and insects when it was in flower
So can anyone suggest a wildlife garden planting plan for a small garden or that could give a discreet boost to an existing one
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Your garden their refuge, a jig-saw of habitats for wildlife under pressure
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