WAB Members' Garden Photos

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

Hi Ron,
Do you mow that steep bank.

Flymow on a rope, no problem. It's nice in Spring as it's covered in Snowdrops and then Bluebells.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Flymow on a rope, no problem. It's nice in Spring as it's covered in Snowdrops and then Bluebells.

Nothing to do with a flymo..

You need a tree or something hanging over the water, your kingfisher will perch there then.
If you sit still with your fishing rod for long enough he will perch on your rod

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

Nothing to do with a flymo..

You need a tree or something hanging over the water, your kingfisher will perch there then.
If you sit still with your fishing rod for long enough he will perch on your rod

By the time the tree grew I wouldn't be here to see the Kingfisher and I fly fish so there's no way the bird could sit on my rod, it moves around too much. There are two young Willow trees about 4-5 feet high at each end of the bank anyway, which will be fine in a few years.
Before the flood barrier wall was put in there were three fully grown Ash trees, which were beautiful but they had to go, pity.

[mh68]

This is my meagre effort just over a year on.....its gone from this -



To this -



Still a way to go yet but its getting there

Mark H

[Jez]

Where has all the candy tufts disappeared to Mark?

Definitely got a nice wildlife feel to your garden. It's come on a treat!

[mh68]

Originally Posted by Jez

Where has all the candy tufts disappeared to Mark?

Definitely got a nice wildlife feel to your garden. It's come on a treat!

Just put a couple of small patches of them in this year Jez (left side of pic, either side of the stone path).Planted all along the back of the garden with Foxgloves, which should look pretty good next summer.
Hedgehog house is at the back,behind the "branch" feeding station, and another behind the conifer - both in use at present. Artificial mouse burrow behind the feeding station too, again in use at present.
The stones all round the garden are home to half the NE population of Wolf Spiders (or so it seems )
I`ll try and get some decent pics of the pond soon...

Mark H

[Jez]

great stuff Mark, looking forward to seeing your pond also!

[tufftie]

That looks lush!!! Looking forward to the pond pics and insects etc on/in it

[ron1863]

Nice garden for the birds Mark

[mh68]

The gardens getting there slowly

Ron, mainly just Sparrows, Starlings and Blackbirds, dont get that many species showing up sadly.

Mark H

[mh68]

2 pics of the pond - bit overgrown at present. Havent got a wide angle lens so this was the best I could do without knocking down a wall to fit it all in





This is a reminder of what it looked like last year after just being built....




A mates just brought me a Water Scorpion for the pond,think it must have just about everything in it now

Mark H

[ellen h]

Thats going to be a nice wildlife garden-looking good already!
ellen

[mh68]

Originally Posted by ellen h

Thats going to be a nice wildlife garden-looking good already!
ellen

Thanks Ellen, i`m pleased with the way its going.
It`s only small though so its a case of cramming as much in as possible
Its an absolute haven for insects, over 150 species at the last count, not counting the various species in the pond.

Mark H

[Jez]

Ponds looks tops Mark. How is it for amphibian life?

[mh68]

Originally Posted by Jez

Ponds looks tops Mark. How is it for amphibian life?

Well, there was a Smooth or Palmate Newt eft in the bucket of beasties a mate got me, and there`s been a resident Frog for a while now, but thats as much as I know. Need to get a decent torch and have a good look after dark, see what I can find...

Mark H

[Jez]

Yer keep us updated. I think newts are wonderful animals, I hope they all do well for you and themselves of course

[mh68]

Originally Posted by Jez

Yer keep us updated. I think newts are wonderful animals, I hope they all do well for you and themselves of course

Will do mate

Mark H

[mrs fish]

It looks lovely Mark , well done

[mh68]

Originally Posted by mrs fish

It looks lovely Mark , well done

Thanks very much The majority of it`s just from seeds, apart from the shrubs, so it didnt prove too expensive either

Mark H

[witham]

not the whole garden but thought you'd like to see some of my baskets, I try and use natural stuff around the garden as much as possible and for the last few years I've used sheep wool to line them, it's quite effective especially the black and brown fleeces and as the House Sparrows nest above in the eves, they pinch bits to help with the nesting material, I took these last week, the plants are just starting to drop

[jennyb]

What a great idea. They look lovely. I have given up doing baskets because they require so much watering and if you go away for a few days they really suffer.

Where do you get the sheeps wool?

Jenny

[witham]

Originally Posted by jennyb

What a great idea. They look lovely. I have given up doing baskets because they require so much watering and if you go away for a few days they really suffer.

Where do you get the sheeps wool?

Jenny

we have 5 'pet' sheep. 2 x Hebredians, 1 X Soay, 1 Heb/North Ronalsdy cross, and 1 x Cheviot so all colours and after shearing we save it, I keep saying I'll have to get a spinning wheel but not very crafty would rather be outside

[Paul mabbott]

Our garden is low maintenance - meaning I do very little work on it so it's very good for wildlife!
One flower bed - we did plant a few bulbs and other plants in here but mostly it's generated itself from seedlings:



There was a leylandii hedge down one side but that soon went, to be replaced by cordon apples and a few other shrubs:



Part of the garden is waterlogged and/or bare sandstone so that's been left to generate a shrubbery - there's a self-made pond in there somewhere:



Hidden away at the far end of the garden is my favourite plot - keep ourselves in greenstuff for most of the summer:



Our front garden is more flowery although being taken over by the dreaded Dierama!

[tameblackbirds]

a photo of my back garden a long terrace garden this is towards the end of the garden. It has taken a long time to establish but I have loved every minute of it.

[John]

I thought it time to post photos of my totally different garden from the one I posted photos of a couple or so years ago. If you look back to post 13 you will see what it looked like about three years ago. Some of the older members will remember that in September 2006, whilst I was away in Turkey, my Mrs decided that it was time to leave me (unannounced) and left to go and live somewhere else (I have since found out where).

My Mrs was the gardener. Give credit where credit's due she was good, in fact excellent at gardening. I just did the labouring jobs and she planted and cared for the growing of those things she had planted. Consequently our garden grew into a thing of beauty.

Now I am the opposite of her. I haven't a clue about gardening and here I was faced with looking after a quite large garden with hundreds of different plants in the garden and at least 300 pots of plants as well. Last year I didn't cope at all and just gave up. My garden was beginning to look a real mess. I had to do something about it.

One plan stood in mind. It had to be organised chaos. I didn't want a garden that was cosmetically nice, I wanted a garden for the birds and for any other wildlife that wanted to use it so cover, and plenty of it was the order of the day.

We have a greenhouse (albeit quite wrecked due to the very high winds we have had of late). In there were three tins full of old packets of seeds, none of them in date, most with use by dates of 2003 / 2004. I couldn't afford to go out and buy the plants needed to put in the garden so I shored up the greenhouse as best as I could. Thankfully Ros had left loads of trays and pots so I purchased loads of Compost and set about filling the trays and pots with compost before planting the seeds. Some didn't turn out (not unexpected) but some went into riot mode and created enough plants to not only do what I wanted but had enough left over to give my next door neighbour.

I have just taken loads of photos whilst the sun was out and I have thirty of them to place into this thread. I realise it won't be a garden to everyone's liking but what I have done has completely been vindicated by the huge number of birds that visit my garden (80kg of Sunflower Hearts in 10 weeks, 200 fat balls over the same period, 10 kg peanuts as well as loads of other seed as well). I am also pulling in huge numbers of moths by night, loads of Butterflys by day and am even getting the odd dragonfly and damselfly call in.

Right, it is time for the photos. They will be in the order as I drive up to my house, in through the driveway then as if I walk into the back garden. I have two small front gardens, a side garden and two different areas of back garden to show you. I will have to split it into two posts as the maximum per post is twenty photos. I will start at the front and the second post is for the back.

First the drive up to the Bungalow. The tree in the first three photos is always alive with birds and it is here that I can watch the likes of Bullfinch around now only six feet from my Bedroom window. In Winter I can watch Brambling & Siskin from there as well. The third & fourth photo is of an area created in front of my side feeder station. This is the busiest station of all and is also a regular haunt of a pair of Sparrowhawks.


Coming in through the drive gates. Side garden on the right first. One looking from the gate and one looking to the feeder station.


Next is the Bungalow side of the driveway.



John