How Do You Fit In? Green corridors

[Nick T]

I'm lucky I guess. I have a Silver birch at the bottom of my garden and a mature mixed hedge as do my neighbours and i think this pretty well goes all the way to the woods about 500yds away ( with the odd gap for roads) so we have a pretty good green coridor at the moment

[Tormentil]

No matter what colour the corridor, they're never wide enough for me.

I blame Chocolate.

[smartie]

We do very well here. The railway embankment behind us is a green wooded corridor which leads along to the nearest farmland, and all the houses in this area are early Garden City and therefore have reasonably-sized gardens, most with at least one tree and all with some lawn and other greenery.

[DebsyD]

Re. your pond Cotham Marble, am trying to visualise it for ideas for frog access... not sure whether I am imagining it right? How about drilling holes at ground/above pond level (not sure if they are one and the same level?) and inserting cut-to-wall-width clay or plastic pipe - wide enough for frogs to go through - a bit like weep holes in a retaining wall - to provide them with a kind of tunnel through the wall. I didnt suggest copper piping as that would get particularly cold in winter. Maybe do a few at different places round the pond. One thing you must look at however is not to weaken the structure of the wall so think it through before starting, maybe get advice? Do you have anything at the pond surface within the pond - rocks or veg - for them when they are in there? Our garden pond is only small but is shelfed, has rocks and a beach and it and the surrounding rocks and veg are teaming with frogs - we have to relocate frog spawn in the spring as there's too much! Their main enemy however is the dragonfly larvae that eat their tadpoles... but then it's all part of "the circle of life". I'm currently designing a garden for someone around resident slow worms. They are set on having garden walls (not hedging - I did try) along the boundary, to tie in with other old walls already there so I'm designing one long stretch of wall to have gaps at ground level incorporated so am going to try finding some brick size frames within the building trade - along the lines of airbricks but with much bigger gaps for the worms (and other creatures inc their supper) to come and (maybe) go freely.

Another idea is to e-mail your local Wildlife Trust a photo and explain what you are trying to do as they may have and be willing to put forward some ideas. I know you can buy, or make, wildlife ladders which could be OK in the water - be sure to continue them to tyhe bottom of the pond should some unsuspecting non-swimming creature use it and fall in, gives them some chance to get back out. hard to give ideas without seeing the pond, the levels and the area surrounding :-)

On the subject of green corridors, modern housing estates are a nightmare generally as developers/builders are loath to 'waste' land to green areas so houses are crammed in, usually each surrounded with fencing, occassionally walls, I live on one such development where hardscape and building outnumbers areas for plants. We do our best and as the house and garden (and those around us) have aged the wildlife has became more abundant but we are planning to move to somewhere where the reverse is true. We also have the problem here where gardens (not ours!) are neat, weed free and tidy as green corridors should be a year round thing whereby spent vegetation, leaf litter etc would be better remaining where it is (unless causing disease or dangerous/slippery paths etc) through until new growth appears.

Deb

[naturelover]

Originally Posted by Kerry

Have you thought about the rolls of log edging that garden centres sell: you could drape it from the floor up over the bricks and down to the water, with some stones situated in the water so that they could have easy access to get out and on to the log roll.

hi kerry good idea but as you say the wood will be treated,i will come up with some idea for next spring,i have lots of bolders inside the water feature so once there in no trouble,its getting in and out the problem,i might stack bolders outside to make a stone ladder if you like,dont know what else to call it,would they climb up a pile of bolders if its not too steep,i will give it a go that is if it stops raining.

[elleme]

At the east side of my garden lies my house, at the south a road, at the west a tarmaced car park, at the north my neighbours who won't have any flowering plants as they don't like flying insects like bees etc. Gardens around here are small, like mine and or little estate is surrounded by 3 main roads. I think it's safe to say I'm not in a corridor. There are a few trees dotted around the surrounding houses and lots of pyracantha planted by the management company of the estate.

[nightshade]

A local farm has taken notice of WAB and (unbeknown to me) started
replacing post and wire fencing with native hedging species. I drove
along the road and sure enough there are 1mtr tall Hawthorn,Blackthorn,
Alder,Dogwood and Hazel (possibly more but these I recognised)
I have pencilled in these hedges and they could,(possibly,maybe,hope so)
make a corridor to draw Horseshoe Bats and other birds and mammals
into the Chew Valley the only real obstacle being a main road

It does not matter where you live ,if you can plant a tree a shrub or
even just a tub of nectar rich flowers you will become a piece in a Suburban
JIGSAW giving our hard pressed wildlife a lifeline

[Varan Komodosky]

I couldn't fit in much better! Search for BB9 8DD on google maps. Then zoom out a bit... Heh.

[elleme]

Originally Posted by nightshade

It does not matter where you live ,if you can plant a tree a shrub or
even just a tub of nectar rich flowers you will become a piece in a Suburban
JIGSAW giving our hard pressed wildlife a lifeline

Oh, I agree with you. I know even with the limited changes I have made in a small spot, at least the insect life has become a bit more diverse than when I first moved in some 8 years ago.