I'm nearing the end of my Garden Design degree studies and am contemplating writing a piece about 'wildlife gardening' , some of its anomolies and the way in which it is (perhaps?)exploited/marketed for profit. Having had a look at previous wildlife garden threads I'm impressed with some of the ideas and opinions put forward. Before starting let me say I am passionate about most forms of wildlife (large to miniscule) and I do my best to adopt wildlife friendly techniques, I am all for encouraging anything that helps them so please dont feel I am out to criticise. To aid you in responding (hopefully many of you will?!) I'll number the thoughts and questions. It's not a test nor is it compulsory to respond to all questions, as many or as few as you wish. If you would prefer you can send me a private message
The Garden:
1. Should wildlife be considered when designing/creating/changing/maintaining all gardens?
2. Is an informal garden preferable to a formal one for wildlife?
3. Should there be a lot more plants than hardscaping?
4. Should they contain ponds &/or water features?
5. Are plant corridors necessary?
6. Should our grass lawns be mowed short?
7. Should we use local 'native plants' or are non-natives just as good for local wildlife?
8. Should we recreate natural habitats (for eg.meadows) with the same 'native'/wildflowers?
9. How would this be a 'garden' as opposed to 'wilderness'?
10. Are wildlife gardens likely to require less maintenance?
Providing Shelter, Food & Water for Wildlife:
11. Should we provide housing for refuge/breeding/hibernating?
12. How? Wooden boxes? compost heap? woodpiles? uncultivated areas? planting?
13. Should we provide food?
14. How? Purchased wildlife foods? Plants (alive & dead)? Natural prey?
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?
16. Providing water - treated tap water in refillable containers or in ponds, streams & water features?
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?
18. Are we too reliant on attractively packaged, ready-made wildlife solutions rather than using what we already have, recycling things, home-made solutions?
19. What items do you have x how many?
20. Any products had little or no uptake so far?
21. Did you look into how/where was best to site the items in 20?
22. do you feel there is too much hype/marketing of these products?
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?
24. Are the wildlife foods/products you buy sourced/made locally with a low 'carbon footprint'? Do they come from sustainable sources?
25. Is wildlife being destroyed or evicted elsewhere for the wood needed for the wildlife products we buy to help wildlife in our gardens?
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?
27. Do you consider needs through autumn & winter months or do most in spring & summer?
28. Have you also made provision for the needs of nocturnal visitors eg. moths?
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?
As a Gardener:
30. Friend or foe? How do you decide which is what?
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)
32. Do you kill any 'pests'? By chemical, biological (introduced pests) &/or mechanical (removal by hand) means?
33. Do you discourage/distact 'pests' with barriers, companion planting &/or plant choice?
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?
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.
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?
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?
38. Are there any well meaning actions you can think of/know of that are deterimental to the creatures we are trying to help?
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?
40. Anything further/different you wish to add?
A big thank you for your perceverance and help and apologies if I am unable to respond to your response
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