'Wildlife Gardening' opinions sought

[DebsyD]

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

[goosey]

Hi Debsy, I have just looked through your questions and will answer them later for you. It will take time, so I will do it when I know I can give it my full attention.

[smartie]

I've sent you a PM.

[goosey]

Hi Debsy, I hope this helps.

1. I think so as far as possible, especially where new housing is being built and planned.
2. Informal, slightly untidy gardens are better. If people want a formal “Style” garden, and they don’t use pesticides and can leave an untidy bit behind a shed, it all helps.
3. Ponds rather than water features. If there is no room for a normal pond where only a water feature will fit – consider a “mini” pond
5. Yes!!!!
6. No
7. Use local where possible, they’ll do better. Some technically non-native have been around so long wildlife utalise them.
8. Yes, but only if people have enough space.
9. It’s a personal choice – some people I know dislike my informal garden just as much as I dislike their neat ordered borders and clipped lawns.
10. Not particularly, just as much love and effort goes into them. Seed heads can be left and piles of leaves left unswept, but it all needs sorting in the end, if you actually want to get in the garden.
11. Yes
12. Yes to all these.
13. Yes, as a personal choice. But once all the other things are in place, planting and water etc, it isn’t particularly necessary once everything is established. If people are going to feed they have to do it all the time, the birds become reliant on the food especially through harsh months. If the time or commitment isn’t there its best not to start.
14. Yes, dead and live food, the animals will also catch their own at every opportunity.
15. I wouldn’t have thought so, birds and animals have hard lives – not like our pampered pets.
16. I use tap water in the bird baths but rain water in the mini ponds when poss, - I can’t comment on large ponds.
17. I think that attracting the ”cute” visitors is beneficial to the other creatures anyway. A log pile and good planting will keep the beetle and all manner of insects we don’t even know the names of abundant.
18. I don’t think so, once you get into it. You see it on WAB all the time home made recipes and , insect houses, bird table , nesting boxes, etc etc.
19. Bird boxes and an insect hotel
20. The insect hotel – just a few visitors.
21. Yes
22. No
23. Sometimes – but people buy what they can afford or make their own mixes more cheaply.
24. No Idea about those I buy.
25. This must happen at the beginning of the journey, unless we know the wood comes from sustainable sources.
26. Yes
27. Yes
28. Yes
29. Yes
30. I don’t –everything is welcome.
31. I tolerate everything
32. Never
33. No
34. Yes – a cat with 3 bells on her collar, who is kept in at night. Bird feeders, baths and ground food are place as safely as poss’.
35. I leave spent plants in a pile out of sight, and fallen leaves as long as they not a danger on the path.
36. a, e, f
37. Yes
38. Yes, starting to feed birds but not continue when the birds have become reliant on the food we put out. Not keeping feeding stations and feeders clean can lead to disease.
39. I think wildlife gardening enhances wildlife chances of survival where natural habitats have been lost. The more people who do it and create wildlife corridors the better. We aren’t harnessing them, if they don’t want to be in our gardens they move on.

Good luck, Shirley

[DebsyD]

Thanks for this great response Shirley.
Have replied to your private message smartie - thanks again

Lots more responses sought/hoped for, as long or short as you wish. I am very keen to have your views. What you do or what you think of all/some of the points raised?

Deb

[nightshade]

Too many questions so little time,we like an informal garden ,water is a must
trees and shrubs make a real difference but any nectar rich planting is good
Scruffy(but stylish) corner of the garden for shyer wildlife,all welcome including
well behaved cats.Planting a native hedge of around 3mtrs long really made
the garden, if nowt else honeysuckles and budleia and a shallow pool

[Paul mabbott]

I don't really have time to reply in detail at the moment but two points:
(i) have been other quite lengthy threads on this area;
(ii) if I were to try to answer this item by item, I'm afraid that I would be putting in lots of ifs and buts! Some of your questions/proposals lead in different directions for subsequent queries and some of them depend rather on subjective definitions - how do you define 'formal' and informal' gardens for instance?
Good luck, though ....

[paulchandler6]

The Garden:
1. Absolutely.
2. Informal.
3. A balance.
4. Yes.
5. Yes.
6. Varied.
7. Always use native species, but can add a few exotics that are beneficial to wildlife.
8. If possible.
9. Because it would be managed.
10. Yes & No

Providing Shelter, Food & Water for Wildlife:
11. Yes.
12. Yes. All if possible.
13. Yes.
14. All.
15. Not heard of this at all.
16. All, where possible..

Wildlife Products being Marketed/Sold:
17. Yes products are targetted specifically but with a bit of knowlede you can widen this.
18. Not me.
19. 3 Bird boxes, 2 Insect house, 3 log piles, 1 Hog box.
20. Hog box. They prefer to live in the middle of a huge Pampas Grass.
21. Yes.
22. Not enough.
23. Yes, make them yourself is a lot cheaper, but if people want to buy them no probs.
24. Wherever possible, yes
25. Not at all in my case.

Which Wildlife?:
26. Yes.
27. Yes.
28. Yes.
29. Yes.

As a Gardener:
30. I dont.
31. I dont.
32. I do not kill, nor use chemicals.
33. Yes when possible.companion planting &/or plant choice?
34. Yes.
35. Not tidy, organised and yes - 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) Yes
b) Yes
c) Have always done it.
d) Yes
e) Yes
f) Yes
37. Not thought of it like that
38. keep feeders clean.

Finally:
39. We are managing a natural environment for the benefit of all
40. Wow.......thats enough

Seriously, If I can help more let me know.

Paul

[Nick T]

Hi DebsyD speaking as a Gardener & a wildlife lover and having had two Kids & a dog I think I would answer something like
The Garden:
1. Yes - every time. New housing is taking up a lot of habitat and so the gardens are a last refuge to so many species
2. I Guess it doesn't matter really as the Bees and stuff like the formal beds in my Gravel garden just as much as the wilder bit ( for wild read informal)
3. Depends on what you want - I've got both as it's a compromise between Family life & wildlife
4. Hell yes, whats better than sitting by a pond with a cold beer in the summer ..... OK two cold Beers
5. Yes as this is how Gardens in towns & cities link to the remaining countryside
6. Can't reall comment as I don't do grass. But whats to stop you having both
7. Most Non natives aren't as good as the proper natives ( Buddliea is probably the biggest exception to this rule)
8. Unless you live in a mansion most modern gardens couldn't so this, the best you can hope for is a "feel" of the habitat
9. By regular maintenance ie your lawns - you can have a nice short pathway through the longer stuff and round the edge then it's obvious that it's maintained when other people look
10. No garden is low maintenance - only concrete & block paving is this

Providing Shelter, Food & Water for Wildlife:
11. Yes
12. Nest boxes, logpiles etc
13. Yes
14. If you grow the right plants you get insects & then the birds move in to et them, but bird tables are still brilliant. I spend hours watching the birds on mine
15. I don't think you can supply enough in your garden to make birds fat. as ther are so many of them
16. I've got a bird bath and a pond so they get a bit of both

Wildlife Products being Marketed/Sold:
17. I don't think so, it's just the people who buy them who are more gullable. Why pay £100 for a thatched birdtable when you can use a seedtray that costs £1 !
18.I guess I answered this in No17
19. 1 bird bath, 1 Bird table 3 seed feeders, 2 nut feeder and loads of Fatball dispensers
20. Not really
21. N/A
22. I guess the companies are in it for profit and the Birds are a "sideline"
23. Yes but I have to admit the birds in my garden prefer the RSPB fat feeders at £4 each to the fatball at 50p each !
24. Not sure
25. Posibbly

Which Wildlife?:
26. Yes but not on my Veggies
27. I feed all year round
28. Yes as we have had a new addition recently a pippistrell bat we called Fidget ( after the one in the Basil the great mouse detective cartoon)
29. Wherever I can I am organic ( the exception is my cacti collection that I spray for Mealy bug & reds pider mite)

As a Gardener:
30. If you have a glut of on thing it's usually a foe ( black fly for instance, but by groing the right mix you encourage the friends as well
31. Mealy bug & red spider mite on my Cacti collection ( about 600 of them !)
32. Squish most, natural predators for some but spray the above
33. Yes
34. Don't have a cat .... my dog doesn't like them either
35. Ask my wife - she's moaning about it at the moment !!

As an Observer/Custodian of Nature:
36. Is the increased popularity in encouraging & observing wildlife because
a) In some cases yes
b) Probably
c) Almost certainly - these are the ones that drive big 4x4's
d) We have an allotment site full of these people I'm happy to say
e) A lot of people don't really care about their Kids I'm afraid
f) it does me

37. I guess thats what turned us from hunter gatherers to farmers in the first place and why we all keep a wolf in our house ( mines asleep on the ber at the moment .... snorring!)
38. I would imagine there are loads but I'm too tired to think

Finally:
39.No, but you can Garden for Wildlife
40. Best of luck with your Project, if there were a few more like you RHS Chelsea would look better

[Jez]

Gardening For Profit, Would you steal mine? When i moved in to where i am now there was an ole tree, stumped into two trunks which has been carved away to make a twin Mushroom Sculpture at around 9ft and around it lie my faery rings of wild thyme. To Create such i made use of an empty 12" plant pot cut in to 2" sections and buried into the lawn in a circular shape around the mushrooms= 7 circles in total then back filled with topsoil. Then 14 plugs of Wild thyme have been planted (2 in each) hopefully over next year they will flurish and spread but wont grow to rampant and a stray because of the cut pot to keep them in (like you do with mint). Being prostrate they'll grow low and outward becoming a pink flowering circle in the ring around the mushrooms. All being well they'll be aestetically pleasing to the eye from a garden design point of view and a top ranking pollunating plant for the Bees and Butterflies fingers crossed. Inspired by all the low flying aircraft over head who like to have a good nose at what it's like down below & I hope they like circling around them as much as i! Planting for wildlife a must, putting down logs for beneficial insects a must and any thing that benefits nature a must as a harmony is apprrieciated and more understood for those willing to ask the questions. I have been learning this myself i'm encountering far more wildlife as time goes by, which is no bad thing. All the best with your degree-Jez (Sales Assistant with no Qualifications)