A call to arms!

[Dave Tatham]

Hi,

I'm increasingly becoming aware of how important gardening for wildlife is, and am in the process of making my garden as attractive to local animals as possible.

Wildlife gardening seems to be a burgeoning area, yet there is no specific wildlife gardening society.

I'd really like to explore the possibilities of setting up a small society, with a view to sharing knowlege of the most beneficial plants and associated techniques, such as promoting green roofs etc. and even undertaking some practical hands-on projects with schools, scout groups and the like.

I'm in London - if anyone is willing to discuss possibly meeting up informally to see what could maybe be done, please do reply to this post, or email me at pushdt(at)yahoo.co.uk (replacing the (at) with @!)

All the very best


David

[Deb London]

Yep, count us in. This is something I'm very interested in, and the OH by default (cue evil laugh). This is one of the areas that I will be concentrating on promoting if I ever get around to building my website.

[nightshade]

I like wildlife gardening, I like green corridors and occasionally try to fill in the missing bits.
Where do you start and stop? my neighbour has grass, which is mown with stripes. After 25 years they have put up bird feeders because they like Goldfinches, I do not think they will have green roofs anytime soon
Will you insist on native plants only? my garden has a compromise as no garden should be without certain naturalised plants which bring in insects.
There are some veg so there are caterpillars for Sparrows babies, there is a pond with Goldfish, there are few Frogs because a Grass Snake ate them all
(along with help from a Heron) but many people don't do ponds as they are dangerous to children/grandchildren.
Wildlife gardens need money and work, not just not pruning the herbacious border and letting the weeds and grass grow! But if you don't try nothing will ever happen, count me in.

[animartco]

I think it's a super idea Dave. There is so much misinformation around about wildlife gardening, I would like to know that some real hands on research was being done. It is such a large subject that it really does need the contributions of very many people studying different aspects in their own gardens.
At the moment I think there is a little too much emphasis on getting the RIGHT plants. It really is not that important. A thickly planted garden with all foreign plants is more beneficial to wildlife than a garden with all the right plants neatly cut and trimmed. besides I think so much emphasis on native wild plants is offputting. They are lovely in their natural setting but they are not pretty in gardens. It is possible to have a stunningly beautiful garden which is still a full wildlife garden.
And it is simply not true that you need native plants to encourage insects etc. I put in an exotic plant the other day and find that some insect is eating it. Unless it's poisonous almost as many creatures will benefit from it as they would from a native.

[Dave Tatham]

Hi animartco, nightshade and Debs london, and sorry for not replying sooner.

Great to hear of your interest - I too don't go along with the wholly native arguement, although in my own garden I'm probably going 50/50 in terms of native/non-native.

I know there is a wildlife forum, I think organised through Natural England, but they seem to be a hands-off group set up primarily to champion wildlife gardening and get the message across to the public. I'm more interested in practical hands-on things, such as building wildlife gardens in school grounds, meeting up to share ideas and help out with each others garden projects etc. That's why I thought it may be good to see if we could get a small group together.

I'll see if I can generate some more interest, but please do shout if you fancy trying to get a practical something going in London. Even if it's an initial cup of tea at the wetland centre in Barnes!

all the best

Dave

[Deb London]

A small local group helping each other out sounds achievable. Selling an idea based on the "what's in it for me" approach might be good. I only realised recently that to have a successful garden did not mean sending lots of cash at Wyevale. I can imagine a local plant swap scheme for the wildlife-minded might be a good incentive. I for one love it when people give me plants for free.

An easy thing to do would be to set up a free forum and add relevant sub fora as and when membership increases and a potential work force becomes a likelihood. There are various free internet resources to help you achieve this. A positive effect of this would be that you would gain an idea about the age range, abilities, enthusiasm etc of your membership. This would be a good idea before projects are devised. Individuals are likely to play different roles. For example, a less abled member could be involved in Newsletters (or the paperless equivalent) or making arrangements for working parties etc.

Anyway, I'll get on with trying to get some wildflowers growing from seed I'll be collecting over the autumn. Any ideas as to what I can look out for that might be good for wildlife greatly appreciated. Any spare plants that grow will be free to a good home.