Posts Tagged ‘wildlife’
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As the garden starts its slow decent into autumn the hues, and colour equilibrise within the borders start to take on richer, redder and rustic golden tones. It’s the time to savour the last seasonal efforts of the plants to complete their yearly cycle before they drift into a gradual decline with the onset of autumn.
It’s not just the plants that are preparing for the winter slumber. Creatures that hibernate are also preparing for their long sleep, making a den and feeding themselves up for the cold months ahead. Hedgehogs in particular are readying themselves for the winter. If you know you have these delightful creatures in your garden then place out some special hedgehog food to help them fatten up, or a tray of meat based cat food. They will repay you in spring when they feast on the slugs and snails preparing to munch on the fresh spring shoots of your plants.
The birds too need fresh water and plenty of high calibre food to see them through the next few months.
Think about the species of birds that visit your garden and select a feed plain to their needs to ensure they get the ideal doable diet. Again, garden birds play a major part in garden pest control
[] Begin to tidy the borders slicing back dead and dying growth from plants that are beginning to die back. Be careful to leave some flower and seed heads for the birds for winter food. Some will also look fantastic framed in frost when winter arrives. Cut back soft and sappy growth that has collapsed, died and withered.
[] Leave a few piles of leaves, sticks or logs for the wildlife. Beetles and other beneficial insects can shelter in the leaves and over winter fortified from the weather.
[] Begin to think about how to fill the borders next year. Autumn is the perfect time for planting, especially bulbs, trees and shrubs. Select plants that wage good nesting sites for birds and a source of winter berries and don’t forget the bees. Plants such as willow, alder and hazel have primeval pollen that provides essential accelerator for feeding bee larvae in spring.
[] Before lighting bonfires look out for hibernating hedgehogs. Move the materials a few feet to one side to be innocuous and if you do find one try to think of all the slugs he will take in the spring before you evict him, particularly later in the month.
[] Many animals will appreciate a small log pile or even just some massive stones on uneven ground as a hibernation site for the winter. Slug predators such as toads, frogs and ground beetles are the most likely creatures to benefit.
[] Blackberries and other soft-fruit in your garden will be valued by blackbirds and robins amongst others, as well as the redwings and fieldfares, also called “winter thrushes”, which usually arrive from Scandinavia and Russia by the middle of the month. Fieldfares and mistle thrushes might guard a particularly good plant against all comers as an investment for the winter.
Wildlife Gardening
Encouraging wildlife into your garden
It’s lovely when you see a hedgehog crawl out from beneath a pile of logs, or a bat emerge from your self built bat home just after dark.
By encouraging wildlife into your garden it not creates a feeling of happiness but also continues to wage important habitants for animals. Below are some tips and ideas to keep up the wild side of your garden.
Planting trees is the most apparent means of creating habitants for mammals and birds; by planting native tree species this will wage food all year round for insects and birds. The tree will offer shelter depending on its size all types of creatures will benefit, and quite often create their home beneath or within the tree.
Planting shrubs that produce flower, berries and seeds at different times over the year will not only make your garden colourful and fruitful but also wage a tasty treat for insects.
Build a pond, ok so not necessary build one, but make one, if your garden is relatively small like mine you can always use an old sink or bath if your lucky enough to have one lying around, place the makeshift pond into the ground with one side sloped down to make it accessible for creatures to climb in and out off, the break bogginess will beckon frogs, toads, newts and dragonflies.
Add some small rocks around the pond for cover.
Bird and bat boxes are great for supplying shelter and safety, out of harms reach from ground crawling predators. Place your box at least 2m off the ground on a tree or surround and enjoy watching them.
Bats will go where there is food so by building a pond, planting a hedgerow or planting night-scented flowers will all contribute to attracting bats to your garden.
Bird tables become very favourite to birds during winter when they find it harder to find local foods, place sunflower seeds, unsalted peanuts, or chopped fruit onto a feeding station in your garden, it might take a few days for the birds to take to the food, but when they know its there the feed will be eagerly taken.
If you have the space then try and leave a section of your garden over grown and undisturbed, place a few logs in there, and leave them to rot, hedgehogs are likely to see this kind of environment as a perfect home for hibernation.
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During the holiday season, we purchase special foods, bake treats, and plan huge meals. It can be nice during this time of party to spread the joy with our local wildlife as well. Not only will they benefit, but you’ll enjoy it too.
Choose an outdoor tree to decorate. If you have an evergreen tree, that will look the ideal choice, but any tree (or shrub) will do. If you have pets, it’s ideal to try to select a tree away from where they normally are.
You can either purchase or make decorations, or use a combination of purchased and home-made ones. Making them can be a lot o fun, especially if you have children to help out. Here are some good decorations.
1. You can make a beautiful bird-food garland. You will need a needle and thread, popcorn, and cranberries. Push the needle through the popcorn (pop it first) . Alternate stringing on popcorn and cranberries. I usually string on a cranberry apiece three inches or so. This will make a garland that looks beautiful and festive, and provides a variety of food types that hungry birds can come nibble on.
Alternatively, you can use bread chunks and any other type of berry.
Then just hang on your chosen tree outside .
2. Instead of baubles, hang out entire sunflower heads. This will give birds a place to perch as they nibble out the seeds. I grow sunflowers during the summer, and save some of the dried flower heads to hang out for the birds during the eaner winter months. You can also purchase fresh sunflowers to hang out.
3. Slice up an apple. String ribbon or string through apiece slice and use it to hang it from the tree. These not only make festive decorations, but supply important nutritious food for wild birds. You can do this with nearly any type of fruit, but apples have the advantage of both looking pretty and festive, and lasting superior in cold weather.
4. You can purchase or make “fat balls” that will last for long periods of time and feed multiple birds.
Use your imagination to come up with more decorations. Just look around your kitchen for a few snacks the birds might enjoy. Making these treats and then hanging them out makes a fun festive activity for the whole family.
Afterwards, make a nice mug of hot cocoa and sit by a window bird-watching. You might be surprised by the variety of birds who come to enjoy your holiday feast.
I am lucky to live in a rural area near trails of various countries that lead you through different habitats. There are forest walks, a coastal road, lawn and one or two massive ponds all connected reserves. Each area has its own natural beauty and wild plants are simple to compete in terms of shape and color of cultivated varieties.
When planning a wildlife garden, which is a good intent to visit any country or say parks in your area so you can get an intent of what the natural species that grow and the types of animals that live in your area. Then you can plan your garden around what is found naturally in your area.
To attract birds, you should give the plants that wage shelter, food and punch for the space. Along with this, you should include them in the water. It can be either in the form of a pond, ornamental bird bath or just fill with water silos scattered around the garden.
Many plants can be grown in the garden that is both captivating and good food sources for local birds. Mountain Ash (Rowan) offers a wealth of berries in the fall, love birds. Dog woods, pheasant berry, and Viburnum Cotoneaster will also give your bird with berries. Flowering perennials wage seeds for birds. Sunflowers are a good example of this.
Let the birds that visit the garden in different ways and levels, so you will want to give up various plants. Robins will scour the connector looking for worms, larvae and insects. Finches and other seed eaters are among your perennials look seeds. Some birds, like woodpeckers like to be above full.
Bird, along with many other animals you can attract to your garden. Butterfly is not as common as they once were, so why not something like lavender plants, geraniums, Hebe or Buddleja (Butterfly Bush), or two to attract them. The plants will not only wage food butterfly, but also to produce captivating flowers, and sometimes a pleasant fragrance throughout the summer.
Bees are another form of animal that has had problems in the past few years. Many people are worried about the bees, but they are very gentle creatures and will not burn not provoked. Potentilla, penstemons, Heather, Lamium and Ceanothus always frequently visited by bees.
A pond in the garden, will always attract a lot of animals. Frogs, toads and salamanders will always find your pond and move in. You will also attract a number of insects, some of which are quite nice, such as dragonflies and damselflies. Other birds and animals, can also visit the garden to grab a swift drink.
Get the animals in the garden a tiny more time consuming than some other styles of garden. Trees and shrubs can be left to grow naturally. Shrubs need pruning only once or twice a year to encourage new growth. Perennials should be left to go to seed and cleaned up in the spring before new growth begins.
Weeding might be less of a chore as well. I want to leave a lot of grass in the country if they are causing problems and create more. Many herbs have captivating flowers and wage food for wildlife visiting your garden.
When you design your garden you want to create more places in the wilderness, where you can seek shelter to feel innocuous from predator attacks. Dense trees and shrubs are saint for this. Try to use the natural curves in the right place to come and manicured greenery.