Wild about your garden

[alison]

Has anyone been watching the TV programme called "wild about your garden"? It is a programme where they change someones garden to improve the wildlife in that area and make it a habitat where wildlife of all kinds have all they need to breed successfully. It had been mainly birds and butterflies etc which came into the gardens and the occasional fox,red squirrel, and water vole, but this week they were encouraging millibeasts like worms, stag beetles, woodlice etc.
I find it really good and helpful to all of us that want to encourage nature in. We are already doing our part by having the ponds as all creatures need water but we can go so much further. This programme has really made me want to do more for the little creatures in the garden. We already have a woodpile so it would be fantastic if we ever saw a stag beetle. I couldn't believe that they live as larvae for nearly 7 years and then only live a few months as adult stag beetles.
I just read somewhere that they live as larvae for 4-6 years then pupate becoming the stag beetle we recognise which then waits in the undergrowth throughout the winter before coming out the following summer to find a mate and get the next lifecycle going.
I think they have got the presenters perfectly picked too as Nick Knowles is so funny. Chris Beardshaw is so enthusiastic and although I have forgotten the womans name she is so knowledgeable about wildlife. I hope they keep giving us programmes like these.

[retropwr]

The woman is Ellie Harrison (must admit I had to Google for her second name).
Some of the trees they planted were huge, not so sure about the upside down trees though and that big pond with the floating raft in it...
I was also surprised at how quickly everything grew for the revisit a few months later - the gardens looked like they had been there forever.
Some of the things they did I'm not sure I would want - like a Badgers set in the garden, But I might make a couple of Bumble Bee homes

[alison]

I agree with you but what a transformastion from what was originally there. Last night I watched a programme where they showed us 24 hours in the garden where they were supposedly shrunk to the size of the bugs. It was extremely interesting and the girls (beth and Lucy) were enthralled with it. Bethany loves writing facts down so she was very busy noting away. The way they presented it made it much more fun for the children than just telling us the facts. I hope more people realise how important these little creatures are and stop just standing on them or killing them by other means. I have tried to teach my grandchildren how important and lovely the little insects are and wish that I had had an interest in them all and in gardening when my boys were young.

[Anyanka]

I haven't been watching it, but it sounds like I should have! I'm always trying to make the garden wildlife-friendly, although badgers would be a bit beyond my ambition. Probably not compatible with the dogs (we have 4 hounds now!). We have a massive wood pile, plus several smaller log piles and single really big oak chunks. I also leave the leaves on the flowerbeds rather than raking them up. Bee-friendly plants, bird feeders, no chemicals, all that kind of thing.

What else do you all do - and what else should we do?

[retropwr]

I'd love to have a pond big enough to have a raft to sit on in it and with red squirels as well

I also enjoyed the shrunk to bugsize program - but felt they spoiled the end with the giant wasp. Thinking about the wasp I have seen a wasp fly into a web once and the wasp won with the spider dropping out of the web and running away and then a very angry wasp joining the BBQ !!

[alison]

They probably wanted the wasp ending to be humourous rather than anything else, also the part about the diamond ring. I bet if it was possible to make things much larger there would be thousands of people putting out gemstones for the added value.
What I also found interesting was the part when Nigel was climbing up the rocks and him saying that he had much...much more strength (can't remember how much) which stands to reason that the creatures have to have, to be able to climb up. Even the froglets seem to be able to climb my pond walls and back up into the pond which must be like climbing everest for them.
Anyanka I think you are doing everything you can to encourage the wildlife into your garden. I have a small logpile laid on the only bit of soil in the back garden as most of the borders are covered in small slate which surprisingly the plants can make their way through easily enough, in fact I noticed yesterday that even the daffodils are already making their appearance. I leave the sycamore leaves for a while as well even on the grass as the worms take them down into the ground. Sometimes I leave a pile of them throughout the winter for other creatures to keep warm. We now have a great part of the wall on the front of the house filled with climbing Ivy which most people dislike due to creeping into the cement etc but it is already a haven for all sorts of insects. I would like to put up a bee home as I have noticed that there is a real decline in the number of bees coming to the garden over the last few years and would like to put back up before spring the nesting boxes on the sycamore tree so the bluetits have a home. I think all in all though we are really trying hard to help in our own small way and it will make a difference.