a thread about Biodiversity/Gardens/Landscape in the UK...

[LemonSwan]

So last few weeks there have been lots of amazing threads about tackling the environment issues.

After watching Davids 'Break Boundaries' - it was surprising to see that biodiversity is the category we have done the most damage too!

So much of these climate change issues are problems so large its questionable whether we can make a significant difference as individuals - but this problem of biodiversity is one that only we can improve. Most greenspace in urban environments is private garden. Any one with a driveway, garden or roof has the power

So this thread is for anyone to discuss how they are helping to support biodiversity in the UK, and by extension do their bit to mitigate against flash flooding, heat island effect, improve air quality and carbon capture.

Some ideas:

• no-mow May
• sown some wildflowers
• put in a native hedge
• sacrificed some/all lawn for a border for pollen
• switched their driveways for permeable
• built a pond
• put in a green roof
• planted host plants for insect breeding
• fresh water - bird baths, butterfly baths etc.

etc. etc.

Excited to hear about what everyone has been doing and what plans anyone has :)

There’s a house on my street with a fantastic corner plot and huge front garden, was v excited to see it get landscaped – landscaping company van outside, concrete dug up, huge raised beds built from sleepers, filled with topsoil… then entirely planted with plastic flowers. Looks so bizarre, especially in winter, and not even low maintenance as they’re often out there hosing down or dusting the plastic, pulling up weeds and anything real.

People post in our local Facebook group about redoing their gardens all the time. It is always a large patio, decking with a hot tub on and plastic grass. If lucky maybe a small shrub in a pot.

Our mint is watermint. Pretty flowers, nic smelling leaves when crushed but not for eating imo.

Hope everyones having a good afternoon.

I know this is supposed to be a positive thread. But in my lunchtime browsing saw this malicious vandalism and had to share!

metro.co.uk/2021/08/23/beekeeper-heartbroken-after-1000000-bees-doused-in-petrol-and-burned-15136591/

I cant believe someone would do such a thing :(

Does anyone do beekeeping?

I have a little pond with frogs living in it. Honey bees also visit to gather water for their nests.

A few trees which aren’t cut back very often. I often see little birds jumping from tree to tree, and occasionally bats on a summer evening. At the moment I have mint plants and verbena flowering so often see common carder bees on those. I recommend lambs ear for its softness and to attract more unusual bees like wool carder bees, which use its soft fibres to line their nests.

Planning on creating a pond in a pot, is this a good time of year to do it and what aspect of garden is best, does anyone know?

@LemonSwan that is awful poor bees, & poor man.

We have a huge veg plot which we let bee friendly plants like borage, yarrow, foxgloves, calendula and nastirtium self seed all over, the veg patch is no dig

We also have a green cone, this is a compost bin with a buried basket, so cooked food waste and meat can go in there and rats cant get to it. You dont get compost from it but the nutrients leach into the surrounding soil, we have comfrey planted around it which goes mad, the bees love the flowers and then it can be chopped back and layered around plants, put into the compost or put into water to rot down to create a plant feed.

We have a small pond and we are planning a second when we put in a polytunnel. We've planted 10 dwarf fruit trees with plans for up to 10 more. I dont use fertilisers or pesticides, compost everything possible and I let wildlife take its share of the fruit and veg (and never get chance at the hazelnuts!)

We will only have a small patch of "lawn" left which I am going to plant with low growing wildflowers and we scythe it instead of mowing it. We also have a grassy enclosure where the hens are but they tend to keep the grass down with the help of an occasional scythe

Ive stolen parts of the veg plot for herbs, dyeing flowers and a cutting bed so plenty for bees and insects, and we have lots of shrubs, berries etc. We have a resident hedgehog, frogs, mice, birds etc and its always a bit messy e.g. I let veg gow to flower/seed if it bolts, for the insects. I call my style wild around the edges aka a bit lazy

My dh has done a beekeeping course so there will be bees eventually, and we see the occasional bat.

We are lucky that we have a largish garden in the countryside but we did the same thing on a smaller scale in our suburban back garden in our previous house, I think our neighbours thought we were a bit mad, they were of the manicured lawn and not a leaf out of place variety, but they never complained about it not even the hens

I am really passionate about creating a haven for wildlife as well as ourselves. The only power tools that get used is a small battery operated hedge trimmer because we have a lot of hedge and shrubs to prune, other than that everything is hand tools because its less disturbance for animals and more environmentally friendly.

This is very inspiring. I try to leave the lawn as long as possible so the bees can enjoy the clover, and I like it when the self heal and speedwell and buttercups pop up.
I’d be grateful for some advice, we’re putting up a climbing frame for my children (age 4&1 so it’ll be there for years hopefully). I don’t want it on grass because that will be awkward to mow around and I remember the patch under my swing being worn to mud all the time as a child. I had looked at the bonded rubber bark, but I suspect that’s not very eco friendly, does anyone have any suggestions?

We’re in the process of having both back and front gardens done, as well as the driveway.

DW wanted artificial grass for convenience but I’ve put my foot down and insisted on real grass. Will definitely do no-mow May. We’re having lots of flower beds and are planning to have a big variety of plants/flowers to encourage different insects etc, especially bees. I love wildflowers too so will have plenty.

Going to go through the thread for other ideas. Don’t have room for a pond unfortunately.

Is composting easy? I really want to try it but don’t have a clue!

@Toomanyradishes your garden sounds amazing, lots of inspiration to be had in your post.

@SBAM we recently had the same conversation about children's slide/climbing frame. We nearly bought one of those big wooden ones but I didn't like the idea of having to cement it in and give up such a large area (our garden is small/medium sized). I just bought a big metal/plastic slide instead, it's an eyesore if I'm honest but my son loves it and I can just about move it around myself to give the grass a bit of a break and retain the grass around it. It also means autumn-spring I can store it away completely and leave the garden to do its thing. The fact it cost 20% of the wooden things I was looking at also helped my decision

We bought our house 30 years ago because of the back garden.
It is a 1 acre pocket of ancient woodland, leading down a bank to a steam at the bottom. We have hedged it, but not fenced it, as we don't want to close off wildlife corridors.
We have a badger set, foxes, water voles, hare, rabbits, common and pygmy shrew, brown rat, and field mouse, wood mouse, weasel and we had endangered water shrews (until new next door neighbours with 6 cats moved in ).
We have seen 105 species of birds including all 3 species of woodpecker, firecrest, goldcrest (once) and nesting tawny owls (noisy buggers). We have counted around 351 species of moth.
60 pipistrelle bats in the attic and Daubentons flying through.
We have palmate newts in the pond.
We had to cut down a huge Ash tree recently (heartbreaking but was unsafe as had been hit with lightening) the fellers wanted to buy the wood, but after learning of the benefits of rotting wood, we decided to leave it be.
Some of our neighbours also back onto this woodland and it's heartbreaking to see what some of them are doing with theirs, it's all abput clearing it yo make way for hot tubs, tiki bars and fairy lights not a thought for the wildlife.
We have been told several times that it's a shame we don't do more with our side, we are letting it go to ruin.

@Jericha I have already bought one of those big wooden ones 🙈 it’s currently a stack of planks in the garage while we try to decide what to do about where it’s going. We do have enough garden to give a section over, but I’m reluctant to cover a 7x7m section of grass with rubber.

We have a micropond. We leave flowers in the lawn and don't mow as often.

Our budlea is massive now and covered in hundreds of butterflies and bees. We don't cut it down in the autumn because the bluetits eat the seeds all through the winter.

I've put insect hotels up on the fence and have a woodpile for beetles etc.

@SeoultoSeoul that sounds beautiful, what a haven you have! Jealous of the owls. I have had a goldcrest visit once, my garden is probably 20x30m if that, surrounded by other back gardens (but luckily very near lots of open countryside) I looked out of the window and it was splashing around in the birdbath, was so happy I left my camera by the window!

@SBAM ahhh congratulations on your new purchase, they are fab. I get what you mean about the rubber. What about wood chippings?

Place marking

Spent an evening watching wildlife gardens on YouTube.

Chris Baines 80s TV programme is still worth a watch for those with a larger garden and a major overhaul in mind.

And Butterfly Brothers channel which shows individual projects for the garden.

This is a great thread with lots of food for thought.
One thing I try to do is to focus on plants that thrive in local conditions. Hence I have planted lots of wild geranium ( Johnson’s Blue) and vinca and silver Lamium as ground cover. I also try to enjoy the happy accidents that crop up. I’ve had foxgloves, aquilegia and poppies sprouting up randomly for awhile. Ferns and moss are other happy accidents. A garden should work alongside nature, not be constantly fighting against it.
I am thinking about the future of my lawn now that my children are older and prefer the park. I’m thinking of maybe encouraging more clover, or even trying for a wildflower patch with mown paths. I’m not sure I’m brave enough for that yet. We did have a regular hedgehog visitor for a few weeks who stopped returning when I cut the grass so that definitely made me think.
A pp mentioned rats and I worry about that too especially in relation to a pond.

If anyone is still reading, there was a good article in The Sunday Times about driveways and the impact on the environment of paving over front gardens. With charging points needed as we move to electric, there will probably be even more gardens converted.
It is suggesting paved tracks with low ground cover type plants in between as a way to minimise impact.

The RHS have a couple of videos up on YouTube with a paved front garden car greened up.

They used a permeable layer topped with gravel and pavers.

A pp mentioned rats and I worry about that too especially in relation to a pond.

We had to get rid of our small pond because rats were coming to drink from it even during the day. We've got a farm behind us but never had rats until the well meaning but misguided NDN started leaving huge quantities of bread and loose fat balls on her lawn. The rats also started to infest our compost bin - do be careful with things like cooked veg or the oats mentioned upthread.

We've got barrel ponds now (not sunken) which aren't really great for wildlife though the birds like them for drinking and bathing.

Nearly 20 years ago I built a pond in my garden. It took me months to do it all but there it is, still going and full of many forms of life. I have a shallow bit and I see birds bathing & drinking there too.
I haven't seen a rat in the garden recently but that's because we have new neighbours who put out loads of bird food so all the rats have moved to theirs I think.
I have not mown the grass in the back for months and it's going to need a strimmer (which I haven't got) to cut it when I do, but it looked so pretty with all the wild flowers growing in it that I hadn't the heart to cut them down. There are also a few little hazel saplings which I will dig out and replant to plug gaps in a hedge. It's really surprised me how much variety there is out there - it's only a small patch too.