Aibu to urge anyone with a garden/ balcony to start thinking about the summer months now?

[wellthatsinterresting]

Last year was horrific for our local wildlife. I found 2 dead hedgehogs on the schoolrun, and one more that was alive but died shortly after being taken to a rescue centre.
There were also loads of dead birds (avian flu? or water shortages?)

I've never seen a dead hedgehog in my life, I live in a city not the countryside so even live animals are a rare treat to see. But 3 in one year on just one route. (no car running them over, this was the street or front gardens)
The hedgehog rescue said they had loads of dehydrated hedgehogs, way more than other years (this was around the few days of 40° but we had very little rainfall for the whole summer)

They said the best we can do is put out bowls of water, tell our friends and family to do the same. We also made posters and leaflets, the water needed to be topped up a couple of times a day because it'd just fucking evaporate in mere hours. No wonder they died, poor things.

Anyway, I had a little look online and apparently insect lava was drying up due to heat, so we started spraying the wildlife section (aka overgrown boarders) with water (bath/shower water) and hoped for the best but ehat else can you do? My children started bringing water guns to the park to spray the millions of bushes but obviously its a drop in the ocean.

It's very worrying. So if anybody can spare a couple of minutes a day to take shallow bowls of water out, or if you have a big basin spare, one of those with wood or stones that act as a ramp so no little creatures fall in and drown, that'd be wonderful. Also a small stick or something that Bees and insects can sit on instead of drowning also.

Also if there's anyway to add a small section of flowers/ or just let the weeds grow.
It's become very apparent that we as humans are stripping wildlife of habbitat. in my small area alone we have had several of our parks and naybe 4 green spaces bulldozed and concreted over. This has actually lead to some minor but still disruptive flooding in the area (water pools and runs but can't sink into concrete)
Loads of houses have had drives or fake grass put in, where are the animals going to go?

We have looked around at local tree planting schemes (which helps with anxiety more than anything) but there's still loads to be done.

We have an allotment and water butts and so it was easy enough to 'measure' the lack of rainfall, we had a terrible year and water was really something to treasure. something I'd never really had to think about before but it brought home how fucking lucky we are to be able to get a drink from a tap and not worry ever about dying of dehydration. I just wish I could win the lottery and buy all the land and fix everything.

Poor sods.

Anyway. I just wanted to get ahead of the game because I only found out that animals need human intervention in cities in the middle of summer last year after spotting my third hedgehog. I honestly just thought animals would be OK. but they weren't and they probably won't be again this year and I know mumsnet is full to the brim of lovely people who will make me feel better.

What a kind and lovely post. Yes. Will certainly think and try to care for wildlife.
Thankyou for reminding people to care for the world around them. We are not the only creatures that exist in it and it isn't here just for us.

A great post, it’s very important to remind everyone about simple things that help wildlife, even a window box will help.
In a small garden annual flowers are easily grown in largish pots, wildflowers like poorish soil, so they can be grown in all sorts of containers. A bird/ insect water feature can be an old washing up bowl.
Every little helps.

Great post, OP!

I'm a beekeeper and semi rural. All of my neighbours are doing the block paved drives & fake grass thing. I just try harder every year. As many bee friendly plants, fruit trees, bird baths / drinking 'stations' etc. I've just had new fences put in, and have made sure I put hog holes in (get quite a few hedgehogs in my garden)

I have a wild flower mini meadow which is still feeding the wildlife even now in the depths of winter. I get 8 goldfinches every day perching atop the remnants of last years plants. They sway merrily from side to side while chattering and feasting on the remains of the seed heads.

For anyone who likes bees, a cottoneaster shrub is a great friend. (It gets covered in tiny sticky nectar rich rose type flowers and then berries in winter) Mine positively vibrates with bees during the summer months. Lots of lavender and salvias too 🐝

I can’t encourage wildlife into my garden unfortunately as my dog would attack them if seen. It’s a shame though as I love to see wildlife

My local garden centre has a small arable farm and they grew masses of sunflowers last year and sold the seed heads very cheaply.

I bought some and they were bare within a couple of days!

Absolutely no to milk!

As opportunistic eaters, hedgehogs will readily consume food left out in your garden. The best foods to provide are:
Meat-based cat or dog food
Specially-made hedgehog food
Cat biscuits
Don't forget to put out a shallow dish of water too - it can be a lifeline for hedgehogs, especially during a hot dry summer.
It’s not exactly clear how much urban hedgehogs rely on food provided by people, but it’s thought to supplement rather than replace their natural diet.

However, I have read that some hog food isn't good for them at all as it's full of cereal and mealworms

It's no bloody good for pets either as it can burn their pads when it gets hot

In Wales you can get free trees to plant from the Woodland Trust. I think the next batch are being sent out next month. I got sent a Cherry and Hazel which are now in my garden. I've left my garden to "rewild" and used meadow seeds on it last year. Just got a load of different grasses growing but I'm hoping for some flowers this year to make it look more "on purpose" than the current neglected overgrown mess.

I've never seen a dead hedgehog in my life, I live in a city not the countryside

If you lived in the countryside you'd see lots of dead HH on the roads, and deer, badgers, foxes, pheasants, rabbits and hares.

Wake up, you're not woke yet.

Do people not realise that removing trees and hedges can devalue the entire street? Would hope that self interest would do something to preserve trees if they don’t care about the environment

We made a kind of bug/hog haven at the end of our garden, assorted sticks and twig in a den kind of arrangements, a few pots on their sides for shelter and a few shallow troughs for water, trained a few climbing weeds up the sides. We had a litter of hoglets last year. We are suburban, and get loads of wildlife. The only thing we don’t do is feed birds because we have cats but we still do get lots of bird life and the neighbours have feeders.

picture of last summer, when one of the hogs came into our utility to snack on some cat food ❤️

Thank you for this post - it is timely for me as I’m currently planning my garden and I want it to be as wildlife friendly as possible. I will buy some shallow dishes next time I’m shopping for the critters, and planning to rewild the pond area. Love the idea of a bug hotel too. Makes me so sad seeing all the bushes and trees being cut down around here, and the ugly fake grass too urgh.

For anyone with a difficult, grotty bit of garden that needs ground cover, Persicaria is a great plant. The bees and hover flies love it, our is planted near the pond and the dragon fly larvae hatch on it.

This post has made me reappraise flies. Thank you OP and others.

Wow, so many lovely people doing lovely things. It makes a nice change to the 'let's destroy the world together!' mentality.

I actually heard from my sister (doing ecology course atm) that bird feeders (while great other times) should be put away during bouts of bird flu, or washed every other day or so to keep the feeder from becoming like a door handle for us during covid. Anti bac! (or anti virus?)!
Scatter seeds or nut on the ground or roof tops (shed or porch/extention) I do the ground. and I'm too lazy to wash the feeders.
I'll just double check with her but I'm sure we are in a bird flu pandemic (epidemic? I don't know I'm sure it's world i heard something about eggs but I shy away from news as I'm an absolutely anxious rabbit hole frequenter)
I get most of my news from here

Hedgehogs are often poisoned with slug pellets. I rescued one a few years ago but it sadly died.

We have been feeding the birds all winter as robins can lose something like 25% of their body fat a day in extreme cold. Also many bird species are in decline. We like to watch all the different birds and see if we can identify them.

Plant or leave an area of your garden wild for bees etc. They particularly like lavender which is easy to grow and smells nice.

Loads of small things you can do.

Also please don't use slug pellets. We feed our slugs and snails. Left over salad goes down very well, fascinating to watch them, nothing gets killed, more food for others and they leave most of the plants alone.

We use wood ash as a natural slug barrier. Don’t have a problem if some lettuce gets nibbled - oh well!

What a lovely thread. Who the heck voted YABU? I try hard to make my garden wildlife friendly. It is very much sparrow central here. I have two scruffy old hedges that they really love and live in year round, and I in turn adore the noisy little sods! It is nice to know other people don't want fake, pristine gardens.

Fab thread thanks OP and others. Thinking about what we can do for the wildlife in our garden. The other day I moved a plant pot in the alley and a lovely frog hopped out from behind it - I realised it must like that area as there are a bunch of old pots that have filled with water over winter. Hadn't occurred to me to leave our water bowls now so will do!

I’ve spent the afternoon looking at garden designer’s websites for inspiration. There’s definitely an obsession with ripping out green stuff and replacing it with paving slabs and gravel. About 90% of them look worse in the after photos to me.

Unfortunately have brick walls on either side, but things might be able to get through the hedge at the back. Will remember to sort out some water for the birds though. Have found some logs and stones to make a nice home for insect. May invest in a bug box too.

I’ve got a hedgehog run in my garden. And a tiny wood mouse that lives under the shed - they feed off the dropped sunflower hearts the Blue and Great Tits drop off the feeder.

Until a week ago, I had a resident Robin but my neighbour arranged for garden clearance on the property he rents out. The Robin used to sit in the (my) huge climber and rambling roses that went over the wall across a shared path. The garden clearance guys took a strimmer to the branches going over (I was out. I am deeply upset about it - they are over 20 years old and a beautiful mix of white and pink blousey blooms come May). They’ve halved it and Robin hasn’t been seen since.

I hate people who don’t respect nature.

Good on you, OP.

I live very rurally, right in the middle of farms and field. I have gaps in my hedge to allow hogs to pass through but I’ve never seen one.

I live in hope.

I've found my people.

Agree 100% op. I spend most of my spare time in the garden, caring for wildlife but its not helped by the fact that my neighbours are all of the non-gardening type, who just want things bare and fency.

Im now the only one with hedges, grass and trees, they all have decking, fencing and concrete.

And the other thing about paving and fake grass is it is also really bad for drainage and contributes to why lots of places get flooded with surface water - there’s nowhere for it to go.