Wiildlife

Encouraging and Enticing Wildlife into Our Gardens is one of the most Important and Satisfying things that we, as Keen Gardeners, can achieve.

There is more to having a garden, than the pristine Chelsea or Hampton Court show styles, try to encourage you to create. A stylish garden should not only be a pleasure to you, the property owners, but also encourage the natural inhabitants of the area to visit the plants, flowers, trees and shrubs.

As custodians of the urban and wider country we must take the time and make the effort to help many species of wildlife to re-establish and flourish again by providing the correct environment that suits their needs in our gardens.

By putting features in place and planting good species of plants we can encourage bees and insects into the area. If we take care to construct and use a compost bin for all of our household and garden vegetative waste we will encourage slow worms, ants, hedgehogs and worms. When the compost is used to add good nutrients and organic matter to the garden soil, plants will grow more strongly to help resist pests and diseases. Worms and other insects will thrive and so encourage more birds to visit to feed on the pests such as snails, slugs and aphids as well as the good species.

For information about building or buying a compost bin for Your Garden follow this link to our Garden Recycling Pages.

We've found that in recent years the mild winter weather has meant that we have seen fewer birds coming to our feeder near the house. However, the local sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, jackdaws, robins, bluetits have taken full advantage of the seeds, nuts and scraps during the nesting season. You can get all your bird food, feeders, birdbaths, bird tables and related products delivered direct to your home from "Garden Bird Supplies"

Slug & Snail Control

If you do find it necessary to reduce the number of slugs and snails that are attacking your precious vegetables or flowering plants like delphiniums, lupins, hostas, ligularia and many other soft green shoot plants, then it is better to use a slug trap rather than the pellets if possible.

If you do use the pellets try to hide them in places that birds are less likely to be able to get to such as under old roof tiles, slates or pieces of pipe or old rainwater guttering within the planting area. Good gardening practice is one of the best forms of control by ensuring all old rotting leaves and shoots are put in the compost bin. Don't leave piles of stones, wood , tiles, plastic plant pots or other good hiding places around near your borders as these will provide really good hiding places for many garden pests including slugs, snails, earwigs, woodlice and vine weevils. If you do want to create these types of hidy holes so that you can catch and dispatch these voracious garden plant eaters then you must ensure that you check the specific traps every day to help reduce the garden pest problem. I like to put the slugs and snails out onto the concrete path or paving for our local blackbirds and thrushes to find and eat.

Our associates have a great selection of different ideas to help you control slugs, snails and other crawly pests in your garden. By clicking on the "Next" button at the bottom of the display panel below you will find even more products and informative books to help you create a greener garden and have fewer pest problems.

Vine Weevils

One of my big pest hates are vine weevils. Not only do they eat away at the edges of plant leaves to leave a ragged edge, their lava voraciously eat away at the roots and soft flesh of many pot plants such as vines, lilies, hosta's, cyclamen and fuschias. I've managed to save a few plants from them in the past by emptying all the compost out of the pot and washing the plant's remaining roots in rainwater to clear off any un-hatched weevil eggs prior to re-potting the plant in fresh compost. The best way to get rid of them is using a special water mix with a nematode in it that will attack the larvae. The beetles themselves are very clever if you disturb them, they drop from the plant and lie still pretending to be dead. When they think you've stopped watching they turn over and scurry away. Trying to squash them is very difficult as they have an extremely hard outer carapace to their bodies.

If you're keen to find out more about using environmentally friendly gardening methods then Bob Flowerdew's book will provide many of the answers.