Insula
New User
Hello,
Nine years ago, when I moved to the home I'm now in, I set about transforming the "lawn" that made up the otherwise featureless back garden into a wildlife haven instead.
It's been a great success, and I now have a pond with far too many frogs and other aquatic incomers in it each year, plenty of trees (alder, downy birch, hawthorn, crab apple, grey willow, brown fig), several berry-bearing bushes that please the birds, plenty of granite lying around that the newts and slow worms love, a very high south-facing brick wall covered with climbers like dog rose, jasmine and honeysuckle, free standing plants like buddleia, and fuchsia, a small fern garden that gives the frogs shelter from the sun, and a rather overgrown herb garden that I let go to flower for the insects...and the whole garden is a real treat for all kinds of invertebrates - I don't just favour butterflies and bees, lovely and numerous though they are around here!
There is no trace of a lawn left, as I really like Chris Packham's idea of what wildlife gardens should be, and leave it to get pretty wild each summer. ?
Last November, I retired and found myself living with the most wonderful dog companion for the first time. I play fetch the ball and hide-and-seek with her a lot in the garden, and she loves to sniff around on her own, following hedgehog scent trails and the like. Due to the density of the undergrowth for most of the year, the dog currently traverses trodden trails in the vegetation, so to speak.
I'm aiming to renovate my the garden next year, adding new plants and the like, and would like suggestions for how I could make it an even better and more interesting place for her to enjoy, so any ideas you might come up with would be very welcome indeed.
The photo shows her in the relatively cut-back fern area of the garden quite a while ago - new north-facing fence up, and with her coat and lots of the plants still in winter mode. Those docks had to go though ?. She loves to stand like that watching the sun rise every morning ?...and the hole under the fence was made by the dogs next door trying to get in, not her trying to get out!
Nine years ago, when I moved to the home I'm now in, I set about transforming the "lawn" that made up the otherwise featureless back garden into a wildlife haven instead.
It's been a great success, and I now have a pond with far too many frogs and other aquatic incomers in it each year, plenty of trees (alder, downy birch, hawthorn, crab apple, grey willow, brown fig), several berry-bearing bushes that please the birds, plenty of granite lying around that the newts and slow worms love, a very high south-facing brick wall covered with climbers like dog rose, jasmine and honeysuckle, free standing plants like buddleia, and fuchsia, a small fern garden that gives the frogs shelter from the sun, and a rather overgrown herb garden that I let go to flower for the insects...and the whole garden is a real treat for all kinds of invertebrates - I don't just favour butterflies and bees, lovely and numerous though they are around here!
There is no trace of a lawn left, as I really like Chris Packham's idea of what wildlife gardens should be, and leave it to get pretty wild each summer. ?
Last November, I retired and found myself living with the most wonderful dog companion for the first time. I play fetch the ball and hide-and-seek with her a lot in the garden, and she loves to sniff around on her own, following hedgehog scent trails and the like. Due to the density of the undergrowth for most of the year, the dog currently traverses trodden trails in the vegetation, so to speak.
I'm aiming to renovate my the garden next year, adding new plants and the like, and would like suggestions for how I could make it an even better and more interesting place for her to enjoy, so any ideas you might come up with would be very welcome indeed.
The photo shows her in the relatively cut-back fern area of the garden quite a while ago - new north-facing fence up, and with her coat and lots of the plants still in winter mode. Those docks had to go though ?. She loves to stand like that watching the sun rise every morning ?...and the hole under the fence was made by the dogs next door trying to get in, not her trying to get out!