Wildlife gardening

Feargal as Luimneach · 03-02-2011 10:21pm #1

Some pics of my wildlife garden. I try to have only native plants. The only non-native plants I have are one sycamore tree and buddleia bushes (in pots). I only cut the grass once a year and don't use any chemicals. All excavtions were done with shovel , pick axe and wheelbarrow. All ponds and bogs are enclosed in rubber lining.

Bog garden with bulrush, ling heather, yellow iris, purple loosestrife(not flowering in picture) and foxglove. The bog garden surrounds a small pond. Provides good cover for frogs.

Wildflower meadow

Froggie from the spring:cool: I also had newts spawn for the first time last year

One of my ponds

Traditional native irish hedge: whitethorn, blackthorn, hazel, spindle, guelderose, holly, ash, mountain ash, pedunculate oak, gorse, wych elm:D:D, elder, wych willow, irish bird cherry, irish crab apple, common birch, honeysuckle. ivy

This was the driveway, but I dug it up and put a heather/sphagnum moss bog. Great for froglets....

BargainHunter · 03-02-2011 10:40pm

That looks excellent Fergal.

I have a natural pond which is quite stagnant and covered in duckweed. This year Im going to try and improve it and make it more attractive to wildlife.
Im going to remove some of the slimey plants and duckweed, and try and dredge out some of the deep silt at the bottom, with the aim of reducing the nutrient levels. Im following the guidelines on this excellent website.
http://www.pondconservation.org.uk/

Let me know if you have any advice.

bogtreader · 03-02-2011 11:06pm

You forgot the blood and sweat you put in as well feargal.
Truly excellent work
Thanks for posting the pictures a little taste of spring and summer
to keep us going

Mothman · 04-02-2011 11:58am

Nice one Feargal.
Would you consider posting current photos and perhaps updating once a month? A sort of monthly diary.
I have the idea for my garden, but don't know if I'd get round to doing it...

magicbastarder · 04-02-2011 12:22pm

is your garden naturally wet?

Feargal as Luimneach · 04-02-2011 3:08pm

BargainHunter wrote: »

That looks excellent Fergal.

I have a natural pond which is quite stagnant and covered in duckweed. This year Im going to try and improve it and make it more attractive to wildlife.
Im going to remove some of the slimey plants and duckweed, and try and dredge out some of the deep silt at the bottom, with the aim of reducing the nutrient levels. Im following the guidelines on this excellent website.
http://www.pondconservation.org.uk/

Let me know if you have any advice.

I'm far from being an expect at garden ponds, only have them 4 years now. However some thing to inhibit algae growth in pond is to put barley straw in pond. When it decays it inhibits algae growth. The barley straw won't kill your pond inhabitants. You have to put in the correct dose of barley straw though.

Increasing flow of water into a garden pond can also help a stagnant pond. I put in a water diverter. After a days heavy rain you could easily get 900 litres of water flowing into pond.

Feargal as Luimneach · 04-02-2011 3:09pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

is your garden naturally wet?

Dry as a bone. All bogs and ponds are enclosed in butyl rubber/PVC liner.

Mothman · 04-02-2011 7:04pm

I used clay to line my small pond

but I did mechanically dig it out. One problem with clay is that the water stays murky for a day if not days after the swans have been in.

Feargal as Luimneach · 04-02-2011 7:50pm

Mothman wrote: »

I used clay to line my small pond but I did mechanically dig it out. One problem with clay is that the water stays murky for a day if not days after the swans have been in.

Is it difficult to use clay? How did you compress it?

googsy · 04-02-2011 9:15pm

that's cool what you've done to your garden.. nice selection of native trees too.. well done man !

Git101 · 04-02-2011 9:17pm

That's fantastic Feargal, thanks a million

As Mothman suggested, any chance of regular updates ?

You have nearly half of the native Irish trees in that hedge....bloody brilliant..

Mothman · 20-02-2011 11:23pm

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Is it difficult to use clay? How did you compress it?

Overlooked this...:o

Not difficult to use, but what I was using had stones in it and they needed to be removed. I did a swap with a friend. nice top soil for marl

trouble is the stones could not be seen when it was being dug out.

It was compressed by foot...think bare feet and grapes..:D

Puddling I think is the term.

2 layers about 75mm/3" per layer. Most important part is not let it dry out either when doing pond or when full. If clay drys out, it creates big cracks...

There will always be a bit of seepage but during summer evaporation probably removes more water. It seemed to stay up fairly well during the Summer.

Feargal as Luimneach · 23-02-2011 10:45pm

Ok a chailíní agus a bhuachaillí here's some photos:
Not much colour at this time of year except of course for my native bog sphagnum mosses.

Primrose starting to sprout:

And of course Frogspawn from today

Gardener3 · 24-02-2011 7:42pm

Nice bit of Cladonia (one of the 'reindeer lichens') in your top photo!

Gardener3 · 24-02-2011 11:36pm

I'm not any good with mosses but you could try posting photos and habitat details here: http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/non-flowering-plants/

ToniTuddle · 06-03-2011 12:58pm

Just seen this link from the other thread.

Friggin AWESOME!

We use to have a small shallow pond and tadpoles every year when I was wee.
For some reason it just stopped filling up. Probably best anyway as we have cats now and they would end up killing all the wee frogs!

I think frogs are awesome

Graces7 · 14-03-2017 10:27am

fearghal;a true inspiration.

I am renting a house with a good but neglected informal garden. All the right trees ie Irish native, and he had terraced by the stream that provides water to the house. A lot of eg foxgloves and the area is informal and uneven with one more formal area near the house.

Looking forward as things start to bud and leaf.

CaptainAhab · 14-03-2017 6:39pm

This is wonderful to see and provides inspiration for what I hope to create someday.

Imagine if even 1 in a 100 gardens were like this how great it would be for biodiversity - I am thinking if grants were available to encourage people it would be fantastic. Most gardens are so dull and lifeless.

magicbastarder · 14-03-2017 8:57pm

Since this thread was started, I've moved house and planted a (very) little bit of native woodland and dug a pond. No issues with it going stagnant yet, it's in about two and a half years. We do get a lot of wildlife, but the adjoining garden is a jungle, which helps.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 14-03-2017 9:37pm

My native half acre native wood is really thriving. Plenty of bluebell, primrose, wood anemone, orchids etc. But the greatest boost to wildlife in any garden is cover and organic gardening.

OpenYourEyes · 14-03-2017 9:43pm

CaptainAhab wrote: »

This is wonderful to see and provides inspiration for what I hope to create someday.

Imagine if even 1 in a 100 gardens were like this how great it would be for biodiversity - I am thinking if grants were available to encourage people it would be fantastic. Most gardens are so dull and lifeless.

In fairness most people spend a lot of money on their gardens over the years as it is - I think we just need to redirect their efforts a bit to more wildlife-friendly options and away from the boring neat-and-tidy approach!

magicbastarder · 15-03-2017 10:04am

I was wondering if any garden centres participated or assisted with any wildlife schemes, such as the pollinator plan? I suppose going peat free might be difficult without pissing off suppliers and/or customers.

Wildlife gardening

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