Garden Design. Help me!

[wyrdewood]

A good trick to encourage insects is to place a few pieces of a tree trunk in a pile to rot in some corner. This encourages beetles and bugs that are good for the garden. Butterflies will lay their eggs here and the wood lice make good food for the birds. I have been lucky enough to get some Stag beetles in my pile. Nettles kept in a pot, to stop them spreading like wild fire, are also excellent for butterflies AND you can make nettle stew and wine. There are loads of medicinal uses for nettles as well.
Holding a barbeque with free beer also seems to attract the wild life to my garden.

[gwenifer]

Well, you've got plants so sooner or later you'll get bugs!!
1. Good idea to get or make a ladybird box,
2. nettles make excellent organic liquid feed for your pot plants
3. how about sacrificing a bit of the flower bed to make a little wildlife pool? Doesn't have to be very big or very deep to be useful, you will get frogs (good for getting rid of slugs) and plenty of useful insects.
Try - www.tree2mydoor.com/home.asp for ideas on seeds and other things for the garden.
www.naturescape.co.uk/ provide British wildflower seeds and ideas!! The RHS website also has a section on wildlife gardens.

[Butterfly]

My garden boarders are just completely meadow seed, and all my other unused seeds sewn together. They have come up with all sorts of long grass, large and small poppies, love in the mist, forget me knots, its exciting waiting to see what comes up next!I still ofcourse have a lawn to mow in the centre that is normal grass, but i've seen lots of butterflies, we also have huge amounts of ladybirds and their lava, so a nice aray of wildlife, oh and not to mention my beautiful ash that takes up the whole foot of the end of my garden!!!xx

[moonsmith]

Right!

Need Input!

What fencing or walls do you have around the property other than the wooden fence?
Which way is up? Sorry - Which way is North?
I am presuming that the sloping garden is dry - is that right?
Are you collecting water from roofs? If so how?

A pile of big stones or a four brick pyramid leaving 2 cm gaps will form a toad Hilton but you will need to put it somewhere damp - among plants best up against a fence. Oh a thought! - a couple of those 10 inch square decorative concrete blocks one upright and one flat might work. Soak them in water then in baby bio solution to promote moss and algae. I am presuming that you don't have a 45 gallon tin drum in which "hen muck tea" is fermenting - Oh well!
Let me know if you'd like a pot sized bog garden. Would you want to sink anything into that gravel?

What about a bee box - most species of bee are solitary - not hive dwellers. You have perfect bee plants - just look at that cotoneaster right now! or a bat box. Dead cheap or better, go off to a garden centre and take a good look then make your own. For bat boxes the dimensions are very important.

Simon - do you know more about these than do I?
.
Get onto Bill Oddy's site for dimensions of bird boxes bu.t check. .o.ut. .your .itin.eran.t c.at .population - that may keep birds away.

Bugger - is anyone else getting a random full stop as they type .here? [seriously?]

Y..our garden looks tidy and as you may be coming to realise - wild animal gardens just ain't tidy - you're talking to an expert in untidy. Medieval gardens included a "Pleasaunce" I am pio.n.eer of the "Un-pleasaunce"

Not sure how I'd deliver but that big branch I took out of Yggdrasil - parts of it are rotten in the middle. you might prefer a single "mellowing" log to a woodpile. In a year or so insects will get under the bark too. A thought just arrived - what about a thick slice of log bashed about in its centre. If you sat your pots on them water would percolate into the wood and you'd get all sorts of folk living "down stairs" better still they wo..uldn't be plant eaters!

What's going on UNDER the shed? What happe.ns between the shed and the boundary [wall? fence? ha-ha? moat?]

I actually have qualifications in Horticulture gained during happy times in Worcester but I've not used them much. So glad if they might be of use.

Floreat Drachenfach

[gwenifer]

Plant some shading plants over it, you can have your bog garden then!!

[eleanor]

Gwenifer - have you read "Making a Wildlife Garden" (well, something like that!) by Chris Baines? Lots of useful tips. Will try to find my copy. Are you coming to coffee moot Thurs?
In any case, you do really need some water - even a bowl! (I have an old casserole dish, the birds love it). Also try that good old standby the buddleia for bees and butterflies - it won't mind a tub. Wild flowers are great too.

Jan x

[gwenifer]

Hi Jan, haven't read the book but have talked to the author about it! It sounds very interesting, unfortunately I have all my college work to get done (they've given us yet another tutor for our afternoon class, this is the 3rd) and they've decided that they won't accept my work on a memory stick, they wanted the whole portfolio printed out!! I've got one more assignment to write, 'Should heritage be publicly funded' and I've put all my research for the learning journal (power point presentations) onto Cds so that's nearly finished. Oh then I have an abstract painting to do and all the learning journals to complete for the morning course!!
Oh and the swine have stitched me up, as they have only entered me for 45 credits instead of 60 and I can't get me £250 grant of the education authority!!

[moonsmith]

Been thinking!

Any wildlife in your garden is going to have to fly, burrow, bore or climb isn't it?

I've been thinking about refuges for shrews [inc. Hedgehog] but many of the environments that you create for them will also be suitable for rodents. I have no objection to any of the Rodenta myself but I feel that you might not want rats. A Cappybara will make a bloody big hole in your fence .

The budliea in a pot mentioned by gwenifer is a must for butterflies but even butterflies need to drink.
Water is essential. It is the most probable reason you don't get birds, especially if there is no water in neighbouring gardens either.

You could just hang a couple of big budgie water holders in your shrubs or from your feeder. A bigger version would be a narrow topped glass vase [Morrisons £6 and on a good day you might get two!] fill to top with water, place dog bowl [£1.50], or better something similar in glass, over top. Turn upside down and wait for pressure to equalise. Its quite a feature on its own Glass paint could be fun too. but I digress.

See if small steps work first.
Then a couple of attracting spells and statements of welcome to Gaea or your own deity.
Add to that a spell for attracting money so you can afford one of the vast range [some not very expensive] of self contained water features.

Buddliea, Butterflies, Bees, Water and a Goddess - should do the trick!


Pat.

[moonsmith]

P.S.
Do you have a place for the Spirit of your garden?

Its a feature of Thai life that I found profoundly moving. EVERY house has a small space - most usually a house the size of a small dolls house, for the spirit which has been displaced by the building, to live. This house - often on a pillar - has space for offerings of fruit, flowers, ribbon and it is common to see josticks smoking away. Even the most westernised and high ranking official in a huge tower block office will wei [salute] the spirit as s/he enters or leaves the building. Gaea's children assist with the clearing away of fruit and crumbs left on the spirit house - which is exactly what you want!

Wei [palms together with slight bow of head]

Pat.

PS I do not know the name of the Thai nature god/ess. Gaea will cover for me.
P

[sleepyowl]

plant ivy or some other creeper up against the wall & add a bird box of a different sort i.e with a larger hole or an open front & get more lavenders

[wyrdewood]

moonsmith said:

Its a feature of Thai life that I found profoundly moving. EVERY house has a small space - most usually a house the size of a small dolls house, for the spirit which has been displaced by the building, to live.
P.S I don't know the name of the Thai nature god/ess. Gaea will cover for me.
P

From my reading of the Ramakien (the Thai version of the Ramayana) there is mention, in the preface, of two types of spirit house.
Phra Poom - A colourful temple, wth a standard design to the roof, for local gods.
Chaow Tee - A traditional style of Thai wooden house for local spirits.

These houses are so sacred that when they become damaged, or old, they can't just be thrown away but have to go to special "house graveyards" so as no to offend the spirits after they are rehoused in a new spirit house.

[piercedphoenix]

Well, on the bright side, if you've got mainly pots at least you won't have to b***er up your back digging the garden over (I've only got a tiny garden myself, but I'm suffering at the moment.)
I suppose the thing to do is look for other climbers or even small trees/shrubs that won't mind being kept in planters. What about some trailing plants hanging down from the top of the garage as well?
I've been told that honeybees like pretty much the same kind of herbs that we do - lemon balm, mint, lavender, thyme, basil, and also clover of course. And they always seem to go straight for the meadowsweet in my garden before anything else.

[glyn]

Hi Drach, so how is your garden going then? Have you managed to sort it out the way you want it? If you have, how about some pics?

[glyn]

Well, you've made some progress and even added some industrial sculptures too!!!

[sleepyowl]

you could start making them into pieces of art, I'm not sure James would apreciate it but hey you would have a pretty thing in your garden or perhaps wied looking