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Want to share your gardening exploits with the rest of us, got a question about a plant or looking for some ideas on gardening for wildlife or do you just want to show off your garden? Well then the greenfingers forum is for you.
It is part of the Homes for Wildlife group so if you want to post you will have to join, look for the icon on the right hand side of the page! This post will remain sticky on the homepage for a while to help you find it, otherwise you can get here by looking in wildlife and the Homes for Wildlife.
What better way to introduce your garden than posting a picture or tour of your own little patch of nature. So whatever garden space you have be it balcony, patio or postage stamp garden to acres of lovingly tended garden space, it would be great to see what you are getting up to! Here is a quick glimpse into my garden to get the ball rolling...
Plants are a dwarf gorse and a berberris and these are common frogs!
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Alan,think you might find the Teasels flowering this year,they grow at a tremendous rate and we leave ours overwinter as Goldfinches and others love the seeds,just looked at ours and seem to be getting first flower almost,guess they are about 4 feet high.
Hi Alan,think they will spread as ours must have come years ago from one that arrived by accident and after that we always have lots and probably leave about a dozen each year.They are growing at a tremendous rate.
Teasels are biennials, forming the basal rosette in the first year and the flower spike in the second. Great for seed eating birds and the flowers are loved by bees and some butterflies. Over winter the seeds heads are quite sought after, it's also worth having a look to see what invertebrates are hiding in the dead foliage of teasel and other herbaceous plants left over winter. You often see wrens and tits scouring the dead foliage trying to tease out spiders for example!
Sounds like quite a project! Have you posted pictures anywhere Alan? It would be great to see this as it develops!
Having recently moved to a place I have a new garden to concentrate on, i'm trying to juggle a number of projects at the moment including a container garden on the patio, pond improvements, as well as some lawn ideas. Thankfully the previous tenants or landlord added some great flowering plants, shrubs and climbers like orange blossom, clematis and greater knapweed so the garden is already pretty good for wildlife. Will add some more pictures when I get 5 mins to get them off the camera!!!
Alan,apple tree grown from seed could be interesting as they do not grow true to the original apple and resulting tree depends on the pollinator I believe.
If you are planting a new hedge make sure you have some Hawthorne, birds love the compactness for nesting, lovely May Flower and lots of berries for the Autumn/Winter.
Pat Adams - Flickr - BLOG
Alan,hunted around our garden which is covered with shrubs and flowers and you are right there are small 6 inch Teasels as well that will obviously come into flower next year.
That's a great mix, I have seen wrens in my Blackthorne it is the first to flower and is full of big berries in the Autumn and Dormice love Hazel. You might consider Snowberry that's a really compact bush with good pruning. Speckled Wood Butterfly love the Vibernum and all Butterflies love Hydrangea. Buddelia for Bees and Butterflies
It is so good to hear that many of you are already Giving Nature a Home. Just by making small simple changes to your garden can provide a whole host of wildlife with much needed food and shelter. Why not check out our NEW Give Nature a Home site here.Claire
It benefits from being trimmed back hard, so it makes a dense hedge rather like a privet. I often see blackbirds scurrying out of mine. The Sparrows love the privet by the way.