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Hi Darryn, I am sure an expert will be along soon to give you advice. In the meantime, I have seen a couple of programmes Love Your Garden with Alan Titchmarsh where they designed easy access gardens, http://www.itv.com/alantitchmarsh/loveyourgarden especially raised beds and wheelchair friendly paths. Might be worth you checking out on iplayer. They may also have helpful links. I would also suggest buying a big garden tub, filling with compost and sprinkling with a pack of wild flower seeds now. It will fill up with flowers next Spring and Summer and attract bees and butterflies. Someone will be able to give you ideas on easy ways for you to use bird feeders.
Pat Adams - Flickr - BLOG
Hi Darryn
You can do a great deal of good for wildlife by using planters, Pat's idea is a good one! Providing a range of containers with a mix of nectar rich plants for bees and butterflies is a great start, you could even plant some shrubs, climbers or dwarf fruit trees. I tried a planter pobd this summer, I simply bought a window planter, put a couple of small pond plants in it with some rocks inside and outside to create a ramp and allowed it to fill with rain water. A frog has been in it most days! If you can get hold of some ddeadwood then addign it in a pile or around the planters should attract in some other creatures as well.
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Hi Darryn,
I don't know anyone who has contacted this organisation but the "Gardening for the Disabled Trust " state on their website that they offer financial assistance to disabled gardeners.
If you can get assistance in starting up you wildlife garden, I do know that many local authorities and community organisations will provide help with maintenance.
I do hope you can get you project up and running.
Cheers, Claire
"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom" - Wlliam Blake
Hi northdevonfocus, thank you so much for your reply. I watched a couple of Alan Tichmarsh shows. The transformation is amazing! I would love to be on his show but I'm camera shy. The idea of a tub is great. My carer planted oxlip in my lawn at the beginning of August. Not seed a young plant. Will it survive winter?
Hi Ian, thank you for your reply. The idea of planters is great. I will give it a try. I'm going to start breeding butterflies. I'm starting with Peacock's. The larvae feed on stinging nettle. My plan is to plant as many nectar plants for butterflies & bees.
Hi Claire, thank you for your reply. Thank you so much for the lead of the charity. I didn't know there was such a charity so thank you. I approached my council before for garden maintenance but I'm still waiting a reply. I will definitely look into a local garden club. Thank you all again for your advice & time.
Hi Darryn, the Oxlip, I think it's a primrose grow naturally in woodlands so these hardy versions overwinter and come up year after year. I would suggest covering yours with dry grass if there is a frost.Another tip they propagate easily, meaning you can dig up split by teasing the roots apart to make more plants. If you like butterflies Buddleia (known as the Butterfly Bush) attracts all White, Tortoiseshell, Peacock I leave a patch of nettles in the garden. Common Fleabane a wild flower which attracts for Common Blue and Copper. I always plant Nasturtiums just for the caterpillars see belows covered at the moment in (Cabbage White) Caterpillars
If you can get a little diary and a camera or your phone and record what you see everyday, and don't forget to let us see them, there are lots of people on this forum to help you. Good luck Pat
I don't know too much about funding for this sort of thing but if you can get a willing volunteer to help with the heavy stuff etc then try recycling and reclaiming materials from the 'free to collector' type adds.
You could have ownership of the overall design idea and keep control of what you want in the garden and how it needs to look with your 'helper' doing the physical work maybe? There is still tons of enjoyment to be had from the design and overseeing the work.
I moved house in Feb 2010 and have designed a garden for wildlife from scratch. Much of the work has been completed with recycled and reclaimed materials. I was fortunate to find lots of people at work who had old rockery stones, and old bath (wildlife pond!!) and other items that they wanted shifting so I got lots for free!
If you would like to see what we have achieved with these materials and the wildlife that now visits the garden please do use the link through to my 'garden project' blog below this post or here http://higgysgardenproject.blogspot.com/.
The blog may give you some ideas and please do feel free to send me a message either on here or direct to my email address (on my contact pages here) and I would be more than happy to offer some advice or talk through ideas etc if it would help?
There is lots that can be learnt from the threads on here about gardening for wildlife so do browse and post up on old threads to re-open them and get the answers that you want. You will find that we are a friendly bunch who will help where we can.
Hope to speak soon
Best regards
Higgy