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Gardening for wildlife doesn't mean that you have
to let your garden turn into a jungle of weeds. You can grow
the flowers, shrubs and trees that you like, but it does help
if you grow some native species that provide food and
shelter for birds, insects and other animals. Access to fresh water
in a pond or bird bath is essential and allowing a part of your
garden to grow naturally with long grass and even nettles will do much to
encourage butterflies to lay their eggs. A wild flower meadow needs
low soil fertility, but if your soil is rich and damp then a primrose and
fritillary meadow might be right for you.
| My Wildlife Garden

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Snakes-head fritillary

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The aim is to achieve a balance so that some of the
birds you feed during the winter will stay with you and eat greenfly
and other pests during the summer. The one essential rule is that
you must NEVER use any chemicals. so chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and
herbicides are out. They do more harm than good and you will save a
great deal of money if you don't buy any. That
includes slug pellets which poison frogs and induce paralysis in
hedgehogs when they eat poisoned slugs.
| Red Admiral

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Frogs need ponds

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| Song thrushes are seldom seen in gardens
now because we have poisoned the snails that they used
to catch and shatter on a nearby stone - the thrush's anvil. The key
to a successful wildlife garden is to be less tidy, to avoid all chemicals
and to just enjoy the creatures that will share it with you. The
basic requirements are water, food and shelter and somewhere for you to
sit and watch the wildlife that will come to share your
garden. You really can make a difference and the best
book to help you on your way is this one by Chris Baines |
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| The ladybird is the gardener's best
friend and will clean up all of the green fly from your roses.

Gardeners
often talk about "friends and foes". They tend
to divide insects into those that they think are
beneficial or attractive (bees, ladybirds, butterflies)
and those that are harmful (wasps, greenflies, cabbage
whites). The wildlife gardener understands that all are
part of an inter-related, mutually supportive web of life.
Plants in your
wildlife garden will come under attack and leaves will
sometimes be reduced to lacy skeletons. This is sawfly
larvae on viburnum.
![[image]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m58/PeterH_01/Wildlife/P1040193.jpg)
But the shrub still
flowers and will often put out new leaves. If you are
tempted to spray, then your wildlife garden is doomed. You
will break the foodchain and the baby birds that are being
fed the sawfly larvae will starve. They won't grow up to
feed on next year's larvae and won't be there to clear
your roses of greenfly. So you spray again and soon your
garden lacks the birds, butterflies and bees that you want
to attract. Pests are food.
![[image]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m58/PeterH_01/Wildlife/P1040219.jpg)
We all love bees and
we all fear wasps.
![[image]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m58/PeterH_01/Wildlife/BumbleBee1.jpg)
Wasps are persecuted
and so misunderstood. They won't sting unless you bother
them. They are carnivorous so will hunt and take back to
their nests greenfly, caterpillars and other mini-beasts.
Then, in late summer when the social fabric of the nest
breaks down after the last wasp grubs have matured, the
individul wasps seek sweet food and then go for your jam
butties. Then the nest dies and only the queen survives.
So there is really no need to destroy wasp nests as they
only last for one season.
![[image]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m58/PeterH_01/Wildlife/P1040187.jpg)
I grow lots of roses
and am never bothered by greenfly. Bluetits love them and
work frantically to feed their youngsters. Any greenfly
that the birds miss, the ladybirds, lacewings, hoverflies,
wasps and other predators clear up. These roses are NEVER
sprayed
![[image]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m58/PeterH_01/Wildlife/P1040194.jpg)
Some insects like
these hoverflies mimic wasps for protection so that birds
leave them alone
![[image]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m58/PeterH_01/Wildlife/Hover_flies2.jpg)
They fool us too and
some people will fear, swat or spray any black and yellow
insect. Is this a bee, a wasp or a fly?
![[image]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m58/PeterH_01/Wildlife/P1040199.jpg)
This flesh-fly
doesn't pretend to be something other than itself. Its
larvae feed on dead animals and that makes us squeamish,
but in doing so they are cleaning up your garden.
![[image]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m58/PeterH_01/Wildlife/P1040195.jpg)
Not all spiders spin
webs. This is a wolf spider that will hide and leap out on
a fly that lands nearby. What drama there is every day in
every corner of your wildlife garden!
![[image]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m58/PeterH_01/Wildlife/P1040231.jpg)
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