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No mow May starts soon but I sense that there is quite an appetite for the natural world - working with nature and enhancing our gardens for nature where we can. There are also some very dedicated photographers on here that could share their pictures?
Being out in nature is why a lot of us use bicycles!
We are lucky, we bought a small 1928 semi in the 90’s. It has a large garden of 1/2 an acre but in a long thin strip, 30m from the road and 100m to the top, uphill and East facing. It did have about 20 fruit trees that have gradually succumbed to age and honey fungus, just one Scarlet Bramley left but also lots of plum seedlings and an amazing number of blackthorn/sloe trees.
We rescued a number of trees that had been bulldozed over the road for the reclamation of “the most polluted site in Europe”, these have created a lovely woodland with bluebells, campion, anemones and other plants that have appeared. I get tawny owls, blackcaps, willow warblers, nuthatch, gold crests, finches, all the tits, foxes, woodmice, stoats, buzzards and others. It takes some “managing” otherwise brambles and nettles do take over but we do it without chemicals, as we do the rest of the more traditional garden.
Slugs and snails are no longer a problem and invasions of aphids are dealt with by the birds or predatory insects such as ladybirds.
We like to think of it as an oasis in the midst of Britain, one of the least bio-diverse countries in the world.
It can be such a peaceful place to spend a few minutes of reflection.
I get tawny owls, blackcaps, willow warblers, nuthatch, gold crests, finches, all the tits, foxes, woodmice, stoats, buzzards and others.
Can we combine this with the "cycle tourers" thread and come for a visit on our tandem?! Sounds wonderful!
So I'm also a believer in all this albeit on a less grand scale. No mow April,May and June and leaving alot of unrulyness around. The birds seem to like it.
I watched a documentary on iplayer last week which I found inspirational and interesting. It's called "My garden of a thousand bees", made by the same guy that did "The Birds" (recommended on a thread here a couple of weeks ago.)
Anyway, it inspired me to go out and make my version of a bee house/hotel for solitary bees. This is as close to instant gratification as you get with nature stuff, I had bees sniffing around 20 minutes after hanging it up!
is that literally old chunks of wood with varying-sized holes drilled in ? I have some old wood...
Yep! Holes between 3 and 10mm about 150mm deep. Sunny place preferably up off the damp ground and away you go.
Edit to say holes shouldn't go all the way out the other side, they should make a tunnel with one entrance.