[Closed] Garden overhaul and wildlife (bird content!)

Sounds great, good on you for getting a pond in - probably the best thing you can do for wildlife in your own back yard. Any photos of the garden?!

Brilliant! 😃

Glad I'm not the only one who gets excited by wee visitors to the garden! And you are right - it is a privilege - I've been so grateful of the garden over the last few months.

Saxonrider- your old pavers are now in my garden and are doing such a good job. I really like the idea that your improvements have in turn enhanced mine. Gnusmas and the kids were over a couple of weekends ago. We picked and pressed apples, great fun.

from what i remember you have a low wall that divides your patch from your neighbour- can you somehow get them on board too?

I planted a sunflower in my raised herb bed and spent ages watching a mouse run along the bed and up the face of the sunflower, steal a seed , then dart away.

Mesmerising.

Next door and ourselves are trying to do lots. They've a pond, we've a line of bird boxes of all sorts of designs.
I'm trying to get ordered a bunch of wielding wildlife friendly plants at present such as hawthorn, crabapples teasels and ivy.

Sadly we've taken down a bunch of old trees and it will take a few years for new trees and shrubs to provide as much shelter. We've also a couple of magpies that fight with anything.

But we've frogs in abundance, hedgehogs, lots of birds including three wren's, robins, gold Finch, blue, great and coal tit, chaffinch and occasional yellow hammer, a pair of wood pigeon and summer oystercatchers on the neighbours garage roof.

I'd like to get rid of all the local cats though, they're having a huge negative impact in my view.

@SaxonRider - have you got small gaps in any fences or walls dividing your garden from your neighbours? And do you know if there are hedgehogs around? They like to roam, and can cover several kilometres around the neighbourhood. If you know they’re around, try putting food out, but in such a way that local cats can’t get at it. A largish plastic storage box with a small entrance in one end, like a bit of 5-6” water pipe, and a dish of cheap kibbles will attract them. I noticed they were going after the suet pellets the birds dropped on the ground from the feeders, along with mealworms, which aren’t really recommended. I tried dishes of wet cat food, which is often recommended, but all they did was play with it and then poo on it!
Then I tried dog food, cheap six-packs from Wilco’s, which they ate, but left the jelly, so tried the same in gravy, and they practically licked the plates clean! I also found that crunchy kibbles get left, but the soft-centred ones, like Dreamies, get hoovered up.
Again, I buy the cheap Wilco versions.
Oddly, they’ve stopped eating the dog food, but completely clearing the plates of kibbles - I put out three plates each evening, along with dishes of water, and the dishes of food are gone by morning.
We’ve sat out late in the warmer weather and watched as many as six coming into the garden, including hoglets.
I’ve had an adult sniffing at my sock, then grabbing and tugging at it with its teeth, my g/f was having hysterics watching it, and she’s had one climb up on her fluffy slipper as well.
Really worth the effort to encourage them.
It’s a bit blurry, but it was very late at night, and there’s four going after the suet pellets before going into the feeding station to the right, under the bird table; it’s three boxes joined together with plastic over the top, so several ’hogs can feed at once, sometimes two will try to get into one box, which gets noisy...

Moved to a new place a couple of months ago, nice mature garden so plenty of birds & bees already which is great! We had been talking about adding a small wildlife pond & finally got around to doing it yesterday (plus bonus en-suite stumpery which should hopefully provide even more habitats 😃)
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@CountZero that is awesome, hog feeders definitely the next project! Got any better pics of what you've put together?

Great to hear, the sooner we move away from the monoculture lawns and annual flower beds the better.

Those with ponds, no matter how shallow, make sure you provide a ramp for anything (typically hedgehogs) that may get stuck and struggle to get out 👍🏻

Those with ponds, no matter how shallow, make sure you provide a ramp for anything (typically hedgehogs) that may get stuck and struggle to get out