Blogs

Unfortnuately our plans to get down and dirty have been scuppered for this week due to the terrible weather on Tuesday when my trusted helpers were due to come in. However, it did give me and a couple of volunteers the chance to go and investigate the site further to see what was already there, and how we would go about revealing the bare bones of the garden.

I learnt plenty of new things, in particular that pulling up 'convolvulus' (long weed with distinctive white flowers) is not actually that hard, and planning flower borders relies more on common sense than anything else (tall plants at back, short at front).

We have plenty of marjoram (a herb) growing wildly accross the site that we will salvage, and a whole load of other things that just look and smell nice that must want to be here.

So with luck, next week we will be weed free and raring to go.

'October Issue...' bleeped the latest Homes for Wildlife e-newsletter in my inbox, reminding me just how far along in the year we already are, yet reassuring me that this season is the best time to start 'spring cleaning' and preparing for our wildife garden.

I am lucky enough to be working with a community group who are literally bursting with ideas for what we could have in our garden, and these ideas chime in perfectly with Homes for Wildlife recommendations for this time of year. 'Build a Bog garden', it suggests. Yep, got that one! 'Plan and plant new flower borders and a vegetable patch', which just so happens to be top of the task-list next week. Later in the month we should be planting bulbs, forget-me-nots, pansies and wall flowers (or so the RSPB A-to-Z of wildlife gardening tells me). I'm starting to sound like I know what I'm talking about! 

It's amazing how much similarity there is between the things we like, and the elements that would appeal to invertebrates, birds, amphibians and mammals. It just helps to focus your thoughts on the nature in the first instance rather than on what would satisfy our own needs.

So its time to get my hands dirty. Next week we begin digging up the overgrown scrub in one area of our site (taking care to leave some patches just as they are) to make way for the flower borders and nectar bars of the future...  

Since agreeing to take on the wildlife garden project at RSPB Old Moor I've been secretly wondering how long it would take people to find out that I'm actually an imposter, who knows nothing about gardening! But seeing as we are now at the dawn of the project, I have decided to make an example of myself and share with you the honest story of designing, building and managing a large wildlife garden - and learning to do this from scratch!

I set myself the task in this first week of signing up to our Homes for Wildlife website. Having entered details about the area and what we hope to attract to the garden, I received easy-going factsheets to point me in the right direction. So far, my kind of gardening. It even told me what I should be thinking about doing this month!

I've never been very good at the technicalities, but I love spending time outdoors and really think that a garden should be a place for both people and nature to interact with each other. Gardening for wildlife maximises those possibilities, creating a sanctuary for small and tall creatures alike!