helping nature

I've always been a little concerned about things such as nature reserves, they make these little pockets where wildlife can and does thrive BUT with very restricted, isolated gene pools. Having said that they have to be better than nothing at all. If we are the ones who have destroyed the natural habitats then we are responsible for remedying the situation in any way that we can, but I still think a lot of it's a band-aid on a broken leg type thing. I feed the birds and try to leave/plant trees and some overgrown areas and I never use pesticides, herbicides or inorganic fertilizers. Is it all for the best, or are we interfering with natural evolutionary forces? Personally I love the diversity of our wildlife and do all I can to maintain it, but I'll admit I worry that I'm weakening the survival systems that nature has put in place.

People go on about 'What if you move' when I talk about feeding the birds, but I think they're well and truly underestimating the cognitive ability of birds (and other animals!). It's perfectly natural for a group to drain one food reserve, then move on and find another. I see me moving as being the equivalent. I sometimes do forget to top up the bird feeder, but I haven't noticed any skinny birdies or skeletons on the bird table, lol!

You only have to think about larger mammals in the desert. One water pool might be empty for years, but the group will move on/scout for new resources and settle there instead.

There's a clip on Karen Pryor's website somewhere of a crow making a tool from a piece of wire, to retrieve food out of a jar. It does this in about 2 mins. I know some grown men who wouldn't be that intelligent! :P

i reckon if you get a bird in a bird box or a hedgehog or whatever, then it has to be worth it ......... if they just sit attatched to a tree for 10 years, then maybe not ...... we have taken so much of the wild creatures habitats that i reckon they need all the help they can get, granted they will find food, but especially in spring when theres babies, more babies will survive if the parents have a ready food supply. A lot of wild animals don't make it to adulthood, putting food out will at least ensure that it isn't through lack of food.

and they all need somewhere to stay over winter, and if you're lucky they will choose to stay with you, cos they know there will be a ready food supply when they need it when they wake up in spring

I'm the same Headfry, I've got bee boxes, a ladybird tower, bird boxes & feed the birds & keep looking at hedehog boxes & frog & toad boxes but I'm not convinced they work. I even bought special ladybird attractant for thier home but not seen one anywhere near it so far & the bee boxes seem to be ignored, the birds nest in the shrubs & under the eaves & ignore the boxes & a toad has been living in the shed! I do think some of the 'homes' you see for sale are overpriced & you can make simple versions yourself or even just leave piles of logs, twigs & stones around which wildlife will use (I do that as well!) but I still get suckered into buying a few 'lovely looking' ready made things. I must admit that I think the birds would survive perfectly well without my food & just move to another garden but it's lovely to watch them anyway.

i did think about getting a ladybird house, but as i've only seen one all year, it seemed a bit pointless

I had lots of ladybirds on my sunflowers yesterday and bee's

New hedgehog box was waiting for me at work, cant wait to open and have a look! excited roll on tea break and I will be in that box!
I still wonder though, if I would be better off using my £50 and buying even more hog/bird food.

Would love to do a survey of other peoples boxes/feeders to find out what is used.

BOXES
3 bird boxes none ever used...one has been there for 8+ years
2 hog boxes - one new (today) and one been there 6+ years -never used
2 bat boxes- new this year
1 bee box- new this year

FEEDERS
6 bird feeders- not touched this time of year, most used in winter
Hedgehog feeder - used every night (about 5 hogs in our patch)
Water bowls- not seen anything use them.

I am lucky to have many dry stone walls round my garden, I have a pond and loads of frogs. In the past I would cut back the perennial geraniums and find there were loads of lady birds tucked up in the leaves...I no longer cut them down in autumn, but leave them for nature. I try to leave as many seed heads and leaves as possible. The old way of pruning every thing right back at the end of summer now seems a very bad plan to me, anyway when you get a hoar frost covering the seed heads....wow how beautiful is that!

In the eyes of manufacturers garden wild life brings in big bucks....am I and others being taken for a ride! Will the bees really use our £15+ bee boxes?
Will the bats ever use my £20 bat boxes....?

Go back just 5 years see how many 'nature aid' products there were, now see how many there are. WOW!
Maybe Gardeners World could help out by showing how to MAKE boxes and a better environment for wild life with in our gardens.
This really is not a rant, I'm just curious as to if these wonderful products really work. ;

ps....half an hours to tea break....then I can unwrap my new hog box!

I wouldn't buy a specially made box. It's be like living in a Barrett/Wimpey home!

I don't have many birds at home, but loads at allotment - trees are the key. Birds need somewhere to roost, rest, nest and to hide from cats.

I have loads of hoverflies: calendula and limnanthes are the business

I have had lots of late butterflies, all over my buddleja and scabious. Nettles are necessary for their eggs & caterpillars.

Lots of bees, on buddleja and my 120 French bean plants

I wonder if making a sand-bank in one part of the garden would be an alternative for bees? At OH's work yard, there is such a bank and it was colonised by hundreds of bees, which all came out when the weather got warmer (I say warmer, not warm, notice...).

There used to be a sandbank on the river at Cow Tower, Norwich ... you could sit there and watch 100s and probably 1000s of mining bees going in and out. Nobody got stung.

Sluglobber, could you make the sand firm enough? A mound of earth would surely do - I get mining bees making nests in my carrot beds.