Look Local Bookham

Page 24

GARDENING FOR WILDLIFE

Photos by Steve Poole

- thoughts for 2021

Gardening is a pastime which helps keep us fit and healthy. Wildlife gardening additionally lets us enjoy and connect to nature, bringing with it a host of benefits including a sense of wellbeing and improved mental resilience; a perfect antidote to the events of the last year.

• Put in some ground cover plants and allow some grass to grow long for shelter and insects to lay eggs. You could plug plant the grass with wildflowers too. For wildflower seeds, you need to plant on bare soil, so they’re best going in a bed.

You can encourage wildlife without compromising the way your garden looks; gardening for wildlife needn’t mean leaving an untidy mess. Small changes to your garden can bring major benefits for the creatures that call it home and bring in more wildlife for you to watch.

• Provide water for wildlife to drink and bathe - in a bird bath or in a pond. You can even do a pond in a bucket or barrel. Make sure there is an escape route for creatures which fall in!

We have been gardening for wildlife since we moved here and hope we’ve achieved something that looks good and provides colour throughout most of the year whilst providing cover, protection, habitat and food sources for wildlife. Come and see for yourself on Sunday 27th June when we open for Bookham Open Gardens. As spring approaches, it’s time to think about new projects and how best to manage the garden this year. Some suggestions are • Plant some pollinator friendly plants - look for the Plants for Pollinators or Perfect for Pollinators logo and consider planting some berry shrubs as a winter food source.

24 Looklocal Magazine - March 2021

• Make a pile of dead wood, logs, stones for shelter.

• Put up bird and bat boxes and build a bug hotel. • Build a hedgehog home and provide gaps at the base of fences for them to travel between gardens. • Put in a water butt to conserve water, buy peat-free compost or better still make your own. • Try and avoid weed killers, insecticides and nasty slug pellets • Consider letting your front verge grow and see if wildflowers come up. Put up a Blue Heart! Then just sit back and enjoy it! In 2020 we loved sitting and watching the visiting wildlife, dragonflies and newts hatching from our pond and the insects busily pollinating our plants. For more information, contact Diane Poole on bookhambluehearts@gmail.com


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