It is a widely held belief that gardening is good for you. It is good exercise, it builds confidence and self-esteem, and it promotes a sense of inner peace like nothing else on earth. In short, it can heal the mind and soothe the soul and really should be handed out in blocks of 1 hour on ... Read review
Advantages: Encourages a mini eco-system right on your doorstep Disadvantages: Does involve a small amount of effort!
It is a widely held belief that gardening is good for you. It is good exercise, it builds confidence and self-esteem, and it promotes a sense of inner peace like nothing else on earth. In short, it can heal the mind and soothe the soul and really should be handed out in blocks of 1 hour on prescription in place of chemicals and drugs that fool your brain into thinking you are fine.
I am a great believer in gardening for good health, ... ...my garden the most therapeutic and important element of my healing process.
My garden is an oasis of cool, soft-edged light, filtering through trees and climbers. Gentle sounds of wind chimes and bells ring out through the space, and although I am close to a busy main road, you wouldn't know, for the air is clear and quiet. It is the most peaceful place I know of.
One of the loveliest things about my garden is the abundance ... more
It is a widely held belief that gardening is good for you. It is good exercise, it builds confidence and self-esteem, and it promotes a sense of inner peace like nothing else on earth. In short, it can heal the mind and soothe the soul and really should be handed out in blocks of 1 hour on prescription in place of chemicals and drugs that fool your brain into thinking you are fine.
I am a great believer in gardening for good health, and, having been treated for depression last year, have found my garden the most therapeutic and important element of my healing process.
My garden is an oasis of cool, soft-edged light, filtering through trees and climbers. Gentle sounds of wind chimes and bells ring out through the space, and although I am close to a busy main road, you wouldn't know, for the air is clear and quiet. It is the most peaceful place I know of.
One of the loveliest things about my garden is the abundance of wildlife. In fact, the children of my new neighbour this evening declared how unfair it was that the birds only visit my garden, and not theirs. They wanted to know why this was. The answer is fairly simple. The birds come because I invite them. Not in a Mary Poppins sort of way (no dancing penguins in my garden I'm afraid!!!), but with food, water, nest-sites and places to play!
In this review I am going to tell you the basics of how to attract all sorts of wildlife to your garden, and even if you only do one thing, you will be making a difference to wildlife populations in your area. It all helps!
Once you get the basics of this, you will realise that chemical intervention is not needed to eradicate certain creeping/crawling fellows who like to eat your cabbages!
Every creature that comes into your garden is generally part of the food chain - bluetits love greenfly, blackbirds love worms and bugs and larvae, as do hedgehogs, who also devour slugs with great pleasure. Frogs help too, to keep my slug population under control. Bats and swifts thrive on the tiny wee insects that hover over your white flowered plants in the evening - we have a family of bats that live somewhere in the vicinity and which, on summer evenings, can now be seen flapping madly about like they have no idea at all of where they're going. Very comical they are. We watch them from the bedroom window or the back door and it's so wonderful to know that they feel welcome in this little space we call our back garden! Lots of other animals can help to keep the eco system of your garden in check - my favourite is the song thrush. The Thrush, if you're lucky to have one or two about, loves snails, and will leave shells lying on the ground near flat stones where it's battered them to bits to get at the molusc inside. You see, it's all about the food chain to these wonderful creatures that visit us! By making your garden hospitable for these creatures, they gradually help to balance out the overpopulated species (like snails and slugs!) so you don't have to zap them with dodgy chemicals!
The general rule of thumb, then, is that if you attract the smaller creatures, the larger ones will follow.
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*****So, what plants to plant? *****
This really depends on your space, but what I will do is describe to you what I have in my garden that I have found beneficial to local wildlife, and hopefully that will give you some idea as to what to plant.
Honeysuckle - this is one of my favourite climbing plants, it has amazingly scented flowers which attract evening insects, and therefore swifts, moths and bats, and it is always covered in greenfly, which the bluetits adore - they can often be seen hanging upside down from the branches. Birds also eat the red berries during the long winter months.
Buddleia - this is famous for attracting butterflies in the daytime and moths in the evening - AND IT DOES!!!! I have a large purple buddleia in my garden and if the sun is shining its covered in butterflies - the most I counted in one sitting was eleven. Birds love the seeds in the autumn and winter months.
Thyme and Rosemary - Bees adore these two popular garden herbs, and the fact they are easy to grow (just put them in a sunny spot, well drained soil, and a sheltered position, and they will grow quite happily for you!) makes them a perfect choice for the wildlife gardener - they also taste great on potatoes and meat dishes!
Birds Foot Trefoil - this is a wild flower, usually found along hedgerows I think, and I managed to grow some from seed a few years ago (The Organic Seed Company have details of this and other wild seeds, see below for details) - and it is so vigorous, and has tiny little yellow flowers, like miniature sweet peas - birds eat the seeds, and butterflies and moths feed on them, and lay their eggs on the foliage. This is the best plant to attract the rare Blue Butterflies to your garden and I have had the honour of seeing 2 this summer! Well worth the effort!
Clematis is a fast growing climber which is perfect for nesting - sparrows, which have been in decline recently, love to nest here as they are quite communal wee things, and they like to nest quite close to each other.
Other things to try - leave a corner of your garden to grow wild - or plant up a meadow : by mixing cornflower, poppy, daisy, scabious and grass seed together, you can create a meadow effect, which will provide nectar for bees and butterflies as well as seeds later in the season for birds.
Nettles are great in the wildlife garden for many reasons - they can be added to a compost heap to speed up the composting process; they can be left in a bucket of rainwater to make a nutritional feed for plants and fruit trees, and they are also perfect for butterflies to lay their eggs on.
Apparently they make good soup, but I must admit that despite having a recipe, I've never been brave enough to try that particular delicacy!
Flowers with white blooms, like Nicotiana (the tobacco plant) attract evening moths and insects, which in turn attract insect eating creatures like bats and swifts.
I love to grow Lavender, for the bees, and roses, because they're beautiful, and calendula (marigold) because it's great in salads, it is wonderful in healing terms, and it looks so wonderfully cheerful, popping up all over the place with it's saucer shaped orange blooms.
I think really, there has to be a balance between growing plants that are good for wildlife, and growing plants that you love, and when you have that balance right, you keep everybody happy!
Hedges are great, not just to keep unwanted visitors out, but to give creatures a place to live. I have planted a hawthorn hedge down the boundary line of my back garden, and this is a perfect hedging plant. It is quite thorny and therefore cat-proof, so birds can nest safely in it - the lower areas are perfect for frogs, toads, hedgehogs and field mice, it has lovely white, scented blossom in May, and produces heaps of red berries that will keep birds satisfied in the dark winter months.
If you want to attract any sort of wildlife to your garden , water is the surest way to do it. Have a pond if you can, as this will bring you frogs and maybe even newts - but even if you don't have room for this, put out shallow dishes of water: you will find tat not only do birds visit your garden for a drink, but hedgehogs too. Always make sure that if you have deep water (for example, in a pond) that you make a shallow end, so that if any creatures fall in, they can get out again. I have a pond, inherited from my mum's garden, which within 2 days of filling, was visited by frogs. It was so easy to pop in, I dug the whole and settled rocks around it within the space of an afternoon last summer, and it is teeming with all sorts of water life now, including frogs, water beetles, and funny wee larva. Late last summer I have the privilige of seeing a dragonfly - my first ever - though I think it cam e from a neighbouring pond site. Still, I'm hopeful to see more this year, and maybe even have some in the pond right now, waiting to unfurl gossamer wings and fly away, over the scented heights of my garden!
If you can, put up bird and bat boxes, and you will find that they are used for roosting perches in the winter, and nesting in the spring.
A pile of logs and sticks is the perfect place for beetles, snails and slugs to live, and you may find hedgehogs taking up permanent residence during their winter hibernation!
Hedgehog houses are often quite expensive, but I just made one out of some bamboo canes and an old plastic compost carrier - if you are making your own, make sure the entrance is quite small: if it is large, you may have the local cats trying to shelter in there too!
Place a flat stone out for Thrushes to hammer the living daylights out of snails: you'll know if the birds have had their lunch by the clutter of empty snail shells lying around!
A bug box is a good idea, to attract beneficial insects like Lacewings and Ladybirds to your garden - again this is something you can make yourself by cutting short lengths of bamboo or hollow sticks and tying them together in a bundle. Place them in a bush or tree, but don't hide it too well, or the insects might have a job finding it!
Even in the middle of a big city there is still fantastic scope for members of the wildlife population to come and set up home in your garden. And once they're there, they provide immense joy and satisfaction: they also help you to manage pest problems. For me there is nothing quite like sitting outside on a warm summer's evening watching frogs jumping out of the flower borders, bluetits feasting on the honeysuckle, butterflies and early evening moths fluttering around the buddleia, the screech of the swifts through the dusky sky and the snuffle and shuffle of Mr and Mrs Hedgehog, on their evening patrol for worms, slugs and other delectable treats for their young family. Absolute bliss. I am so proud of the little eco-system that is my back garden, and the whole families of creatures that it supports. It is a joy and a blessing to be able to create something that is beneficial to these wee creatures, and I hope in this review that maybe I have inspired you to do the same.
Helpful websites on this subject include: www.bbc.co.uk Go into the gardening section and there is a whole library full of information to browse through!
Advantages: Easier to grow and use Disadvantages: Somewhere to store in the winter
After the herb reviews went down a storm I did a review on "How to make a herb garden" (http://www.ciao.co.uk/Member_Advice_on_Herbs_Spices__Review_5630783)
I have been thinking this week about the people who may not have the room for a big herb garden. So I have decided to do a review all about "Herb garden in containers"
So where do we start, well what herbs can be grown on containers, the answer is nearly all of them can. There is a few that ... ...grow in them.
Think about what herbs you want to grow as some herbs will grow tall like the "Feverfew" which can grow between 2 and 4 foot high and will need a bigger and wider container, but don't forget about something like a chamomile which would need a small container as it only grows a few inches.
First thing is "DON'T" use ordinary garden soil!
Even if you think you have the best soil in your garden it isn't suitable for containers, It's ...
the_enlightened_one 13.02.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Member Advice on Gardening
Advantages: Colour all year round Disadvantages: Where to put them all when winter is over
I've always tried to keep my garden interesting all year round and one way to do it is have a mixture of evergreens along with your deciduous plants.
Last year I decided to really make an interesting display and planted up winter baskets and tubs and placed them all over the garden.
For the baskets I inserted an 8ft stob in the garden to add height to my display, painted it black then I put four brackets, one on each side. I put another 5 brackets ... ...a start.
Around October, I visited various garden centres and bought a selection of colourful plants.............................
1 Various ornimental grasses, don't ask me to name them but the assistant assured me that they would all come through the winter. All the variated grasses came through well but reddish ones didn't. Perhaps they will come up again this summer.
2. Baby Azaelias and baby Rhododendrons. I chose ones with colourful foliage ...
lona 24.04.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Member Advice on Gardening
Advantages: I'm self sufficient, trees for the price of a house plant, local landmark Disadvantages: Peeling off the leaves cuts my hands and I can't get through the rose arch
They were sitting together in my local Garden Centre in the ‘Indoor Houseplant Department’ Two four inch pots, each with a tiny Yucca plant, about nine inches high. Two for a fiver, was right up my pocket, so I bought them both and drove them home on the front seat of my small car. They thrived happily in my bathroom, but after one year, they’d grown to two feet and needed re-potting. It was a warm summer, and I had the notion that ... ...them outside for the fresh air, and then came the winter, and I forgot all about them and left them by the back door. When I put my head outside for the first time in the Spring, I was rather surprised to see my two Yuccas were still there, having survived frosts, gales, snow and ice, were over three feet tall and needing bigger pots. They grew to five feet tall by the end of the Summer; too big to come back indoors, so I left them outside for another ...
mornev 31.12.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Member Advice on Gardening
Its that time of year again. The sun trying bravely to shine and what better way to banish the blues and forget your woes than to get gardening.
I am by no means an expert and my fingers are more brown than green, but I do find that a few hours in the sun, wrestling the weeds is very therapeutic.
My hubby's idea of gardening is to suggest covering everything with a load of concrete, thus eliminating the problem at source.
As this prospect held ... ...and left to get on with it.
Over the years I've managed to learn how to distinguish weed from plants, am an expert hedge cutter, lawn mower and plant grower extraordinaire.
After discovering how costly it is to go out and buy ready done plants, I have now extended my skills to cover growing things from seed.
I didn't have a greenhouse to begin with so this is not an essential, but it does stop every windowsill in the house being covered with tiny, ...
patriciat 19.03.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Member Advice on Gardening
Hanging Baskets, you either love them or hate them. I think that with care and time they can really look great. Over the last few years of my hanging baskets I have developed a few hints that might help people in choosing and maintaining them.
Reasons for hanging baskets…
They can break up bland walls and fences with a splash of colour.
They are out of reach of small children (how many plants have I had the flowers heads removed by children ... ...a wonderful heady aroma (being higher the scent seems to be stronger, not that they are closer to my nose you understand).
Once the plants become established, the baskets are not prone to attacks by weeds.
Care for plants…
Choose a good variation of colours, go to your local nursery/garden centre and ask what plants are available (always a good move as new and more interesting plants tend to appear each season).
Do not cram a hanging basket ...
sit2020 03.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Member Advice on Gardening
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Advantages: Mary mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow? Disadvantages: With slime and snails and puppy dog tails!!
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Advantages: Enormous Disadvantages: If you are able to see things differently, none.
Not interested, you live in a flat ? nonetheless you eat fruit ? perhaps flies, mosquitos, spiders visit your space ??then read last part of the review.
You like gardening, you will find some interesting ideas.
Gardening can be a pleasure or a nightmare. If we insist on having a perfect lawn, perfect borders with the latest plants found in the garden center, kitchen garden sterilised, well dug with perfectly aligned vegetables, no weed in site ; then it is in my view, a nightmare. Many of the plants we try to grow do not belong to the area where we live so we put them in green houses, well ventilated, well sterilised, well perfumed with the latest insecticide on the market. We will probably be very proud of the result, but at what cost ? so much effort ! and what we produced will not have any more nutritional value than the same ...
Last year saw a new me! No I didn't decide to go to the gym, no my missing leg didn't grown in time for me to enter the London marathon, but something strange happened while my poor old mother was recovering from a fall in hospital.
It was a particularly nice sunny day when my brother and I were travelling back from Newmarket hospital, and he asked me whether I wanted any tomato plants (complete with pots), as someone who rarely refuses anything free I accepted his offer. As we chatted he told me he was growing a number of edibles in his garden, and I was hooked! I decided there and then I was going to start home growing vegetables etc, and pick them as I wanted them?and all in pots!
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