What do you think of wildlife in a garden? Does it add to the attractiveness of a garden or is it just an annoyance that poses a threat to all your hard work? :x We'd like to hear your reasons
Wildlife I could never have a garden without wildlife in it!! I have a bird feeding station set up which is frequented by many and various types of birds, (including a pair of sparrowhawks which feed on 'my' small birds) everything from wrens to pheasants. I have two ponds (small), a woodland area, lawn, a wood pile, a stone pile and various flower beds. Everything is totally organic and there for wildlife to enjoy. We have a resident hedgehog, shrews, fieldmice, frogs, toads, (hoping for newts to move in soon) damsel and dragonflies, pondskaters, diving beetles, butterflies, moths etc, etc and I simply couldn't live without them all around me. What do you have visiting/ living in your garden? EILEEN.
We get much the same type of wildlife in Ireland. The odd fox and badger sometimes as well. An organic garden will be more appealing to wildlife I reckon. A resident hedgehog, have you given him a name yet lol .
Well at least it's 'descriptive' I can see how you would get attached to a hedgehog, they have a character all of their own.
I love the wildlife in my garden although some of it can be annoying like the deer when they eat the tops of my peas (but they grow back) The moose leave large footprints and the fox small parcels but it all adds to the attraction of the garden. I have masses of birds and butterflies and mice and frogs the list goes on then there are the wild flowers as well
Wow deer and moose. I bet a lot of people would like to say they get visited by these in their back garden. They are large animals though so I guess they could do damage.
Gosh Lynne!! Can I swap a couple of squirrels for a deer and a moose? I'd love to see a photograph of your garden as it sounds wonderful.
I don't have any where to keep the pics at the moment, but as soon as I have worked it out I will do it.
It is amazing to read of all the small creatures that visit these gardens. We live in South Africa 100 km north of Cape Town. We had a mole for a short time, some snakes, wild mice which are the tiniest little things, frogs who insist to dig themselves into my husband's aloe seedling trays (not mine) and only lately do we find that a skunk is visiting us at night. The skunk digs around in gardens only in the dry time of the year, but it does not do real harm. It digs only in soft soil. We have mostly aloes in the garden which are rooted well so this little critter can not do much harm with digging. In Windhoek my daughters garden was visited by an enormous baboon while I was there. That is dangerous. It can kill.
Wildlife I am very fortunate to have a small man-made lake in my back yard which attracts all kinds of birds and wildlife. There are a family of bunnies I see every day. I currently have mallard ducks with babies which I have been throwing bread and seed out for every day. Last year I had a mom and 3 babies waiting for me every night when I got home from work "hey where's the grub?" "c'mon lady its dinner time!, quack" They eventually got so brave they would come right up on the patio and wait for me to feed them. I also have blue heron and egrets visit the back pond as well as occassional canadian geese, currently there's a mom and dad and 3 babies. Tons of robins, blue jays, frogs (big bull frogs that make very loud noises at night!), red-tailed hawks that come by a couple of times a day and dive into the lake and fly away with fish! My favorite little birds are the doves, I love their cooing sound. There has been a whole flock of them feeding there since I have been putting seed out this summer. I just love it! I wouldn't trade it for anything.
WOW Andie - a lake - now you really must post some photographs of that for us please. My husband and I have just dug out a 10' garden pond recently (still have a waterfall to do) as our back garden simply isn't big enough to acomodate anything bigger. We don't have anything like herons or egrets visiting but I do have frogs, toads, newts and various insects which keep me happy. How much land to you have? We only have 1/3 of an acre but it certainly keeps us busy as it's totally organic. Hope to hear from you again soon and hear more about your garden.
Many a wild critter and a new one today Hello all! Well here in Virginia, US, I live along a quite busy road, but back to trees. I insisted on this as I wanted the privacy in the back yard. When we first moved here we were bombarded with camel-back crickets (which are quite odd if you've never seen them) and centipedes. We would see the occasional bunny, but recently we have had quite a variety of wildlife; deer (who are beautiful but drive me crazy eating my roses), a fox family, squirrels & chipmunks, cardinals & various birds, lizards (skinks), rat snakes (of the 6 foot variety), toads and the usual. Today I saw something in the yard and went to investigate, thinking it was something thrown from the road through the evergreens and was thrilled to find a box turtle laying eggs! I called the local experts and we now have something to keep a watchful eye on. Of course, Sylvester is on permanent inside status! The hydrangea's are finally blooming and are gorgeous, even my pitiful little gardenia has a couple of hopeful blooms! Even my 9 year old told me yesterday that I am a good gardener ... praise doesn't get much higher than that! Kisses! Off to London (again) tomorrow! Peggy Sue
