Environment & Green Gardening – Page 12

Improving Garden Biodiversity Top Ten Tips

April 1, 2012 hortoris

Every garden has the potential to do more for biodiversity. It need not cost and it may be fun to improve the biodiversity in your garden.
Just undertaking one item from the following top ten tips will help. If you already do all of them then give each one a make over or a little extra space and time.

Top Ten Biodiversity Tips

1. Log piles of dead wood host fungi and insects.
2. Pond life includes amphibians like frogs or newts but a pond also supports many insects and a variety of other creatures.
3. Compost heaps are not only good for creating compost but host worms and insects.
4. A Bug Bivi or multi-habitat insectarium can be made to a size suitable for all gardens. see photo
5. Wildflower meadows or just uncut grass develops wildflowers and grubs.
6. Single flowers preferably from UK native plants provide insects with pollen, nectar and food.
7. Mixed hedges are homes and security for birds and insects.
8. Climbing plants trained up walls help wildlife not catered for elsewhere.
9. Leaf piles can host over wintering hedgehogs and leaf mould from rotted leaves is good soil conditioner.
10. A mature tree can provide a habitat for a host of species and shade and shelter for ground dwellers.

Comment on Improving Garden Biodiversity

Balance in a garden is most important and I like the idea of ‘a bit of everything’ rather than a glut of one feature. However you need to start somewhere so have a go from the list.
Bees are important to pollination and currently receiving large amounts of attention but do not forget the worms and fungus that complete the recycling process.
Create a Butterfly Garden link
Get Butterflies in Your Garden link

Green Garden Habitats for the Environment

February 9, 2012 hortoris

Healthy, environmentally friendly habitats are areas where wildlife can breed and thrive in safety. They are easy to create in your garden in fact you will want the features anyway. A little prior planning and thought about the wildlife environment can make your feature into a green habitat at little or no cost.

Dry Stone Wall Habitats

My first garden had a dry stone wall that formed the boundary with the moorland beyond. It was a great feature of sandstone build without any cement or mortar, a labour of love.
The damp nooks and crannies form hiding places for slugs and snails but also accommodate frogs and toads.
Mice, spiders and other beneficial insects use a dry stone wall for safety, breeding and a source of food supply. You can even get birds nesting in the larger crevices.
A micro climate grows around a wall. The stone holds heat and protects from wind to the benefit of butterflies, moths and slow worms.
Even an arranged pile of rocks and stone can provide some of the benefits but a pukka dry stone wall from local stone is very environmentally friendly.

Green Man Made Habitats

Nature can be given a bit of help particularly in a built up environment.
Support birds with feeders, nesting boxes and plants that provide food.
Create a ‘bug home’ with bricks and twigs to feed and house a variety of insects.
Keep part of your garden untidy. Leave nature to take its course. Let an old tree trunk decay or pile up some fallen logs.
Plant insect and seed friendly plants

Woodland Edge Habitats

Think in terms of a three layered approach to woodland. The top layer is for tall forest trees such as Ash.
The second layer is tall shrubs and smaller trees like yew, holly and blackthorn. With climbers such as honeysuckle and clematis vitalba you will get evergreen cover and a winter habitat.
The lower layer is a woodland floor for spring like primroses violets, bluebells and wild garlic.
Each tier attracts its own abundant array of wildlife.

Hedge Habitats

Hedges beat walls and fences in to a ‘cocked hat’ when it comes to being green.
They provide safe corridors for birds and small mammals to pass through from one area to another.
Mixed native hedging plants will provide food, nesting and shelter for many creatures.
Hornbeam, beech, privet and yew all can be clipped to make a formal hedge whilst still maintaining the wildlife benefits.
Berberis, dogwoods, hazel, spindle holly and dog roses are all worth considering for a less formal hedgerow.

Wetland Habitats

Ponds are a great boon to creating a green habitat
Bog gardens may be suitable if you have a source of running water to keep the soil in good moist condition.
Large expanses of wetland area to attract migrating birds are beyond the scale and scope of most gardens.

Compost Heap as a Habitat

Make your compost heap one of the green habitats.It contains more life than you can believe.
Worms and microbes need living accommodation and where can be better than in good compost.
Turn the heap if you want to discourage rats from visiting to eat the kitchen refuse and take advantage of the warmth. They are one creature I wish to discourage.

Read Dry Stone Wall Planting
Hedgerows worth watching

Wildlife Gardening in UK

November 6, 2011 tejvan

(Bees in the Garden)

Attracting Wildlife into Your Garden

As well as beautiful flowers, attracting wildlife into your garden can make it more interesting and provide extra all year round interest. If you attract the right kind of visitors, you will also be able to help defeat some of the common garden pests.
Aim for a balance with nature, slugs eat waste, frogs eat slugs, some birds eat insects and all have a place in a wildlife friendly garden.

How To Encourage Wildlife Into Your Garden

Good Source of Water. A good source of water will attract many visitors who will come to rely on this source of vital commodity. Water can help attract butterflies, frogs, toads, birds and many more.
Provide Shelter. A key issue is making wildlife feel at home. This involves having some tall trees and bushes for birds to feel safe in.
Donâ€™t Keep garden too tidy. It is tempting to always want to clean things up. But, a few well placed plants and objects will encourage wildlife to stay.
Bird Tables. Bird tables need to be protected from predators and so need to be high up off ground, well away from jumping cats.
Year Long Round Mix of nectar rich flowers. Attracting wildlife is complementary with growing some of our most popular flowers. Flowers rich in nectar will attract butterflies and hoverflies. Try growing plants such as buddleja, Foxgloves, Lilac, Michaelmas Daisy. Some less popular plants like Globe Thistle are also very good for wildlife.
At the end of the growing season, don’t cut everything back. Old Sunflower stems and seeds will provide valuable food during early winter and other stems provide shelter.
Donâ€™t harm wildlife, through slug pellets. At least, scatter them properly under the surface (overkilling slugs and wildlife).
Grow Some Nettles in back of garden. Nettles are a great plant for making compost and attracting wildlife.

Related Posts

Autumn Sunshine for Gardeners

October 27, 2011 hortoris

Make the most of the autumn sunshine it is warming and creates warm colours in the leaves of our plants and trees.
Chlorophyll is leaving the leaves of plants and only background colouring caused by the remaining chemicals is visible until the leaves fall.

What Happens in Autumn Sunshine

A green leaf is green because of the presence of the pigment chlorophyll.
During the growing season chlorophylls’ green color dominates and masks out the colors of any other pigments that may be present in the leaf. Thus the leaves of summer are characteristically bright green.
The green helps capture the sunshine and convert the energy into plant sugars and thus growth. This is called photosynthesis.
During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis.
In Autumn the shorter days signal winter and trees begin to shut down their food-making factories.
The trees will rest and live off the food they stored during the summer.

Why do Leaves Change Colour

Loosing leaves is one way of a plant disposing of waste chemicals.
It has been suggested that autumn colours may be a warning signal towards insects that use the trees for food.
Trees need some sort of protection to survive freezing temperatures and harsh winters. Stems, twigs, and buds are equipped to survive extreme cold so that they can reawaken when spring heralds the start of another growing season. Tender leaf tissues would freeze in winter so plants must either toughen up their leaves (evergreens) or dispose of them.

Air Filtering Plants for Home

October 13, 2011 hortoris

Modern homes and modern materials can have an effect on your health. Plants that filter the air or react with pollutants can make your home a better place to live in several well-being ways.

Why Homes Need Air Filtering Plants

Formaldehyde can be released from household furnishings, carpeting, foam insulation, upholstery, curtains, and furniture made from MDF or composites. Formaldehyde can cause sore eyes, nose, and throat or nausea, coughing, and even skin rashes.
Smoking consumes oxygen as it created carbon dioxide and monoxide. Plants reverse this process by consuming carbon dioxide and releasing Oxygen. Plants will not achieve a reduction in the particles left by smoking.
Xylene, toluene and benzene are volatile gases which can effect sore eyes and stimulate potential allergies.
Trichloroethylene is an industrial solvent which has anesthetic properties that can lead to depression.
Some house plants are more efficient in filtering out toxins than others

Best Air Filtering Recommendations

There are numerous lists of plants that have air filtering properties. Nasa conducted a thorough study of both plants and the chemicals that they remove. This list is the best I have come across and I recommend you check it out on wikipedia
NASA recommend growing a good-sized houseplant for every 100 square-foot 10 m2 within the house.
Air fresheners are not to be relied upon. They may mask smells but give off chemical pollution.
Some house plants are more efficient in filtering out toxins than others
Gardeners tips recommends you grow a good variety of houseplants and Pot Mums to look good and help pollution control

Other Plant Filtering Benefits

In the home Chrysanthemum plants offers colour, tranquility and are one of the best pollution controls according to the NASA table.
Outdoors Bioremediation uses plants that mitigate environmental problem without the need to excavate the contaminant material and dispose of it elsewhere.
Phytostabilization uses plants to reduce wind erosion or the plant roots to prevent water erosion and offers long-term stabilization and containment of pollutants.
Phytotransformation uses special plants for specific problems such as pesticides, explosives, solvents, industrial chemicals. Cannas and Sunflowers can render these substances non-toxic by their metabolism.
Phytoremediation consists of mitigating pollutant concentrations in contaminated soils with plants able to contain, degrade, or eliminate metals, pesticides and solvents in a soil.

More Benefits of Air Filtering Plants Outside the Home

Air filtering plants in an office can help reduce air conditioning energy consumption according to a study by K Meattle.
Better blood oxygen supply increases productivity.
See video

101 Gardener’s Resolutions and Plans

October 11, 2011 hortoris

Plant and Floral Resolutions

Grow the plants and flowers you like.
Grow more flowers for cutting.
Grow plants for shape, texture and form.
Tie to supports Clematis, Chimonanthus and Climbing Roses to prevent wind damage and improve flowering.
Increase the planting of scented Witch Hazel (eg. Hamamellis x intermedia Jelena).
Sow Sweet Peas in deep pots and pinch out the tips when they have 5 leaves.
Plan how the colour of flowers will look when planted. Use single colours rather than mixed seed packets.
Collect and replant or distribute the seed from your own star plants.
Grow plants that contribute over long periods of the year.
Select and grow a shock and awe plant.

Eco and Environmental Resolutions

Remember we must leave this environment for future generations.
Grow fewer varieties but focus on nectar and pollen rich flowers that are local and help wild life.
Improve soil with rotted compost and try not to compact the air out of wet soil by walking on it.
Increase water collection and storage with linked butts or new collection points.
Fumigate the greenhouse to get rid of fungal spores and overwintering pests
Provide a range of different bird foods to attract various species. Blackbirds love a bit of a bite of an apple.
Keep lawn edges neat and trimmed but have natural areas for wild grass and flowers.
Use natural fertiliser and non-chemical controls.
Reuse and repurpose old items rather than sending them to the tip.
Use local and natural stone for your construction work. Airmiles on Indian paving and energy used to manufacture composition paving slabs are unnecessary uses of resources.

General Gardening Resolutions

Reduce the size of plant clumps and shrubs and trees that are beginning to take over their allotted spot.
Deadhead faded flowers to extend flowering time.
Prune and trim when plants need it not just when you have the secateurs in your hand.
Sow seeds thinly and thin out. Give plants appropriate space.
Make succession sowings, only sow small quantities of a crop at each sowing.
Split clumps of Snowdrops and Winter Aconites after flowering. They split best ‘in the green’.
Create a low maintenance area to spend time elsewhere in the garden.
Take full enjoyment out of your garden.
Listen to advice but do as you please.
Work with the weather it is all you’ll get.

Houseplants and Indoor Pots

Check plants for pests before bringing them into your home.
Keep Azalea and Cyclamen pot plants moist at all times.
Flowering plants need bright light so position accordingly.
Repot plants into larger pots if have consumed the compost or are in need of space.
Add fresh compost to the top of pots when the houseplants are not growing as strongly.
Keep pots of bulbs and flowering plants cool to prolong the life of the flowers.
Many houseplants will benefit from some time outside in the middle of summer.
Water the plants not the windowsills.
Move plants around in the home.
Try the exotic not the commonplace.

Win Friends and Influence People

Grow more flowers and greenery for cutting and flower arranging. It should please those indoors
Grow pots and containers of plants to give away. It is an easy way to use your surplus.
Sharpen your blades and tools using a sharpening stone and wipe over with oil
Look at your garden from your boundary and aim for at least one crowd pleasing feature for passers by to admire.
Join your local horticultural society, you will get advice, make friends and may be offered free or cheap produce.
Use the RHS and AGS for information and join these societies if you want to use the benefits of membership.
Plant to visit flower shows and open gardens to see how the professionals design and execute a garden scheme.
Beg cuttings or advice from other gardeners, they are usually a friendly bunch. I was once told ‘Everyone is entitled to my opinion’.
Enter your local village show. It is the taking part that is important not the winning.
Keep your boundary and pavements neat and tidy. Pick up litter and kill off weeds outside your house to make the street a better place to live.

Allotment Focused Resolutions

Get an allotment!
Alternatively increase cultivated area by a deal with a neighbor
Mastered the art of successional sowing to avoid gluts.
Grow more winter crops
Store potatoes, butternut squashes, onions and shallots.
Pick courgettes and runner beans regularly.
Protect against carrot root fly, cabbage white butterfly and Pigeons before it is too late.
Get more manure to hearten up the soil.
Talk to other allotmenteers about successes and failures of the past
Grow what the family will eat.

Gardeners Tips Resolutions

Read Gardeners Tips regularly
Subscribe to gardeners tips RSS feed
Get Gardeners tips by email.
Buy from Jersey Plants or Thompson Morgan by using Gardeners tips links.
Comment on Gardeners tips.
Link your web site to Gardeners tips.
Advertise on Gardeners tips.
Tell your friends about Gardeners tips.
Nominate the best resolution from the list of 101 Gardeners tips new year’s resolutions
Did I mention Gardeners tips for the best gardening tips?

Fruit and Vegetable Resolutions

Grow more fruit and disbud so that apples, pears and plums grow to a good size.
Grow early potatoes in containers or sacks such as International Kidney or Vales Emerald for something newer.
Start chillie seeds early on a sunny windowsill.
If I grow Chard Bright Lights in a decorative bed I must remember to eat the crop not just look at it.
Two or three Marrow plants can provide all the courgettes a family needs. Try Defender or Green Bush
Reshape old Apple trees during winter by pruning to get a bowl shape that lets in air and light.
Divide congested clumps of Rhubarb .
Feed the area around the roots of fruit trees.
Consider more space for fruit such as Stone fruit, Bush fruit, Cane fruit, Soft fruit and Apple and Pear trees.
Add lime to the soil where you plan to grow brassicas and leafy greens.

Fun Resolutions

Give me patience but hurry!
Apply perspiration in the garden regularly.
If it dies its a flower if it lives its a weed.
With a flower in one hand and a cold drink in the other, tell somebody else where to dig.
Have pride in how bad your hands look.
Learn by by trowel and error.
The four seasons are salt, pepper, mustard and brown sauce.
It is knowledge to know Tomato is a fruit but wisdom to stop putting it in a fruit salad.
Go to the Yorkshire garden center where you can buy one – get one
Grow your own dope … plant a man.

Restate the Blinking Obvious

Do more weeding.
Cut the grass regularly.
Keep everything tidy.
Water deeply when needed.
Excel with the plants you already grow.
Kill insects that cause damage.
Stop infectious rot and disease.
Turf out the dead and dying.
Nature causes living things to suffer and die.

Do not believe all you read in lists like this.

Give links and credits such as this to Gloxinia

Grow Seedheads for Wild Life

May 20, 2011 hortoris

What you can do to help feed wild life and your garden birds.

Leave seed heads on your plants like the Teasel (above) which are great for Goldfinches
Small mammals like the bigger seeds such as nasturtiums and pulses. Peas and beans can be left on plant not only to collect seeds for next year but as a food for wildlife.
Berries are looking good at the moment. Enjoy their looks and as they ripen the birds will also enjoy them as dinner. Pyracantha and cotoneaster seem to be favourites at the moment.
Most importantly plan now to have more seed heads for next year
Do not be over keen to tidy up. A rough area encourages insects many of which like a feast of seeds. Insects are also more than food for thought.
Sun flowers are popular so try several varietiesÂ from a seed catalogue
Grasses with plumes and arching flowers look good and taste good
Echinacea and Amaranthus are prolific seeders

Try reading a specialist book for more ideas Seedheads in the Garden

I have often wondered if birds and insects can tell different flavours of seeds. Humans could tell an Allium from a Sunflower or a Poppy from a Dill seed so may be wild life can too.

Sea Holly or Eryngium giganteum variety Miss Willmotts Ghost (below) will produce seedheads full of nutritious seeds for the birds and insects.
With all that pollination going on I am not surprised.

Hedgerows

One of the best places to grow seeds is in your hedges.
Wild life has shelter safety and food on tap in a hedgerow.
You do not need to have an untidy area of the garden.

Hawthorn and Holly are two typically British hedgerow plants that feed our native wild life.

For a slender and graceful specimen tree that will help feed wild life you could try growing a Mountain Ash, The Rowan or Sorbus aucuparia

For those without the desire to grow there own seeds for the benefit of wildlife then there are many great feed mixes available. RSPB supply in large sacks and there are a host of other retailers.
Please be consistent if you start to feed with bought seed products and wildlife become reliant on your supply.

Read Pollinators for Green Gardening

Apple Spray Programme

February 7, 2011 hortoris

Apple trees can fall prey to a variety of problems.Â Start spraying now!
This programme will control capsid, sawfly, wooly aphid, winter moth and codling moth insects. It also should help prevent or treat scab and mildew.

When to Spray

When dormant in winter I sprayed with Mortegg tar oil until it was banned by the EU. Now you need to buy a winter wash.
At bud burst spray a combination of Tumblebug and a fungicide like Systhane.
Again as green buds then pink buds appear a similar spray is needed.
At petal fall the worry is aphids so another spray may be needed.
For codling moth infestations spray Tumblebug once a month from mid June.
I do not spray once the fruitlets have set.
Savona is a fatty acid based non-toxic spray that kills by contact and leaves no residue

Organic Spraying

ehow have a list of spray methods that use such organic products as oil, copper sulphate, sulphur, Bacillus thuringiensis, and pyrethrin. Only nthe last of these would I think of as organic. see link
Best solution is no solution to be sprayed. Grow resistant varieties and wrap fruit in paperbags to keep insects off.
Make your own solution from garlic water or one of these recipies
Grease bands are worth placing on the trunks of trees each autumn.

Wake up Wildlife after Winter

February 2, 2011 hortoris

As days get longer and light levels increase you will see renewed activity from the wild life in your garden. Do not be too quick with the chemical controls but look to see what you can do to maintain a balanced eco-friendly environment.
Many hibernating creatures eat slugs and pests so they are worth looking after.

Birds

By March as gardens start to warm up the birds will be more active and visible.
Some birds will be more territorial in spring.
Nest boxes can be put up at anytime of the year.
If there are few natural nesting sites a ready made box may help.
Clean out existing boxes to remove parasites.
Breeding birds need to be fit so keep feeding through spring and summer.

Amphibians and Hedgehogs

Frogs and toads will soon start to produce spawn.
Take care around damp ground so you do not disturb Frogs and Newts Â prematurely from hibernation.
Be careful cleaning out ponds, raking up wet leaves or moving wood piles.
Wildlife may be hungry after hibernation and a hard winter. A small plate of dog food will help hedgehogs.
Dry and safe places to awaken from hibernation are key.

Top Plant Protection

January 25, 2011 hortoris

Plants die from too much water more often than any other cause.
Frost and cold damage is the worst winter killer so take precautions.
As a careless gardener I dig up the wrong thing at times and I should protect my plants by taking more care and marking the location of plants that die back.

Keep dormant plants dry

Potted plants that become dormant need to be kept dry to avoid root rot.
Put a cover of glass or slate over pots of Eucomis and Rhodohypoxis
Dahlias and Cannas can be listed or left in pots under the shelter of a house roof

Mulch

Cover alpines with a mulch of fine grit. The leaves of Lewisia and other small plants can suffer in the wet.
Perennial bulbs of dubious hardiness can be left in the ground if covered with a thick mulch. Hold it down with chicken wire if the area is windy.
A thick covering of garden compost protects my hardy Fuchsias, Delphiniums and Peonies through winter.

Wrap and Cosset

Tree ferns need to be wrapped in hessian or have a straw blanket wrapped around the crown.
Keep the wrapping open for good air circulation or the plant may rot.
A wind break can have a surprisingly good effect in protecting some plants.
Banana plants should have the trunk well wrapped. The roots will withstand some cold.
Fleece is a good blanket for use during inclement conditions.

Shelter

It may seem obvious that a greenhouse can offer winter shelter to tender plants.
Agave and Agapanthus will benefit from being under cover during winter.
Indoor plants should stay indoors, that is why they are called houseplants. Keep them off cold window sills in winter.
Fuchsias and Pelargoniums should be lifted and brought in to a frost free area.