{"id":12306,"date":"2012-02-09T04:04:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T11:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=12306"},"modified":"2012-02-09T04:08:48","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T11:08:48","slug":"green-garden-habitats-for-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/environmental-gardening\/green-garden-habitats-for-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Garden Habitats for the Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/3955393366\/\" title=\"Insect house by brianpettinger, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3491\/3955393366_867fb2c55a.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"398\" alt=\"Insect house\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h2>Dry Stone Wall Habitats<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>The damp nooks and crannies form hiding places for slugs and snails but also accommodate frogs and toads.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>A micro climate grows around a wall. The stone holds heat and protects from wind to the benefit of butterflies, moths and slow worms.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Green Man Made Habitats<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Nature can be given a bit of help particularly in a built up environment.<\/li>\n<li>Support birds with feeders, nesting boxes and plants that provide food.<\/li>\n<li>Create a &#8216;bug home&#8217; with bricks and twigs to feed and house a variety of insects.<\/li>\n<li>Keep part of your garden untidy. Leave nature to take its course. Let an old tree trunk decay or pile up some fallen logs.<\/li>\n<li>Plant insect and seed friendly plants<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Woodland Edge Habitats<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Think in terms of a three layered approach to woodland. The top layer is for tall forest trees such as Ash. <\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>The lower layer is a woodland floor for spring like primroses violets, bluebells and wild garlic.<\/li>\n<li>Each tier attracts its own abundant array of wildlife.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Hedge Habitats<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Hedges beat walls and fences in to a &#8216;cocked hat&#8217; when it comes to being green.<\/li>\n<li>They provide safe corridors for birds and small mammals to pass through from one area to another.<\/li>\n<li>Mixed native hedging plants will provide food, nesting and shelter for many creatures.<\/li>\n<li>Hornbeam, beech, privet and yew all can be clipped to make a formal hedge whilst still maintaining the wildlife benefits.<\/li>\n<li>Berberis, dogwoods, hazel, spindle holly and dog roses are all worth considering for a less formal hedgerow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Wetland Habitats<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/environmental-gardening\/organic-pond-habitats-for-green-gardeners\/\">Ponds<\/a> are a great boon to creating a green habitat<\/li>\n<li>Bog gardens may be suitable if you have a source of running water to keep the soil in good moist condition.<\/li>\n<li>Large expanses of wetland area to attract migrating birds are beyond the scale and scope of most gardens.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Compost Heap as a Habitat<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Make your compost heap one of the green habitats.It contains more life than you can believe.\n<\/li>\n<li>Worms and microbes need living accommodation and where can be better than in good compost.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Read <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=10083\">Dry Stone Wall Planting<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=7900\">Hedgerows worth watching<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/environmental-gardening\/green-garden-habitats-for-the-environment\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}