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The Wildlife Garden at The Crib , Shropshire

Managing your garden for wildlife adds an extra dimension for the enthusiastic gardener (or even the less enthusiastic gardener!) It is an exciting way of gardening and can help our native wildlife by providing food and habitat that may be in short supply in the wild. Even a small garden can be managed in such a way that birds and mammals become a part of the fabric of the garden, rather than occasional visitors.

The Crib in the South Shropshire Hills

After 12 years creating a wonderful wildlife garden in Oxfordshire I have moved to pastures new.  Gardening on the edge of a very large village surrounded by other gardens was an interesting exercise and over those years the wildlife that came to the garden and made its home there was fantastic - within just three years we had attracted 24 species of butterfly!  However I am now faced with almost a blank canvas in Shropshire.  Over time I will be making a new garden, and creating wildflower meadows, nectar borders, wildlife ponds, a vegetable plot and an orchard.   To see our apple and plum varieties click here.

The existing part of the garden had a couple of small flower borders, but otherwise was simply lawn.  However it was blessed with a few apple trees and a great mixed native hedge which has instantly provided a good habitat for birds.   Over time I will be documenting, on this website and eventually in a book,  the creation of the garden and the wildlife we attract, as and when it comes.

Progress in terms of the wildlife we are attracting has been rapid - especially regarding the bird and insect life.  You can click here to see what we have attracted so far.  A few small changes in any garden can make a huge difference to its value as a wildlife habitat.

One challenge in this garden is to preserve our fantastic views.  In the Oxfordshire garden, the objective was to screen the uglier views around us to create a protected wildlife haven within a not terribly attractive area.  Here we have the opposite but enviable task of including the surrounding landscape in our garden. The picture above shows the house in its beautiful landscape. 

In the three years we have been here we have made good progress towards our aims to create a really wonderful wildlife garden, full of interest all year round.  In that time we have sown a large wildflower meadow, created three smaller meadow areas by allowing the grass to grow and adding small wildflowers, planted a herb border and a nectar border, created two very large borders where nectar plants and grasses are being planted, established 40 fruit trees, created a bog garden with a winter stream and harvested lots of vegetables! Plus planted 400 native hedging plants.  The small copse has been thinned, a hedge laid in the midland style and grass paths sown.  And the Big Pond now really is a pond and not just a hole in the ground!   Already the wildlife is increasing day by day - butterfly numbers are noticeably greater than our first summer here and bird species and numbers continue to climb.  Gardening of any kind takes time and patience is essential but we have already made a great impact.

View of the Long Mynd from the garden

Garden Update Spring 2010  

The winter was a long and very cold one so little was done outside except to maintain the hedges.  These are cut at the very end of the winter in order to disturb the birds as little as possible.

Since the weather improved a lavender 'bank' has been planted in a sheltered and well drained spot, and work on the bee garden has started in earnest.  This area is to be sown with bee friendly annuals including phacelia, borage, cornflowers and wild poppies to make a large swathe of blue and mauve around the hives, with the occasional bright red poppy for contrast.  Shrubs are to planted at the back of the hives to provide more protection from the westerly winds.

Work is continuing on the copse to provide wildlife friendly planting beneath the trees.  Aquilegias of all sorts have been grown from seed, plus heuchera and other woodland species.  Hopefully these can be planted out over the next few weeks to bring some colour, nectar and pollen to this area.

The Copse

The Bog Garden and Vegetable Garden

The Big Meadow

 

 

 

The Nectar Garden

The Long Borders

The Big Pond

 

Over time we hope to create a beautiful garden, where wildlife is welcome.  We are recording the butterflies and birds, running a moth trap, putting up bird boxes and creating log piles.  To check out the wildlife we have recorded so far, click here

© Text and photographs Jenny Steel 2010