In Our Garden

Paul's Parish Magazine article 

December 2020

Our wild animals and plants have been losing their natural homes over the years, as woodlands, hedgerows, fields, marshes and ponds have been destroyed to make way for roads, houses, factories etc. There are over a million acres of private gardens in Britain, not to mention the acres of land belonging to schools. Any garden, however small, and whether in the countryside or city, can be made into a nature reserve – land where wildlife finds a suitable home. 

Maybe if we look after the plants, insects, invertebrates, mammals and birds in our own gardens they’ll be able to open our eyes to the nature on our own doorsteps without the need to travel, what a benefit to us all! Not as exciting as elephants perhaps but readily available for us.

Lockdown has been challenging for us all and also for the wildlife as we’ve all been busy disturbing the wildlife in so many ways. This year has been such a strange one giving us time to ponder our actions and lifestyle. We usually have volunteers to help us in our garden through Wwoof (Working Weekends on Organic Farms) but this year it’s not been possible so we have had to ‘do it ourselves’. We’ve had a good year and a good fruit harvest together with salad and vegetables which we’ll be enjoying over the winter and we’ve been looking for ways to make our garden more wildlife friendly.

We know there are still a few hedgehogs in the village and have always wondered whether we get any visiting our garden – we know we get badgers and foxes (we need to be sure to keep our poultry secure) and they can live alongside. We have yet to spot one but have provided a shelter in a corner of our garden just in case. 

As members of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust we were lucky enough to get a visit from one of their consultants who felt our garden was already very attractive to wildlife and suggested we hold a coffee morning next year to encourage others to take an interest. 

With an old orchard to the rear and hedgerows providing a corridor it seems we are in a good position to be part of a wildlife corridor towards Ploughman’s Wood. We see bats in the garden and apparently our owl box is in a good position – there are tawny owls as we regularly hear them at night. They’re particularly noisy in the autumn when the youngsters are booted out and have to set up their own territory. So now we’ve been given lots of ideas of what else we can do ... there’s nothing like a list to keep us busy!

Life is all about finding a balance – somewhere for us and somewhere for wildlife to flourish. So hopefully our wildlife reserve will help balance out other rather tidy gardens.

As well as giving us all food for thought ...

Paul Smith