Urban Wildlife Garden
You don’t need to live in the country to enjoy wildlife A blog by Molesey Resident - Della Reynolds As spring arrived the garden looked like a scorched earth zone. In every direction, the brown decay of once green foliage. So one warm weekend I went out to investigate, secateurs in hand. I cut back the old dead stems of the perennials and there, underneath, were the new green shoots of life. Nature’s miracle. The warm weather had given them the all-clear to poke their tiny green heads up and out of the earth. I was
keen to see if the geraniums, put into a frost-free shelter in November, were showing signs of life. I unzipped the cover and was disappointed to find that not a single one had survived. I tugged gently on the brown stems and they simply slid from their now decayed roots. On other years I’ve had a great deal more success and expected to see some of them with tiny green shoots at the base and elbows. I wondered if the GM guys had got into the new geranium stock and tampered with their natural instinct to rise again at Easter. Only a few of nature’s self-seeded plants (weeds) managed to hold on this time around. In any event spring is the time for clearing out the old to allow for the new. My neighbour’s tree which acts as a pre-feeding perch for the birds who visit my garden, was given a hefty short back and sides. The birds looked most confused when they arrived the next day to find stubby twigs where the branches had been. Not as confused as the two pigeons I saw last year looking for the tree across the road after it had been turned into sawdust in the blink of an eye. They sat on the garden wall tipping their heads this way and that in much the same way as I stare hard into the key box when I have failed to put my keys back. It must be strange to be a bird and have your land marks change so drastically while you
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are busy elsewhere. I can recall that a blackbird would do his nightly round of bird song in one of the tall pine trees a few doors down. He would sit on the highest point and sing his little heart out to tell everyone that this was his space and no messing. Well, there was some messing. Both the fir trees came down when the new folk moved in and I didn’t hear the blackbird after that. I guess he must have found a new perch to sing from. My dwarf apple tree also got his side branches cut back as they were leaning over the fence. As our urban landscape becomes more densely crowded we all learn to value the space we call our own. My garden is tiny but still big enough to create a haven for wildlife. I keep a bowl of fresh water for the birds with a large stone in the middle as a resting perch. I’ve seen many birds drink from here and from time to time they take a bath as
well. Often, if one starts to bathe it will soon be joined by another; which must be really annoying when you just want a bit of down time to yourself. When it rains you may have seen the pigeons lifting one wing up into the spray to take a shower. They sit up on my glass roof to do it, turning into the wind to get an all over spa. Urban back gardens provide a valuable lifeline for both humans and wildlife. Where gardens back onto each other they can give safe space for animals to forage. In urban gardens there are fewer chemicals and more hidey-holes. Giving wildlife a chance to thrive is the best excuse yet for not being overly tidy in your garden. Let some of the grass grow long, the naturally seeded plants grow high and keep the pesticides out. And although space is at a premium let’s all try to keep the trees we can. The ones that know their place and don’t go around causing trouble. Please mention Molesey Matters when responding to adverts