Take cuttings of half-hardy plants,perennnials and shrubs
Trim lavender as soon as the floweheads are gone over
Clean out greenhouses and cold frames before starting to bring plants in next month
Move container plants to a shady spot before going on holiday.Ask a friendly neighbour to water and feed plants in return for havesting flowers and vegetables in your absence
And order your Spring Bulbs
So how do you start getting children interested in gardening well you could try encouraging them to grow radishes because these grow quickly or another favourite is the good old Sunflower as these grow big and dramatic.Another way to generate enthusiasm for gardening with youngsters is with beans.
So what beans are best well we have a few to choose from either the climbing french bean or runner bean the beauty here is you can start them off indoors on the windowsill in a small pot these will then germinate quickly and hence keep the childs attention rather than drifting away,once they are planted out they can watch the shoots growing inches in a day then they can learn all about how insects pollinate the flowers and transform into tiny beans.
Finally the day arrives when the youngster has the real sense of achievement by being able to pick the beans so that the whole family can enjoy,so do we need a big space to grow beans well actually the answer is no you can even do this in a very small space the reason being is that you can grow them up a trellis or canes both are as good as one another.
Climbing french beans dont only come in green but come in a variety of colours as varied as gold,pink and purple these not only look nice but are much easier to spot and pick before they get stringy as we all like the young tender beans better they always taste better..
So try getting your children interested in gardening by using the bean method as this could transform them into a lifelong interst and to enjoy the beauty that gardening can bring into our lives.
So you are more than likely thinking what has a compost heap got to do with wildlife well in my opinion everyone should have one or more,first of all if you already have a compost heap you know what fascinating creatures live in it.
The most valuable are compost worms,really healthy compost heaps will attract large numbers of these wonderful creatures who munch through the heap and helping to turn it into a brown crumbly material to enrich your soil naturally
You may also find earthworms,slugs,woodlice,ants and lots of wonderful bacteria far too small to see,all of these will be working hard to help you and your garden.
It will also come as a suprise that a compost heap can also provide a refuge for large creatures,toads tend too love them in spring this is mainly due to the warmth which was better than the cold nights of the spring.
Grass snakes are also known to use the heap as nursery for these shy and harmless reptiles,hedgehogs an even foxes have been known to use larger compost heaps as a possible hideout.
Real Recycling.
One of the main benefits of having a compost heap in your garden is that this is proper recycling in action,you take something that has no use any longer like potatoe peelings,skins from fruit,cardboard but this has too be shredded,waste material from tumble dryers,used tea bags,codde grounds and grass cuttings.
Basically any paper-based waste including uncooked food can be added to your compost heap this will then br transformed into something that can enrich your garden soil.
Looking after your Compost Heap
The best way would be just to leave it so that the creatures who move in it will do all the work for you this is subject to provide them with a good mixture of materials and another thing that helps to make compost faster is the lovely hot weather.
You can speed the process faster by turning the compost heap over with a small fork this improves the process no end.
Over recent years scientists have been telling us about the Bee population has declined this could be due to many things like man using chemicals on crops,climate change and the biggest problem was the varroa mite.
Here is one of the problems that has caused Beekeepers to see a decline in the population of Bees in recent years
The tiny little Varroa destructor.
The goverment in the UK has been trying to promote people to start beekeeping on allotments in fact any spare patch of ground the main reason being that we rely on the honey bees (Apis cerana) for most of the pollination of our plants and crops.
So is beekeeping easy or expensive well this is a good question we have been keeping bees for about 10 years we 1st started out by seeing a articale in out local newspaper that we receive every sunday and this provided us with the contact details for our local beekeeping club,on phoning to enquire more about this facinating hobby we had a invite to come along to a beginners class the following sunday.
On arriving to the Apiary we had a talk to give us some basic knowledge on bee keeping and provided us with basic equipment that we would need to go into the hive and show us how it all works.As you can understand although we wanted to go ahead and see how it all works you still have some doubt about it but we had no need to have any worried as they help you in every step of the way.
This is one of the most popular types of hives the original WBC.
So what happened after our 1st experiance with beekeeping well the local club provided us with a basic starter kit ie hive and bees and all we really had to do is buy the very basic veil and a few tools and the club provided us ‘on loan’ for a 12 month time duration the rest the main reason being is that if you decide after time that it is not for you then you are not stuck with equipment that will never be used again.This is very much like any other hobby or pastime if you decided to try golf that equipment can be expensive but once again if you dont like it you are stuck with all your equipment this is the main reason that belonging to a local club is a benefit and also a supply of help if you require it.
Local farmers care about wildlife and manage there lands to encourage arable birds because of this action we have seen a increase in flocks of rare corn buntings something like one-tenth of the population of corn buntings over wintered.
If these fields ever became new housing developments we could say goodbye corn buntings.
Corn bunting Miliaria calandra
Individual actions can make a lot of difference.This is one of the reasons why gardening to aid wildlife is so important.
Climate change is meaning that creatures and plants are having to move north some of them won’t make it,if we provide as many green corridors as possible some of them will.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Wildlife Trust are increasingly turning their attention to safegaurding existing wildlife corridors,large wwods,areas of farmland and rivers and to buying land to protect and extend these wherever possible
Our own gardens can do a lot to help buffer that green corridor,providing havens for birds,insects and plants.But we need to to preserve and fight for these.
We have all seen areas of land being covered in concrete and new developments and recent Town Planning showed clearly how the majority of us do not want more large-scale developments and care deeply about our green spaces for relaxation and exercise for the whole family.
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