Once again time has flown by and I have to admit that Facebook here has acted as a place for up to date daily reports. None the less this blog remains as the place where I post up my detailed projects and lists of plants, flowers and anything that I think might be of interest to others who are creating or thinking about starting a garden for wildlife.
Following on the dog theme from the last post and having now had Willow for a few months it has become apparent that wildlife gardening with a young dog isn't as easy as it first sounds and throws up lots of complications, especially with an untrained dog as Willow was when we first got her.
So here she is, Willow, cute isn't she?....
Well you might think she looks cute and generally you would be right as she is the most loving and affectionate dog that you could meet, but....
The first time we opened the back door and introduced Willow to the garden all hell broke loose! Plants got trampled, raised beds got dug and to top it off having spent hours of hard work erecting the fence she found the tiniest of holes and went to say hello to the neighbours garden!!!
What on earth have we let ourselves in for I thought to myself and how on earth am I going to firstly keep her in the right garden and then prevent her from wrecking it!?! Then how am I going to continue attracting my beloved wildlife into the garden when she wants to chase it and I presume eat it given the chance!?!
Quite a dilemma and not one we had experienced with out two previous rescue dogs!
So following some trial and error, plenty of head scratching and of course bundles of patience I have come up with a few tips that show that you still can garden for wildlife even with a mad dog. I hope that these will be of interest to some of you.
Fencing
This is a really interesting subject as we need to keep the dog in but at the same time welcome wildlife in....
So here is our fence that we have had to erect just to keep Willow in the garden. As you can see we have simply hammered in stakes and then used 5ft high chicken-wire. As we have been growing a natural wildlife hedge we placed it in front of the hedge which will in time grow through and make it more of less invisible....
So we can now keep Willow in the garden and by putting up this extra 'layer' of fencing we have actually created a perfect wildlife corridor. The hedge is effectively sandwiched between this new fence and the old 'Deer Net' fence that willow could get through. This has created and area of solid hedging about 3-4feet wide and runs the entire length of the garden. I am now allowing a few stinging nettles to establish in here where they are out of the way. I am also now starting to create a few wood piles in here. This makes for a 'safe' area away from predators for lots of wildlife such as hedgehogs. The chicken-wire mesh is also big enough for medium and small birds to dive through when danger presents and allows access to most small mammals.
All in all adding another layer of fencing has actually created a superior wildlife habitat around the perimeter of the whole garden. The only downside is that we now have denied access to larger mammals such as foxes and badgers. To be honest this isn't always a bad thing as they can often be quite destructive in the garden anyway. My only real concern is that I have denied access to Hedgehogs who have done very well in the garden over the last couple of years so I needed to come up with solutions to rectify this.
After some consideration I have come up with following ideas for giving access back to my hedgehog friends....
Firstly I have created little entrances at several points around the fence by hammering two post into the ground with a piece of wood across the top to give rigidity and connect them to stop them being pushed aside. It is very important that you cut the net up the middle between the two posts. This can then be pushed back through the gap and the ends twisted around the existing netting, Then staple the wire to the frame to ensure that it is secure. I actually used a second piece of wire netting here for extra strength. A good site for a hedgehog entrance like this is by a path so that your dog can't dig out the pathway.
A simpler way and one that I have used at the end of the fence is to thread a wooden cross piece through the net, screw this to a post and then staple the net to it. I then fix a 'looser' plastic mesh over the top that a Hedgehog could easily push past or get under but it prevents a dog digging. For extra security I have also buried bricks under the entrances so that they can't be dug out any bigger than I want them.....
An even easier option than the two methods above is simply to dig a dip under the fence big enough for a hedgehog to get under and then create a tunnel with breeze-blocks or heavy rocks that a dog can't move. If necessary this can be buried under soil with just a shallow dip showing under the rocks.
So now that we have kept the dog in and given access to the wildlife that we want in the garden I set about trying to figure out how to keep her off of my flower borders and most importantly the wild flower area that she simply seen as an extension of the lawn!!...
Setting Boundaries
One of the biggest problems with an untrained dog is that there are no boundaries! So to aid her training and to keep certain areas dog free without a huge fence you need to set up clear and simple demarcation that your dog can be educated to adhere to.
Willow was simply seeing the longer grass in the wild flower area as another lawn so when she was shouted at to 'get off' it meant nothing to her. A simple solution to this is to give a visible barrier that clearly says that it's a different area. If it is clear and obvious and you remain consistent in your commands it's amazing how fast a dog will pick it up and stay off of the area (most of the time!)
I erected a low rail alongside the path that I wanted Willow to take and to protect the wildflower and pond area. This clear demarcation clearly shows your dog why it is being told to keep off or out of an area. We are now rule setting but using a physical example that your dog will understand....
Although I have found simple demarcation very effective sometimes you have to opt for more substantial physical barriers and on my raised beds I have found this necessary.
The use of a more substantial approach is however not due to the bad behaviour of the dog as such but due to the neighbour's cat who see's the raised vegetable beds as her own private toilet!!! It's does stand to reason that when a dog gets the scent of a cat in the garden they will want to explore and unfortunately cat poo seems to be a delicacy to the canine taste buds!! (Yukk!!)
Sometimes you have to simply use a 'fence it off' approach, although here it is to actually stop next doors cat from using the raised bed as it's toilet!!..
If you are really against using a fence then I have had good success with just using wire-mesh pieces placed on top of the soil. This has to be several smaller pieces rather than one large piece. The cats don't like this and it's great for soil that you have dug but not yet planted....
So there are a few of my ideas and projects that I have put into practice recently to great effect. There is no substitute for a well trained dog and I have certainly found that being consistent and setting clear boundaries is helping with Willow's general behaviour and training. This is a great thing for her or any other dog as she doesn't need to stress about it as I make the decisions and put the rules in place for her, which is what most dogs generally want (strong leadership).
Interestingly since we have had a young dog who could potentially catch a cat and certainly makes that known to the local cat population, we have had very few cats in the garden. This means less cat mess and less birds being caught off the feeders so all in all gardening with dogs is beneficial in so many ways as well as being great fun! ;-)
So before I go here's a quick round up of what's going on in the garden at the moment and to prove that it hasn't been wrecked by our four-legged friend...
It's really encouraging to see numbers increasing of Mason Bees like this Red Mason Bee and other solitary bees. They were out early this year also....
Esperia sulphurella is an interesting but tiny moth that feeds on decaying wood. A moth trapping session in the garden this week produced ten new garden records from the 26 species recorded...
This dragonfly hatched form the new wildlife pond created last spring! Unfortunately it was plucked out of the pond by Willow!......
I managed to rescue it from between her teeth and to my amazement it recovered and flew off unharmed, even better it was a Four-spotted Chaser so another garden first!!...
It's that time of year when the garden is full of different Iris and they fit in well with the 'wild' feel of the garden and all the water. I'm always amazed how often they are visited by bees and too often overlooked in the wildlife garden....
Now that the wildflower area is growing up we start to see lots of weird and wonderful bugs and beetles that are really interesting and surprisingly colourful close up, this one is Malachius bipustulatus..
I love the Orange-tip Butterfly as it's one of our first emerging spring butterflies and the male pictured here is quite difficult to photograph as they never sit still for more than a couple of seconds. The good numbers this year enabled me to get e few good shots though...
Persicaria in its many different forms is a stalwart in the garden and this has been a source of early nectar for early Bumblebees this Spring...
Probably my best performing flower of the year so far is Wall Flower 'Boules Mauve' I'm growing more and more of these each year and they flower profusely for such a long time making them a superb addition to the spring/summer border....
There have been a couple of small projects recently such as the addition of this new raised bed in the seating area. Of course in true 'Higgy recycling' fashion it was made from reclaimed roof timbers!!....
A look down the Spring formal lawn. The perennial borders are starting to get going and the white and purple Evening Scented Stock' show well. Supported at this time of year by Geums and perennial Knapweed that the pollinators love....
The wildflower area and wildlife pond created only a year ago have been superb in attracting all sorts of wildlife including, frogs, newts as well as damselflies and dragonflies. It's simply amazing how quickly life moves into a new pond!....
This small damselfly hatched from the wildlife pond and was immediately predated by a larger Large-red Damselfly! Nature can be so cruel....
I have created a couple of beds for my newest experiment. I have now planted twelve different species of Buddleja to try and establish if there are any species that are better at attracting butterflies than others. Whatever the results turn out to be I will be assured of plenty of colour I'm sure!...
So that's about it for tonight, I hope that this post has been of interest and that you fellow dog owners will view gardening with a dog in a different light now? It's like all things you adapt, make changes but work it out in the end.
I continue to promote wildlife gardening as something for the whole family to enjoy, even our four-legged friends!!...
Next time I will get back to some more summer planting for pollinators and let you know what else I have been up to between now and then!
As always thanks for your continued support, I hope that you continue to enjoy my mad ramblings and please do send me your comments and ideas as I'm always keen to hear them!
Best regards
Higgy
