Gardening for wildlife and children and an upcoming TV appearance!!...

Hello All,

I hope that you are intrigued by the title of this post and wondering what the 'TV appearance' part is all about!?...

Well all I can say is that there is some really exciting stuff happening for me and the garden at the moment and you will have to read on to find out a bit more about it...

Firstly before we talk about this exciting development lets take a look at the garden and what I've been up to since my last post...

Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that I have a real passion for creating a garden that not only attracts wildlife but is attractive and user friendly for my family. Most importantly it has to be enjoyable and lots of fun for my 5yr old daughter. With this in mind I have been thinking for some time that I really should be creating ideas of how to introduce further play equipment into the garden for her!

The current play area already has a climbing frame, slide and trampoline, the ground is covered with a generous layer of bark mulch which provides a soft landing if she were to fall over. With space at a premium I needed to think of a feature that was different and utilised the tiny bit of space that runs behind the trampoline and then on behind the greenhouse...

After much deliberation and not to pass over the chance of introducing a little more slow rotting wood for the wildlife my decision was to recycle some of the log rounds that I saved from my neighbours tree last year...

So here they are Willow rounds saved from the felling of my neighbours tree last year!

Can you guess what they will be yet?..

I imagine that you all guessed it, they struck me as perfect stepping logs! My daughter always enjoys the balancing apparatus in play grounds so these logs offered a great opportunity to include something similar in her play area and make an awkward path become a fun place to walk or hop!...

I painted the tops of the logs in her favorite colours and with fun designs to make them fit in with the fun feel of this space. The rest of the log is left unpainted and will in time begin to rot from underneath creating a mini habitat for all sorts of insects and mini beasts!!....

So there you have a really quick and extremely easy way of introducing another play feature into your garden. With a bit more space you could create as many steps as you like and use logs of different heights to make it much more challenging! I think the key message from me is that these logs were going to be thrown away but have been recycled for the benefit of both children and wildlife! A double 'whammy' in my book!!

Moving on from play areas, what else have I been up to since the last time that I wrote?

Let's firstly revisit the new wildlife pond in the seating area that I told you about in my last post. At only a month or so old I have now planted it with Irises, Marsh Marigolds, Water Avens among other marginal plants and oxygenating weed (as in the below picture)...

The new wildlife pond has now been planted....

And at only a few weeks old I'm amazed to see a variety of wildlife already taking up residence including several frogs of varying sizes!!!....

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the wildlife moves in when you get the habitat right for it!!

So before I get on to the exciting news here's a quick tour of the garden and round up of recent goings on in the garden....

Ceonothious was without doubt the very best Spring Bee plant and at times you could hear the buzzing from some distance away! A 'must have' shrub for early pollinators...

Also enjoyed by early bees was our Clematis Montana...

It also created a spectacular place to sit by covering our secret seating area...

The wild flower area started to show signs of life with a spectacular display of meadow buttercups... 

Vegetables are now planted in the raised beds and are growing well. This year we are growing French Beans, Runner Beans, Peas, Carrots, Spring Onions and Potatoes....

BAD NEWS was that we had a major aphid attack on our honeysuckle!! :-( ....

 But then GOOD NEWS!... Our resident Bluetits spent several days picking them all off to feed their chicks in our bird boxes!!.... :-)

 EVEN BETTER NEWS.... The chicks did very well on our aphids and all successfully fledged!! 

Clear proof that gardening organically and for wildlife really does work!!!!!!!!....

And a few new arrivals....

A young newt found in the wildlife pond, which is situated in the wildlife area at the bottom of the garden...

14-Spot Ladybird - (Propylea 14-punctata) a new record.....

Cercopis vulnerata - another new record for the garden......

Common Marbled Carpet Moth - Chloroclysta citrata...... 

Dryophilocoris flavoquarimaculatus - apparently common but a first spot for us again.....

An Underwing Moth (currently unidentified so please do get in touch if you can give me the exact species please??)

And finally our Common Buzzards are back in good numbers having moved away during the cold Spring. It's great to see them back in good numbers souring over the garden again!!....

 So there you have it folks, that's about it for another post. As you can see the garden really is evolving and we are seeing increased numbers of new species being recorded in the garden which is really encouraging!

OH OK! As you've waited this long I suppose I'd better clarify the 'TV' part of my title....

Well it really is exciting news for me as I have been approached by BBC SPRINGWATCH to see if my garden could be filmed for the upcoming SPRINGWATCH SPECIAL!!! Not only have I been asked I can now confirm that filming has actually already taken place which is really exciting!!

I can't go into too much detail here only to say that it was such an enjoyable day and meeting Martin Hughes-Games and the team was great fun and what a friendly chap he is! We had great fun and it will be interesting to see how this comes over on the big screen!

The program is due to be aired on 26TH JULY 2013 so please do put it in your diaries and have a look at 'Higgy's Garden Project' on TV!!...

As soon as it has been aired I will be writing a special post on here to tell you all about the day and some exciting discoveries that we made whilst filming!

Hope to see you all next time

Best

Higgy