Gardening for wildlife

Speaker: Michael Joseph

Michael and Jane Joseph, living near Billingshurst, have established a beautiful garden full of wildlife habitats and an impressive wildflower meadow. In achieving this their photographs showed best practice by having: plant diversity with a long flowering season to attract birds and insects; the need for water, as in ponds; plenty of dense cover for wildlife to feel secure; links and connections between different areas so wildlife can move safely; the inclusion of degradable debris such as compost heaps and dead hedges.
At question time it was emphasised that no herbicides or pesticides should be used; a suggested source of wild seed mixtures for a variety of garden soil types can be found at Emorsgate http://wildseed.co.uk; and for identifying wildlife the app Obsidentify is excellent.