Me and my wild garden

my garden, my oasis, my home for wildlife

Those of us lucky enough to have gardens can sometimes take them for granted. 

They can be hassle to be honest, especially as we have busy lives and spend most of our time running around like lunatics. We don't have the energy to spend pruning the peonies, nevermind figuring out how the dog managed to create that bald patch in the middle of the lawn (by bald patch, I mean non-existent grass because the dogs are doing laps!).

Personally I love gardening, however the ebbing of time means I don't get to spend hours sculpting the perfect oasis. 

I tend to find if I have a weekend then I'll get out there and blitz the place - chopping off branches, creating ramshackle patios (no matter how closely I follow YouTube videos), and planting seeds that I'm urging to take.

I love wildlife though. I love watching the family of blue tits furiously feeding on the suet I've left out, or the strutting of the wood-pigeon as he disregards that glares from the dogs.  I am nature and conservation minded (which wasn't always the case) but my garden has shown me how amazing British wildlife actually is.

Wildlife became my solution to a slightly unkempt garden. 

I am lucky enough to have a decent sized garden that has a lot of different types of habitat, which have incidentally come about through either years of ignoring it, or as an effect of paying more attention to other areas. 

One thing I would love to spend money on is fancy-pants things for wildlife in the garden, like someone to come in a lay wildflower seeds (I cannot for the life of me get them to grow!) to help the bees, or a deluxe abode for bats and a luxury spa for frogs (I'm pretty sure they'd like a spa); alas, money - along with time - evades me. 

Thus my adventures in wildlife gardening have driven me to look at recycling and foraging for materials.  

And this is where this blog takes us. I want to share with you ways to encourage wildlife whilst spending as little as possible. 

I'll show you what I've done so far, and my plans to encourage wildlife in different types of garden, but I want to hear what you've done with your garden too! If you're struggling to figure out what you can do with your space, then let us know and we can share ideas. 

This blog is to share your stories and wild adventures just as much as sharing mine, so we can all create homes for wildlife, and gardens we can finally enjoy!