As with our old house, there are alleys connecting our road to others. This means there are car-free corridors for foxes and hedgehogs. And, because we have friends on the street behind who are also interested in wildlife, we know there are foxes living in gardens of unoccupied houses very close to us. I caught a glimpse of a fox early one morning, and a few days ago, I saw one trotting along the footpath at the front, around 10 pm. No photos yet, but I’m excited to know they’re around.
I’ve had a hedgehog hole put in the back fence, and noticed that a house behind us has one too. I’m told there are hogs visiting that garden. I haven’t put food out yet, but we do have a plant saucer of water in the garden.
In terms of alley plants, there’s some Herb Robert next to the hedgehog hole, and buddleia, brambles, and dandelions nearby. On the opposite side of the alley, we have one of my favourites, Purple Toadflax, and in June, I was thrilled to spot a Toadflax Brocade moth on one plant.
The back garden wasn’t devoid of life when we moved in, but there’s plenty of scope for improvement – and we have lots of plans. Now isn’t the time to put in a tree, but we’ll be doing that later in the year. We’ve already got hops climbling up canes, ready to go on the fence and trellis once the new raised beds are in. The hop is a cutting from the plant at our old house, where it provided shelter and food for wildlife such as Comma butterflies, as well as screening the garden from passersby and absorbing noise and air pollution. We also have a honeysuckle climbing up the same fence.
We have some plants for pollinators in pots at the moment, including lavender and this rock hyssop, both popular with bees.
We had lots of sedum in our previous garden. It’s drought-tolerant and flowers in late summer. Bees love it, so we’ve transplanted some from our allotment, and it’s doing well.
I’ve also added a bee hotel.
My big, exciting project, though, is a pond. We have this old Belfast sink, a gift from the friends mentioned earlier. Once we get a decent amount of rain, I can get some plants in, and stepping stones for wildlife, then sit back and see who arrives!
I’m not expecting any rabbits, apart from this one we unearthed early on!
It seemed fitting to keep it, given our nearest Joanna Rose Tidey-painted telecomms box is this one.
And that’s another project – working out how to get some green around it, as it’s surrounded by tarmac and breezeblocks. Any ideas?
Dandelion Nature 