Rogerstone Directory - Editorials - Money Saving Planting Idea / Attracting Wildlife into the Garden

Money Saving Planting Idea

By complete accident, I have come across a cheap and green planting idea for the garden. This idea is not only cheap (or free, in this case), it is also good for you. It could be used to temporarily fill up an empty bed in a quite glorious way, while you decide on, or save up for plants from the garden centre.



Last year, I made a new flowerbed in the corner of the garden. For various reasons, I was not able to put many plants into it, and fully expected it to be bare and scruffy this summer.

Throughout the winter, I used this area to feed the robins, sparrows and starlings, putting out handfuls of organic pumpkin and squash seeds for them.

Imagine my delight when some of these stray seeds germinated in the bare flowerbed! The results you can see in the photograph.



The lush foliage and showy flowers fill the empty space at no cost. But the added benefit is the fantastic crop of organic veg in and amongst it all. What a great way to get your five-a-day! The squash in the photograph is now about the size of a rugby ball. I can't wait!

Attracting Wildlife into the Garden

In the last edition of The Rogerstone Directory, Mike Lyons asked readers to write in with their ideas for attracting wildlife into the garden. For me, the top answer to this question has to be WATER.

In my garden, I have the tiniest pond, about 3 foot by 2 foot. It teems with wildlife. A pond does not have to have fish in it, as it will attract its own highly varied population.



Here are some shots of two local residents in my pond.

The pile of frogs regularly congregate here to sunbathe or snack on passing butterflies. It is a good idea to provide stones at the edges of ponds for frogs and other creatures to use to climb in and out.

The next shot amazed me. Dragonfly larvae over wintered in the pond last year. To my distress, they ate many of the frogspawn, and I was initially a bit cross. However, look at this photo:



The dragonfly pupa climbs out of the pond to lock onto a reed beside the pond, and emerge into its adult state. This shot shows a fully emerged dragonfly drying its wings. I am sure you will see why I forgave them for munching the frogspawn

Lesley
Local Resident

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