Modern gardens are increasingly changing from English lawns to colorful biotopes that provide refuge for birds, insects and hedgehogs. A properly designed garden with booths, insect hotels and drinkers can naturally control pests and improve yields without chemicals.
Garden for life
Having a garden that is not just a sterile English lawn but a real home for animals is becoming more and more popular these days. It’s not just about the good feeling of helping nature, it’s also about practical cooperation. If you invite the right tenants to your garden, you will save a lot of work with chemicals and pests. But how do you make your animals feel like they are in a five-star hotel and not like they are in a trap?
Making the garden accessible to animals does not mean letting it be completely overgrown with nettles, although those have their importance too. It’s about creating a mosaic of different environments where everyone can find their own thing. The idea is to restore the balance that we have pushed out of the landscape through modern farming.
What should not be missing from a “living” garden?
Birdhouses and feeders
Booths replace hollows in old trees, which are few and far between in gardens. Different species of birds need different inlets. For example, the blue tit will appreciate a 32 mm diameter opening, while the blue tit prefers a smaller, 28 mm entrance.
You can buy and make booths. But also be interested in how you can clean them.
Insect hotels
It serves as a shelter for solitary bees, honey bees or ladybugs. All of them are your allies in the fight against aphids and pollination of trees.
Drinker for birds and insects
In the hot summer, water is more important to animals than food. A shallow bowl with a few stones that protrude above the surface is all that is needed so that the insects can drink safely and not drown. Birds will also appreciate the deeper part, which they can use as a bath.
A pile of firewood or leaves
A great shelter for hedgehogs, who are the best “eliminators” of slugs. If you leave some tweezers in a corner of the garden, the hedgehog likes to hibernate there. You can offer the birds combed pet hair that they can use to build nests.
Planting
A piece of flower meadow, but also bushes and a varied selection of greenery is very important. Various greenery offers not only food, but also shelter for insects, small mammals and birds.
What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Everything has its pros and cons, this also applies to gardens where the owners invite life from the surroundings.
- Free pest control: A pair of titmice can collect thousands of caterpillars and aphids while feeding their young. .
- Better harvest: Solitary bees are often much more efficient pollinators than honey bees, because they fly out even in bad weather and work “out of sight to out of sight”.
- Relaxation and Education: Watching life in a booth or hotel is better for children and adults than any documentary on TV. It teaches us patience and respect for nature.
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Maintenance and cleanliness: Booths and hotels must be cleaned regularly. If you don’t remove the box in the fall, parasites accumulate in it, which can kill the next generation of chicks. Insect hotels, on the other hand, can harm bees if they are poorly designed (e.g. chips in the holes).
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Attracting “unwanted” guests: The feeder can attract rodents and the drinker can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes if you don’t change the water regularly.
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Predators: If you place the box or feeder in a place where the cat can easily climb, you have essentially created a set table for the cat. The booths must be at a safe height and ideally with marten protection.
How to start with common sense?
She also dealt with the gardens, which underwent a series of modifications to make them more accessible to the surrounding life published in the Journal of Applied Ecologywhich investigated the impact of garden biodiversity on ecosystem health. Scientists have confirmed that even small interventions, such as the installation of nesting boxes, have a measurable positive effect on the survival of species in an urbanized landscape.
But the most important thing is to start gradually. You don’t have to have everything right away. Start with one drink and see who comes to you for refreshment.
Don’t try to make your garden too perfect. Short cut lawn, no weeds, no leaves. At first glance, order, but in reality a dead environment where no one lives. Animals need chaos, structure and a little mess. If you don’t give it to them, they’ll just go elsewhere.
Another frequent misstep is related to a well-intentioned effort to help, but neglecting cleanliness or using unsuitable material. Instead of a living garden, a place is created that attracts diseases, parasites or unwelcome visitors. At the same time, a little is enough. Rather, try to slowly integrate drinkers, hotels and feeders and get used to theirs.
