Bring garden to life

from The Oxford Times

Jenny Steel is an Oxford girl and many of you will have read her well-informed, wildlife articles in The Oxford Times supplement Limited Edition. Jenny also pops up regularly on the radio and takes part in television programmes.

She used to have a wildflower nursery at Kingston Bagpuize. I went there in high summer once and I can still remember the bees and butterflies skimming over the wildflowers, although it must have been 15 years ago.

Jenny has now moved to Shropshire and concentrates on lecturing, writing books and selling wildflower seeds (www.wildlife-gardening.co.uk). Her speciality is wildlife gardening and insect interaction, something she studied at Oxford, and she has collaborated on a brilliant new book called Bringing a Garden to Life with Wiggly Wigglers (01981 500391/ www.wigglywigglers.co.uk). This Herefordshire company supply all manner of things to help the conservation-minded gardener - from wormeries to compost bins, bird seed, wild flowers and natural pest controls.

Wiggly Wigglers was founded by Heather Gorringe in 1990 to offer local people work. It has always been based at Lower Blakemere Farm in rural Herefordshire and started out as a small concern run from the house. It blossomed into a thriving company and has now taken over the outbuildings.

The old walled garden close by, once very sad, needed a make over and Heather, her husband Phil and their son Monty set about making it into a wildlife haven.

They chose Jenny to write the book to go with the project and if you wanted to inspire an interest in nature and nurturing this book will suit you well, however experienced you are. Children would also love it because it's a book you can delve into.

There are 'feature creatures' and these include the barn owl, the song thrush, the common blue butterfly, the great-crested newt and the bumble bee. It's important to remember that all of these are under threat due to loss of habitat and gardens can make superb homes for them.

The projects tackled within the book include making a pond, sowing a nectar garden, planting up a vegetable plot, instigating an orchard and adding a native hedge. All are very valuable improvements for wildlife.

There are 'focal flowers' too and these tend to be wild flowers like the teasel, purple loosestrife and the dandelion. All play their part in sustaining bird and insect life and there is a useful wildflower directory at the back. The book is full of stunning pictures and designed with a wiggly sections of text. It's a fun read.

My own advice has always been to abandon the insecticides and the slug pellets, compost your own garden waste, leave leaf litter undisturbed and have some areas of long grass.

If everyone did these four simple things wildlife would benefit. In return you would be dazzled by the movement of the bees, butterflies and insect life - and the insects will attract the birds and feed their fledglings.