Cherry Cottage Garden - Environmentally considerate gardening

Cherry Cottage Garden


Wildlife features




Dahlias
  • Numerous log and twig piles in various states of decay to attract and accommodate various insects and beetles.
  • Beetle bank to attract and accommodate various insects and beetles .
  • Managed wildflower "lot" (10 x 10 metres) featuring 30 wild flowers.
  • Mixed Grass meadow (120 x 30 metres) featuring various grasses and wildflowers.
  • Mixed hedgerow (120 metres), planted 1995, consists of Hazel, Hawthorn, Guelder Rose, Blackthorn, Crab Apple, Maple. It typically accommodates 10 bird nests a season.
  • Laid Hedgerow (130 metres) featuring mature trees – oak, ash, and maple.
  • Seven wooden bird-nesting boxes, one sparrow terrace, eight woven roosting baskets. Some home-made.
  • Bird tables and bird feeders.
  • Three bird baths on ground and on pedestal.
  • Two hedgehog boxes.
  • One bumblebee nest ‘pot’.
  • Insect ‘straws’ against some walls.
  • Insect ‘city’ – wood, logs, stones, rocks, tiles, bricks.
  • Clusters of rotting wood for insect shelter and food.
  • Orchard and individual fruit trees - Apple, crab apple, wild rose, plum, pear, hazel trees as food sources.
  • Herb garden – especially attractive for meadow butterflies.
  • Very small pond with some water plants. Bigger pond planned for meadow.
  • Plants attractive for bees include Ceanothus, Thyme, Lavender, Hebe, Candytuft, Escallonia, Salvia, Pyracanthus and Broom.
    • The Herb Garden - Thyme and Chives
  • Carpets and old sheet fence laid on ground.
    Provide for shelter and warmth for voles, snakes, mice.
  • Ant nests in lawns.
  • 100 metres of tall hedgerow. Dead elms (which died from Dutch Elm disease) left standing.
  • Since 1994 we have planted 16 trees in the meadow. 7 x Maples, Oak, 2 x Beech, Ash, 2 x Crabapple, Pear, Plum, Pussy Willow, one for each year of our custody.
  • Lawn grass left long under apple trees so apples have a soft fall and can be left in the longer grass for the birds (Blackbird, Thrush, Fieldfare) to eat in autumn and winter.
  • Lawns are wholly natural and include celandines, daisies, black meddick, speedwell, violets (alba and sweet) and a host of other non-grass plants.