This week I have a few suggestions on how we can all change to make a positive contribution to the cause. There are several things we can all do to help our wildlife out, from adding bird boxes to our gardens and keeping them topped up with seeds, to cutting small holes at the bottom of our garden fences to allow hedgehogs and small mammals an easier passage through to their next feeding/breeding ground.
Another good’un, I’ve found, is to fight against the natural instinct to want to mow our lawns. Lawns, a bizarre contribution from those crazy Victorians, are like little green deserts to most of our wildlife, and lawns that are treated with chemicals or mown every other Sunday are likely to be even less productive. To see this at first hand, give me a year or two working on the wildflower meadows and then let’s see the results, I’d imagine (and certainly hope!) that we’ll go from barren, deathly-quiet stubble to ‘over-grown’, full-of-life, productive meadows in the space of about 5 mows!
