Building a animal friendly garden

My garden is tiny but I want more animals in it. I would love to have a hedgehog but I have never seen a hedgehog around here but with the new compost who knows. I want an owl so I’m building a house for it. People have said that they’ve seen tawny owls (Strix aluco) and I read somewhere that they likely to move into a house if you build it so…

I want a robin too, something about robins. So cute. I need a bigger bush for them to like it. If I ever get my yew hedge I might get a little robin.

My dream is to have a raven living in the garden but they are apparently shy so I would have to settle for crows. I just love it when they sing…

And bats! Must have bats, building several bat-houses and hoping for the best. There are bats in the neighborhood and with all the demolition of forest around here I’m sure they will have a hard time finding a place to live.

I would like to have swallows but I think they make a mess if I get a colony of those to move in.

I’m also going to make bughouses. Good for all the plants and essential if I want a whole bunch of birds to move in. They seem very easy to make too. Here is how you make one.

Today

Planted some poppies by the greenhouse, “Victoria Louise” and I still have a few pots left of her but not idea where to plant her so I will have to tuck her and all of her little friends in for winter and come up with something next season. I wonder how long it will take before they bloom… Maybe tiny little blossom next season? Let’s hope so. So that means that it was probably “Carneum” that I planted by the Tea Corner. (I’m very sloppy and I always lose track of what I plant where and so on.)

Took a few lavender cuttings and another yew, I used some rooting hormone on all of them. Even though I have several small plants of lavender everywhere and will most likely sow more next spring… why? Because I can I guess.

Yew cuttings

Got four yew cuttings from my little escapade. I scraped the stems a little before dipping them in some rooting hormone and them planted then in individual plastic pots. Now I have to wait until spring (or more) to see if they were a success.

Current Obsession

Hedges, especially yew and boxwood. With the building project across the street a need a big hedge so I don’t have to look at it, yew sounds great.

Apparently it’s the oldest and biggest yew hedge in Britain, more here.

Yew hands! How more Edward Scissorhands can it get? I wonder if it’s hard to make… probably out of my league. Must get a book on topiary. More here.

Archways, I want this, this would be cute as a hedge on the back towards the neighbors. Picture found here.

I can do this for hours (and I have), just looking at garden pictures. I wonder how much space all my garden pictures use on the hard drive?