This week Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio looked at how you can get so much more from an eco-friendly garden.
There are 3 simple ways to add Biodiversity to your garden…
- Invite bees, butterflies, and birds to your garden!
- The Dandelion is the most important plant for insects in early spring.
- From mid-March until mid-May it provides vital food for bees and other early-flying insects such as butterflies.
- Its seed is the favourite treat for bird species such as Goldfinch and Greenfinch.
- Try to reduce the number of times you cut your lawn during the spring & summer, or leave patches of grass with dandelions where you can!
- Make your garden a “restaurant” for birds!
- Hang bird feeders within the view of a window, so that you can truly enjoy observing birds who visit your garden.
- Keep their food fresh, keep out of reach of cats, and keep bird feeders or tables clean!
- Birds love peanuts, seed mixes, sunflower seeds, and coconut.
- In dry or cold weather conditions, making a bird bath can have a huge positive impact for local birds because it offers both: a drinking water plate and a bathing area.
- Making habitats from dry stone walls and rockeries.
- Dry stone walls can form their own micro-habitats for nature.
- The cavities are home to a myriad of insects and also offers nesting sites for cavity-nesting solitary bees.
- A stone wall may also form the perfect habitat for the Common Viviparous Lizard which is our only native reptile.
- The crevices and nooks between the stones offer growing space for ferns and a variety of mosses and lichens, which are an often forgotten component of our garden.
- If you have a smaller urban garden, you can easily collect stones to create a rockery to encourage a biodiversity of insects.
Here’s a few websites if you want to know more !
