Help to bring wildlife close to your home

THIS week, when the weather has been beautiful, you’ve no doubt busted out the barbecue and had a glass or two in whatever size garden you have.

I’m sure you put a lot of time and effort into keeping that area as nice and neat as you can so you can enjoy it on days like these.

But I want to talk to you about the origins of lawns and how they have hugely reduced the area available for both plant, insect and wild life across this land.

You see lawns first popped up in England, where they were used to indicate wealth, as their owners didn’t need to grow food on that land.

Then people started using the cropped grassy area for sports and to gather – and in all those years we have no once reimagined their use.

Like puppets, controlled by some lawn overlord we mow, strim, edge and kill weeds without every asking if there is a better way.

Well folks, I, and many others are here to tell you there is.

But first, let me ask you a questions. When you cut the lawn – how often do you use that piece of land in your garden, front or back?

If you have kids, I am sure they need areas for pools, football and just playing – but do they need it all?

Could you better design your garden to provide more room for biodiversity by letting the edges grow wild.

Consider planting native seeds and even installing bird boxes, hedgehog homes, insect hotels and more to bring nature back in.

I also want to talk about No Mow May – which is now over – and I am begging you to leave the lawnmower in the shed until the end of the summer.

You see all those butterflies, moths etc will have laid their little eggs on the plants you have let grow this month and if hurricane in their and tear their homes to the ground – all those eggs will die.

Why not instead use this summer to educate yourself about what you can do to help biodiversity.

There are some cracking Twitter profiles you can follow that show what you can achieve:

Wildlife garden designer and installer – @_Joelashton – has some great hints and tips.

He is calling on people across the country to ‘let it bloom’ this June and not mow all summer. And the pictures of his own garden show he’s really practicing what he preaches.

Northern Ireland woman @donnarainey4 is also working hard to conserve nature and her timeline on Twitter is a joy.

She highlights equally the benefits of letting nature grow while calling out those organisations and agencies cutting it all away.

She is on her own journey to rewild land that she bought and has been sharing amazing pictures of the wildlife her efforts have attracted. RSPB NI has some great hints and tips about how to help birds and the bugs they depend on in your gardens.

You can follow them at @RSPBNI on Twitter.

@Buglifeni is calling out for help on their #Bugsmatter survey from June 1. They are hoping citizen scientists across Northern Ireland will sign up to take part and help them count what’s in your garden.

A spokesperson said: “Insects underpin our natural world and their numbers can help us to better understand what’s happening in our environment.

“The Bugs Matter citizen science survey is an important initiative measuring insect splats on vehicle number plates as a marker of insect abundance.

“In previous survey years, with the valuable contributions of citizen scientists... we have made significant strides in understanding the challenges facing our insect populations.

“This year, we need your help, once again, to build on our knowledge and make our impact even greater.

“Sharing the findings from your journeys will help us understand more about our insect populations, as growing evidence highlights their declines on a global scale.

“Your participation in this nature survey is vital for us to monitor population trends, address causes of insect loss, halt and reverse them.”

See https://www.buglife.org.uk/getinvolved/surveys/bugs-matter/ for more information on how to get involved.

When you cut the lawn – how often go you use that piece of land?

PEOPLE across NI might feel helpless when it comes to restoring nature and wildlife in some ways.

But the bit of land you have, even if it’s a window box, can make a difference if we all do our bit.

Here are some hints and tips on what you can do:

■ Consign pesticides, slug pellets and poisons to the history books

■ Stop mowing every inch of grass you have and leave a bit of your garden to grow naturally

■ Plant only native plants and stay away from invasive species like rhododendron

■ Install a small garden pond for birds and other creatures – with a way out for anything that becomes trapped

■ Leave a gap under your fences for the like of hedgehogs to pass through

■ Ditch the plastic grass & plants – they release microplastics that are not good for us or nature

■ Build a bug hotel

■ Put up bird boxes and allow birds like swallows to return to their nests

■ Don’t cut down trees of shrubs during the summer months

■ Stop mowing all summer – then write to your councils and DFI and ask them to do the same

ATTRACTION Garden pond