Stradbroke PC Climate Change Group—Sustaining Wildlife
Thank you, Leisure Centre and Stradbroke Primary School for organising pupils to paint beautiful pictures and designs on the six swift boxes for the Leisure Centre this spring.
And thank you especially to those pupils!
GARDENING FOR WILDLIFE
This might be controversial......
Pests or pals? Save our slugs and snails!
The RHS now classes slugs and snails as playing “an important role” in maintaining a
healthy ecosystem. Www.rhs.org.uk say gardens must be naturally balanced with food for
birds, frogs, grass snakes, lizards.. Slugs and snails are natural food for wildlife.
So advice is to sparingly use only organic slug control (if you must) and place under a bit of
wood near vulnerable plants--hostas, lettuces and dahlias. The rest of the creatures are free
grub for birds!
SAVE money, work, insects and birds in one fell swoop! Ban all chemical
garden sprays—they upset natural balance, are deadly to all insects, especially
flying pollinators such as honey, bumble and all solitary bees, wasps, ladybirds,
lacewings, beetles and flies.
BAN house fly traps outdoors—flies are vital food for insect-eating birds such as swallows,
house martins, swifts, robins, warblers, blue tits, nuthatches, blackbirds, house sparrows,
thrushes, woodpeckers. (Insect numbers are now DOWN 50% mainly due to powerful
insecticides). More insects means more birds for you.
Excellent for garden tips:
www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk.
The Feb 1⁄4 hr programme on You Tube is about slugs and snails.
Toni Wisbey, Stradbroke PC Climate Change Group
If you have tips for wildlife gardening, we can publish them.
antoinettewisbey@gmail.com