Oh, the irony of wildlife gardening

People for nature

What a spring it has been! The summer solstice is just a few weeks around the corner. True, in the North East of Scotland, most things are nowhere ready for harvest, unless you have a poly. But germination and growth has been a breeze for once. The question always remains though: can we stave off the mollusks once the rain starts to come? Only time will tell. In the meantime I rely on their natural predators to do the work for me. My army consists mainly of ground beetles, toads & frogs, rodents, and birds. I help them by destroying potential snail and slug habitat - turning over pots daily and cutting down long growth around the areas young plants are growing. 

These little slugs hide in shady spots. During the day they like to hide under pavers, pots, and planks.

Coffee in hand, I enjoy a walk through the garden in my PJs in the morning. Betty, our 6 month old Alsation x Husky is shredding up some of the kids’ old soft toys that she collects in her favourite spot on the lawn. Her treasure cove looks more like a toy cemetery at times. While I look at what is peaking up in between the grasses, she is busy throwing the ripped off pieces up in the air, to quickly roll on her back, before catching them again. She looks so happy. And so I am I: it has finally been raining. 2025 has been dry. Very dry. And the rain makes all the plants look greener. Having said that, my garden looks pretty good despite the drought. We use mulch everywhere in the garden. Living mulch around larger herbaceous perennials and trees. Composted woodchips around the smaller herbaceous. And composted mulch - before it turns into fine compost - on our annual beds. This means moisture loss from the soil is minimal, helping the garden cope with periods of drought. 

And then there are the brash heaps, aka veg borders to be. This section of the garden is designed to become a clearing within a food forest. Trees and shrubs around it are fruiting, planted along grass paths for easy harvest. And in the centre a sunny opening will be kept to grow a mix of herbaceous and annuals. When we bought the garden (and the house I guess), it used to be all lawn. Very neatly cut lawn. We inherited a ride-on from the previous owners and my husband was very good at keeping everything short. Then we (Or was it just me? Who remembers these things…) figured that it is the most sunny and sheltered spot in the garden and it needs to be used for more than grass.

Instead of digging up the lawn, or bringing in tons and tons of woodchips or compost, I simply dumped branches from cut down trees in the areas I want to become a border. About 80-100cm high, they make the garden look pretty messy. But when I now move them, after 2 years, the soil beneath is crumbly and moist. Perfect to plant into. Did I mention that it was free in our case - we had a lot of trees that needed coming down or came down in the wind. And that it took me about 2 hours of moving light weight brash onto here? Almost too easy. 

“What about the rodents though?” I hear you ask. Yes, the brash is an amazing habitat for all sorts. Including rodents. Especially since most of our old lawn has become uncut meadow, creating safe passage from brash heap to brash heap. In winter you see hundreds of tunnels just underneath the flattened swathes of grass. Well, what can I say? A kestrel has started coming to our garden to help me out with this. And I am wanting to install an owl box. And I’m sure that owls would not mind snacks running around freely and in abundance. The only thing I am worried about is: what time is best to move the brash for planting, without disturbing potential nests?

Voles are part of the ecological garden's food chain

It turns out that the field vole is more likely to have a nest in the long grass than in the brash. Phew. I have seen no signs of hedgehogs. Little chance for them to find their way to us since our garden is in the middle of highly managed farmland. Hardly any hedgerows or copses around. Rats on the other hand are likely to use the brash, but mainly in winter. Still, not moving more than 30% at a time, and doing it slowly, by hand, will ensure everyone can escape safely. To be a meal for natural predators another day. Oh, the irony of wildlife gardening. 

Katrina 

Founding Co Director of the Huntly Greenspace Collective