I have a confession to make – a few years ago we had some squares of artificial grass to make the path in our garden. Obviously, this was before I was aware that it breaks down and sheds microplastics into the environment. It was also before I appreciated just how much impact plants in soil have on climate change and […]
Soil Carbon Sequestration and Storage
Did you know that the soil contains at least 3 times more carbon than exists in the atmosphere? There are believed to be around 2 trillion tons of carbon stored in the world’s soils. However, human activities have released vast quantities of carbon dioxide from the soil already and man-made climate change is making it even more challenging. It is […]
Wildlife Gardening in the Climate Crisis
Edit Post Edit with Elementor Switch to draft Preview Update 69/100 Wildlife Gardening in the Climate Crisis – Drought There is a significant overlap between people who care about climate change and people who care about biodiversity. For starters, climate change is a threat to biodiversity – it is a […]
Wildlife Ponds
When my youngest daughter was very small, I wanted a water feature but was really worried about safety, so we got a mini pond – essentially a large bowl that we put aquatic plants in to. We put this up out of reach at the back of the garden. It seemed at first that its sole purpose was as a […]
Hoverfly Lagoons
Hoverfly lagoons are a fantastic way to help these wonderful pollinators. We first made one after spotting the interest that the hoverflies were taking in our pond. It’s a great project to do with kids and really easy. It is also something you can do if you are unable to have a pond and/or have limited outdoor space, but also […]
Bats
Watching the bats fly over my garden at dusk never fails to bring a smile to my face. They are an indicator species, so their presence signifies that something is going right with the biodiversity in the area. Bats help to keep insect populations under control so their presence can be helpful to us in terms of reducing numbers of […]
Hedgehogs
The day our camera trap picked up our first hedgehog, I cried tears of joy. Why? Because hedgehog numbers are in decline – we have lost a third of our hedgehogs since the year 2000. So I was a little scared that we would find no hedgehogs in our area and each year the wait to see whether they have […]
Nature-Connected Neighbourhoods
The 2019 State of Nature report presented a gloomy picture of the declines in UK wildlife since the 1970s. According to the report, butterfly and moth populations are down by 17% and 25% respectively and 26% of UK mammal species are at risk of becoming extinct in the UK. Hedgehogs have been in “massive long-term declines.” There are multiple causes […]