My wild garden

Couldn't begin to count - but yes, mainly natives and perenials, quite a few brought over from our garden in the UK. We have a couple of fields around the house, the only ones in the area that have never been 'improved' (should be able to sue on description for that term) and full to the brim with wild flowers at the moment. One of the farmers put her horses there- but we keep one large area ungrazed, so the flowers can reproduce and provide food for bees.

Plus of course many nettles for the butterflies. A bat expert is coming tonight to see if we have bats in the barn roof - will be interesting. It is a haven for swallows and house-martins up there - there is a small windon which we open for them in late Spring, only about 40x40cm - and it is wonderful to watch them dart in and out at the rate of knots. Love it.

As we live in the country and our garden merges imperceptibly into the landscape, we keep our garden fairly wild - it would look very odd to have a formal garden here. And we are neither of us very fit, so we need low-maintenance.

This year nature has decided to bless us with millions of oxe-eye daisies that have never been here before - they look fabulous, especially in amongst the few roses that we have.

And our lawn is more blue than green in the summer - it is apparently some sort of herb - which is quite indestructible (even if I might wish to destroy it, which I don't) and pops merrily up again after each mowing. I love it - I call it my camomile lawn, even though I have no idea what it really is. It is spreading rapidly and I imagine the whole lawn will be blue by next year! - with the occasional buttercup/dandelion/clover/daisy etc. I have no truck with perfect green lawns - might as well roll out a plastic one as far as I am concerned.

Could it be speedwell in your lawn, mishap? How lovely about the ox-eye daisies

Sounds like it! I've got a few oxeyes, had masses last year, don't know why only a few this year, do you?

I guess it depends on where they spill their seed and on the soil. I have twenty-seven ox-eye heads this year. It has taken the one plant I rescued from a place that was going to be dug up and built on to establish itself and flower its head off, so to speak. We have acidic soil but they do well in the roadside verges. Hoping for more next year

Taken it four years, I meant to say.

I don't think it is speedwell - the flower is a pale dusty blue.

There are quite a few speedwells. What about field forgetmenots? Very tiny flowers.

How tall the little blueys grow?

There are quite a few speedwell varieties, Mishap, not all have bright blue flowers. Or it could be the blue version of the scarlet pimpernel?

We had a screaming hedgehog at 10 o'clock last night. Not sure what the problem was. Very loud. Telling another hh off I expect.

Oh dear, I hope it wasn't being attacked by a badger!

Mating hedgehogs are very noisy! Non of this whispered'je t'aime stuff'

Hedgehogs are often attacked by foxes. My friend was the 'hedgehog lady' where I lived in the UK, and she was constantly caring for hedgehogs which had lost one or two hindleg to foxy.

I on the other hand was known as the 'badger lady' - I knew every single badger set and used to keep an eye on lamping, digging and baiting activities.
If a badger does get a hedgehog, I'm afraid it is very quick! All you will find is the skin and spikes, inside out.

jeni

Are you sure it was a hedgehog jess? Not foxes mating?

Yes, granjura - that's all we found of our resident hedgehog....

Once found a dead hedgehog in my Edinburgh garden. It had one bite (small dog/fox sized) taken out of its side: and strange.

Oh I love a wild garden and do often envy those that have them and yours sounds wonderfulBags but I have a tiny garden. Somehow tiny gardens have to be reasonably tidy. A friend who has two hectares one of which by choice is totally wild has nightingales each late spring and summer. Incidentally when I say tiny I do mean tiny.

Wild forget-me-nots grow quite tall. Well mine do.

Shame - but I'm afraid it's called 'nature'. We had many cases in our large garden of hedgehogs with hind legs missing or half bitten off. Two had to be put down, but Eileen was able to 'repair' the others and find them enclosed gardens, away from foxes.

The bat expert explained why he came to visit last night. He has been doing a study of habitats in the area with Google earth, and found we had the only natural pond in the Commune. He had a look and said such ponds are paramount for the survival of bats, and asked us to keep vegetation low at each end so that they could swoop and take off un-hindered. Hurrah.

As a bat lover I salute you. However I really dislike them coming into the house.

Yes flowerfriend, bats should definitely stay outside. All this stuff about their being small, furry creatures who are more scared of you than you are of them is just so much hogwash as far as I am concerned when a bat and I share the same room. or even the same house. We used to have them roosting in the flat roof above our bedroom in a previous house, and you would not believe the racket they made all night. It sounded as if they spent the entire time throwing stones and shouting at each other from the thumping noises on the ceiling and the bird-like chattering. At least if they do get in they are more intelligent than your average bird and can find their way through an open window, but still, I do think that, like spiders, they should remain OUTSIDE.