The Crib Garden and its Wildlife

After 12 years creating a wildlife garden in my native Oxfordshire, I moved to pastures new in 2005.  Gardening on the edge of a very large Oxfordshire village, where my garden was surrounded by other gardens, was an interesting exercise, and over those years the wildlife that came to that garden and made its home there was fantastic - within three years we had attracted 24 species of butterfly.  In South Shropshire I was faced with almost a blank canvas of two acres.  During the 15 years we have been here I have created a beautiful wildlife garden with, amongst other habitats, wildflower meadows, 'mini-meadows', nectar borders, wildlife ponds, a vegetable plot, a woodland garden and an orchard of local variety fruit trees.  

The original part of the existing garden at 'The Crib' had two very small flower borders, but otherwise was simply lawn.  However it was blessed with three apple trees and the mixed native hedging instantly provided a good habitat for a few local bird species and small mammals.  Progress in terms of the wildlife we are attracting has been rapid - especially regarding the bird and insect life. Below you can see just some of the birds, butterflies, moths, mammals and other wildlife we have attracted so far. There are many more waiting to be identified!

The challenge in this garden is to preserve our fantastic views.  In my Oxfordshire garden the objective was to screen the uglier views around us to create a protected wildlife haven within a not terribly attractive area.  In Shropshire we have the opposite but enviable task of including the beautiful surrounding landscape of the South Shropshire Hills into our garden. In the twelve years we have been here we have made excellent progress towards our aims to create a really wonderful and attractive wildlife garden, full of interest all year round, that sits happily in the surrounding landscape.  Over time we have sown a large wildflower meadow and created smaller meadow areas, by allowing lawns to grow and adding small wildflower plants.  We have planted a herb border and  nectar borders, created two very large wildlife friendly traditional herbaceous borders with a variety of nectar plants and grasses, established over 40 fruit trees, created a bog garden with a winter stream and made a wildlife friendly vegetable garden. 

Over 400 native hedging shrubs have also been planted.  An existing small copse of native trees has been thinned and its original woodland flowers encouraged to spread. We have laid hedges and sown grass paths. Three ponds, now teaming with life, have also been created. Our wildlife visitors continue to grow - the number of butterfly species in particular has increased tremendously and the birds have risen to 82 species in the garden, including a few national rarities.  Gardening of any kind takes time, and patience is essential, but we have already made a huge impact.

Below you can see some of the wildlife we have encouraged here.  You can see some of our Moths here

BIRDS - 82 species

© Text and photographs Jenny Steel 2017