Habitat Aid's Blog

Relating to Raptors

Habitat Aid — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:43:33 +0000

Don't worry...

We toddled off to Sussex on Saturday to celebrate father-in-law’s 80th. As is ever the way when our lot get together we had a very jolly time, and we had some great entertainment laid on too. A magician at lunch (where did that melon come from?!) and, before pre-prandial drinks, a lady with raptors. What was lovely about this was not so much the birds themselves, who were beautiful and engagingly idiosyncratic, but the way the children in particular engaged with them.

...be happy

If you’re small and an owl swoops down onto your arm it can be a bit scary, particularly if you’ve had no contact with birds of that size before. Ferocious talons and a fierce looking beak makes an owl look less like Hedwig and more like a proper predator. The children loved the whole experience though, as raptor lady said they would. Why am I surprised? Every time children engage with nature they love it, and you see their preconceptions drop away within minutes if they’re told the story as it is. You can’t get much more red in tooth and claw than these chaps, but by the end of our session all the cousins wanted their own raptor to take home with them. Education, education, education. Simples.

Better Wildflower Seeds

Habitat Aid — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:13:26 +0000

We’re starting a programme of random germination testing of the seeds in our wildflower mixes. So far as I can make out we’ll be the only reseller in the UK doing this. We’re also offering a testing service for our commercial customers buying bespoke mixes. Native Seed Technology in Scotland are doing the scientific stuff for us at their lab in Scotia Seeds.
It’s odd no-one else does it – the service is reasonably priced and freely available. We’re keen to show our seed is top quality as well as coming from the UK; when people buy wildflower seed they should know it’s viable as well as British. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a kitemark assuring them it was? Seed needs to be fresh and properly harvested and stored. It should be easy to grow wildflowers, but poor quality of seed from dodgy suppliers seems to be a recurring problem people have when they try. We want to do everything we can to improve their chances of success and to promote our suppliers.
It might also help consumers to understand that provenance is an issue, which most people don’t get. Last year I was startled to find the RHS cheerfully selling wildflower seeds from France at Wisley, for example – and not just because they weren’t supporting British growers.
You might want a lovely “pictorial meadow” effect in your garden, including all sorts of colourful non-natives. You might not though – in which case you don’t want anything odd cropping up in the mix, particularly if it’s a bully. There are also subtle genetic variations in our own flora which are worth trying to hold on to; a Bulgarian cornflower will be different to one from Berkshire.
If you think you are buying British wildflowers to grow you should be buying British wildflowers which will grow.

The New Barn Owl Box

Habitat Aid — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:56:28 +0000

The Surprise

We had barn owls in a box we put up at our last house, but they disappeared during a very wet spell – one of their problems is that they can’t fly in the rain. While they were using the box they bred twice, and mum and dad and their rackety chicks gave me enormous pleasure. I found a dead adult in the hedgeline around the time they went, which was heart-breaking. Conservationists talk about iconic species; anyone who has seen a barn owl hunting at dusk would call them iconic.
Our new place is just about perfect for them. We’re in pretty open countryside with hedges, tussocky grass and voles coming out of our ears (metaphorically!), plus an oak tree which isn’t just perfect for a box but which we’ll also be able to see at close range from the new kitchen window. We sell boxes ourselves, so I was confident about what I was getting when an exciting looking parcel arrived in the post. They’re made by a team of local raptor enthusiasts, so they’re well designed and come with easy to follow instructions. They’re nice and light and easy to put up – even for a doofus like me. I’m no expert, but I’m told apparently barn owls like boxes and, if they’re around, the chances of them using a properly sited one are high. Fingers crossed.

Newsletter No.21: February 2012

Habitat Aid — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:24:42 +0000

Greetings from the bubble wrapped shed which is Habitat Aid’s global corporate HQ. Chilly it is. There’s been good news on that front though; we now have planning permission for our new house (and home office) and hope to start digging in early spring. I can’t wait. If you want some cheap amusement you can follow our tortuous progress at www.hookgatecottage.com or through the column I’m writing for Build It magazine.
In other news, I’ve recently been travelling the country in one of my old suits working on delivering two wildflower seed projects to a couple of very serious retailers, which is very exciting and nerve wracking in equal degree. All will be revealed!

New look website
We have revamped our website to give it a more contemporary look and give some airplay to our social media stuff. We also added a “live chat” function to help customers. Do visit the site and don’t feel shy about pressing some buttons if you Tweet, Facebook or Google+ to make us look good. If you find something that’s not working (surely not!) do let me know. Thank you! We’re also going to be adding some more video content over the next few months.

Recent Blogs
Orchards: Why everyone should have fruit trees
Groovy Groofs: Why everyone should have a green roof
Nuts! Why everyone should have nut bushes
Toads R Us: Why no-one should have… Ophidiophobia

Courses
Making Meadows
A beginner’s guide, 23rd June
Making Ponds
9th June with Hugh the Pond

Shows
We will be out and about this year at:
Ecobuild 20-22 March
… where I’ll also be giving talks on gardens for wildlife
Gardener’s World 13-17 June
Visit our Bumblarium
CLA Game Fair 20-22 July
We launch our new brand

I hope to meet you!

To Do in The Garden
Don’t forget to order you bare root trees NOW! We’ll be back to unseasonal warmth in no time and you’ll have missed the boat for planting this year. We’re also running low on stock…

Herpetofauna

Habitat Aid — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:56:52 +0000

Photo:Gordon Cragg

Herpetofauna:
a) A sexually transmitted parasite
b) A psychological condition in which female cat owners pay more attention to their cats than their partners (geddit?)
c) Protozoa living in the oral mucosa
c) Amphibians and reptiles
?

If I’d got the answer wrong my recent trip to the Herpetofauna workers’ conference in Telford would have given me plenty of shopping time. I had some early reassurance on the way to the Conference Centre when I walked past Telford’s bubbling blowing frog clock, but I was a bit nervous even if I’d got the gist of the weekend right. It turns out I shouldn’t have worried. The herpy crowd are an enthusiastic and entertaining lot, even though they wear trousers with too many zips and feel compelled to pun terribly, usually about newts. Many of them were from the various Amphibian and Reptile Groups (“ARG”s) of the UK, to whom Habitat Aid bungs a tiny amount of money to via the ARG 100% fund, which is a very good institution.
I was pleasantly surprised by how accessible and engaging the presentations were; I enjoy listening to bright young academics, and I didn’t feel patronized. There was some inevitable mystification – I was puzzled by the problems with GCNs and gully pots*, for example – but I came away enlightened and enthused, even though I had to leave early and hung over on Sunday morning. I won a rather smart newt mug in Saturday night’s raffle, presented by Nick “Bugboy” Baker, which made up for the disappointment of our team coming last in a bizarre post dinner quiz (so far as I remember won by a team called “Slow Worms and Lesbians”). Other Herpy celebs there included Mr Biggs of Ponds, who is planning another major pond exercise with Pond Conservation.

What take-aways can I bring you from the world of UK herpetology? First, the bad news. As I’ve blogged before, herps sit at the unloved end of the conservation spectrum. Snakes are scary and newts are expensive. Because people don’t like them we don’t spend enough money on them, which means we don’t know enough about what they do. This means there is a lack of hard information available to lobby the government to put more money into funding research and protection. It’s a vicious circle. Negative public perception and lack of reliable data were common themes running through most of the presentations and discussion groups. Unsurprisingly,the poor old adder featured regularly. In terms of specific issues there’s the chytrid fungus to worry about, which was the subject of a nationwide survey last year, and continuing extinctions; I would have liked to have met a Glutinous Snail before it disappeared from England in 2010. There was also the odd elephant galumphing about the conference room, like the lack of clean ponds in the UK.
There are some good things happening, however. Ironically, the fact that herps are so far down the pecking order means that current cutbacks aren’t affecting government spending on them – even possibly the opposite. Perceptions are changing, partly down to the work ARG groups are doing, and folk are beginning to understand the advantages of having reptiles in their gardens (slow worms, for example, are great slug killers). The more widespread use of SUDS^ is creating new habitat for herps, and everyone seems to be agreed about the basic strategy of linking existing habitats.

Our new garden here will be herp heaven, bursting with fantastic habitat, but I was reminded to get the compost heap built ASAP to get some slow worms in. Job now done. Now all I have to do is figure out how to make more money for the ARG Fund.

*Great Crested Newts get stuck in road drains
^ Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (swales and ponds)

Nuts!

Habitat Aid — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:53:51 +0000

I dimly remember the Cadburys ads in the seventies; as a teenager my favourite was predictably the flakiest crumbliest chocolate. We taught the children the Nuts! jingle on a trip to Alba in Piedmont, home of Nutella, when we drove through mile after mile of Hazel plantations. I leave our wild Hazelnuts in the hedgerows here to the mice and squirrels*, but try to have our cobnuts – their cultivated cousins – ourselves. They feature in our new mixed orchard scheme at Hookgate, which was apparently a not uncommon feature of traditional Kentish orchards; apple trees and smaller cobnut bushes make a very happy combination. We’re also including filberts, which are Corylus maxima rather than avellana, but their nuts are similar to cobs. They can be decorative too; we had a Red Filbert in our last place which looked lovely.

We’ve also – unsurprisingly – popped in a couple of English Walnuts (Juglans regia), which do well hereabouts. I was puzzled there weren’t more mature trees about until I heard about the local sawmill, which used to send a rep around the area offering cash for people’s trees. Yikes. You can get many grafted varieties, but I gather they’re tricky to graft unless you’re a specialist, so we stick with the Black and English Walnuts. There’s the most beautiful Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) nearby in the Bishop’s Palace garden at Wells, but this more ornamental cousin wouldn’t like the clay here.

We have gone for a grafted Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) though, ‘Marron de Lyon’, which will give us a big single nut in every case – or more correctly, cupule (great Scrabble word, fantastic if pluralized). Mrs. Mann’s eyes lit up at the prospect; roasted on their own, used in stuffing, added to casseroles, etc. etc. – check out the chestnut recipes on the BBC website. It was probably the Romans who introduced Sweet Chestnuts to Britain, and they’re still celebrated in that part of the world. We wandered up to a hill top hamlet one autumnal evening on another Italian holiday and into a Marron festival. This was close to Perugia, where the hillsides were full of chestnuts and there were stalls groaning with all things chestnut. We came back laden with gorgeous dark Sweet Chestnut honey, which you’d be struggling to make here as you only get a decent nectar flow off the trees if it’s rather warmer than a typical South Somerset summer – you can’t have everything.

I did think an Almond (Prunus dulcis) would be good for my bees though, as they flower so early. Beautiful trees too, though I’m not expecting a massive crop of almonds for next Christmas.

*This is pragmatism rather than generosity; I’m no friend of the grey squirrel

Groovy Groofs

Habitat Aid — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:30:46 +0000

I’ve written a blog on our planned green roof at Hookgate Cottage, which we’re very excited about. You can read it on the Hookgate website.

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Habitat Aid — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:32:45 +0000

Like 99.99% of the population I’ve never seen a partridge in a pear tree. There are hardly gazillions of partridge around anymore and there are even fewer pear trees. I don’t understand why, as pears have so much going for them. I’m particularly fond of them because they’ve got something for all, from humans to everything else down the foodchain.
Pears as edible fruit are a bit tricksie. They’re either hard as bullets or the wasps have got them. Do not despair! Mrs. Mann has discovered the answer – mulled pears (thanks to River Cottage’s Pam Corbin). Yummy. If you’re not talking about edible varieties but rather Perry Pears, then power to you. A good Perry is a delightful and rare thing, and like a Mazzard aPerry Pear is a handsome ornamental tree.
Fruit needs pollinators. Where local ecosystems are in a mess, as in places in the U.S. or in China, they’re imported in vast numbers. Millions of honeybees are driven across the States to pollinate almonds in California, blueberries in Maine and citrus fruit in Florida. But it’s a two way street; fruit trees are excellent news for bees too. They produce masses of early blossom, ergo masses of early pollen and nectar for hungry honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees. And not so early blossom too; a well-chosen mix of “top fruit” and soft fruit can provided huge amounts of forage from February to May. Apple varieties like James Grieve were grown by the Victorians as much for their beautiful blossom as their fruit, and pear blossom is spectacular in early spring.
This is one of the reasons why traditional orchards were the star of October’s excellent British Wildlife magazine. Orchards are great for wildlife – and not just because of their blossom. Different types of fruit tree decay at different rates, but they all give up the ghost quicker than our native trees, which means habitat for all sorts of interesting and endangered goodies. Pyrus (pear) decays relatively slowly, then Malus (apple), and quickest of all are Prunus (cherry, plum, etc.). A mixed orchard will provide saproxylic flora and fauna a wonderful range of niches to thrive in.
These include the Noble Chafer, a nice little chap British Wildlife describes as “iconic” and “charismatic”, which might be taking things a bit far, but you can appreciate their enthusiasm. There are also the moth caterpillars which eat fruit tree leaves and the six invertebrates associated with Mistletoe, which itself thrives in orchards. Further up the foodchain it’s no surprise that bats and a wide variety of birds love orchards, especially insectivorous and cavity nesting species.
The traditional orchard floor is rich in fungi rather than wildflowers, as its soil tends to be too rich for a diverse sward to develop, but is still a valuable resource for wildlife – particularly in the autumn when covered with windfalls which are a boon for late butterflies and birds like thrushes and Blackbirds (“Colly Birds”), together with small mammals like Hedgehogs. At Hookgate Cottage we are working on a planting plan which involves a more complicated understory, including nut bushes and soft fruit. Many orchards used to work this way. The gardener’s happy – it looks interesting and it’s low maintenance. The cook’s happy – all sorts of interesting culinary opportunities. And as for the wildlife… biodiversity is first cousin to utility as well as it is to beauty.

The best time to plant trees and shrubs is now. The bare root trees we sell are not only cheaper but will also do much better than pot grown, and are best planted over the winter when the plants are dormant.

Newsletter No.20: December 2011

Habitat Aid — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:11:45 +0000

Seasonal greetings! Huddled in my shed (otherwise known as the global corporate HQ of Habitat Aid) I have one Christmas present on my wish list this year – that we get planning permission in January so my days of bubble wrapped executive comfort are over. I want to get on with our planting here at Hookgate Cottage too. It’s all rather frustrating, although it’s not as if we haven’t got enough to do in the meantime. We’ve got a raft of very exciting new projects under wraps until the New Year, about which more anon.
In the meantime, thank you to all our customers for their support this year. We are getting to a size where we’re beginning to make a real impact in a number of areas, which just reminds me of how much more there is to do!

Christmas Gifts

Today is the last day for ordering for Christmas for fruit trees, soft fruit and nut bushes. We’re having a bumper season, so are having to be careful about dates in order to guarantee delivery. If you’re looking for other ideas, although we’re not big on “stuff” we have the best in birdboxes, bugboxes and pruning kit on the website (Father Christmas is buying me some of our beautiful Japanese secateurs).

Suppliers

Thank you to all our suppliers for their help this year – we couldn’t have done it without you. Particular thanks to those in bold, who have suffered from us more than most:

Seeds

Bright Seeds
Emorsgate Seeds
Goren Farm
Herbiseed
PlantWild
Scotia Seeds

Native Bulbs and Plug Plants

British Wildflower Plants
Really Wildflowers
Shipton Bulbs

Fruit Trees

Ian Sturrock & Sons
Frank Matthews
R.V.Roger Ltd.
Thornhayes Nurseries

Native Trees/Hedging

Ashridge Trees
Perrie Hale Nurseries

Perennials/Trees for Bees

Downderry Nursery
R.V.Roger Ltd.

Aquatic Plants and Bio-engineering

Gower Wildflowers
Salix River and Wetland Services

Bird/Bugboxes

Jacobi Jayne
Specialized Nestboxes
Carlsson Art

Tools

Niwaki
The Scythe Shop

Apologies to anyone I’ve missed!

Drifting on a Grey Green Sea

Habitat Aid — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:40:41 +0000

I still get that dream – you know the one I mean, when you walk into an exam, turn over the paper and understand not a word of what you’re reading. I had a waking moment like that earlier today, at the first workshop of the Green Infrastructure (“GI”) Partnership hosted by Defra at the Garden Museum. I think I was there as a potential partner.
My moment came around the time of the “interactive mapping exercise” when we were asked to comment on “workstreams’ scope and outputs, evidence and customer insight”. I couldn’t understand any of it, not even the outputs, which just seemed to be a series of advisory booklets – the one thing everyone agreed we had lots of. I tried to think of stuff but ended up writing my name and the date at the top of the paper and browsing for Christmas pressies in the museum’s lovely bookshop after feasting on their fantastic brownies. Fail and fatter.
I know a bit about the green city – sorry, “GI” – stuff now – not a lot, but more than 99.9% of the population – so the fact I couldn’t understand what was going on or why it was going on is rather dispiriting. I did sign up to one of the workstreams as it included the word “biodiversity”, which I thought sounded promising, and I am determined to try to master the basics of this arcane form of communication.
The venue and staff were lovely, by the way, and its charismatic curator Tim Woodward gave an interesting and erudite introduction. I’ve promised to introduce him to some more interesting russet apples to plant than his Egremonts, which have been half-inched. The Grasslands Trust’s Miles King was there to reassure me it really wasn’t a dream and I met other nice and different new people, some fluent government-speakers, which was interesting too. As I caught an earlier train than expected back from Waterloo I wondered whether the day hadn’t been such a total loss after all; perhaps I had seen what the Big Society was about.