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my photos

DEAD WOOD

Wood piles around the garden are a perfect home for hibernating frogs, toads and newts, as well as insects like woodlice. I do wonder which insect may take up residence in the hollow stems of grass.



Areas of the garden are given up to ivy! Our garden is like a bowl, with banking all around. Although it could be said the ivy has somewhat taken over in parts, it does hold the bank together, and it encourages lots of wildlife too.



I leave an old branch or two amidst the foliage, they make a really good perch for robins, wrens and blackbirds.



This is a tree stump, and where it is slowly rotting down, great crevices have appeared, a perfect place for the stag beetle to lay its eggs, and where their larvae will spend up to seven years inside. Adult stag beetles are short-lived and more often die after mating.

The stag beetle is Britain's largest native ground-dwelling beetle and generally seen in Southern England. I have been lucky enough to spot them in my garden, and last year I saw a large one in flight.

These insects are in decline, click here to see how you can encourage them into your garden.