When we opened our garden last August under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme and appeared in its famous Yellow Book we included in our details that we welcomed children. We were aware that few gardens make this obvious so we decided to reverse the trend. We made a few quiz sheets available for them to encourage them to look closely. They were very popular and most youngsters had a go. Some were very determined to find everything on the sheets. Great fun!
One quiz sheet featured our little collection of “green men” which we have scattered around the garden, some of which are hard to find.
The other invited our children visitors to seek out the large variteies of wildlife homes, shelters and nesting places.
I thought you might like to see the photos of the green men and our wildlife features. Amongst the green men is a definite intruder who lives in our Japanese Garden on the trunk of the Salix flexuosa.
So now to our huge variety of wildlife features all designed and carefully placed to welcome all sorts of creatures, large and small.
Places for our feathered friends to roost and nest ………………
Places for beetles, invertebrates and amphibians ……………………….
Places for bees, lacewing and ladybirds ……………..
Places for all sorts of beneficial creatures – whoever wishes to drop in ……………………
We will have to think up some more quizes for our young visitors later this year.
5 replies on “Wildlife Homes and Green Men”
What a wonderful thing you did to include “future gardeners” in your tour. I bet each one left with a piece of gardening knowledge that will encourage them in the future. 🙂
Reblogged this on Old School Garden.
That’s a lovely idea. I bought a beautiful Green Man in Shrewsbury once but it was sadly smashed on its journey back to Oz – perhaps he didn’t want to be too far from his native home. The insect homes are ingenious.
I enjoy making up a little garden activities for my grandchildren when they visit…. quizes, scavenger hunts, games. Love your collections! I’m not a youngster but your garden quiz looks like one I would have enjoyed taking.
Fantastic!