Welcome to my garden

This is my patch. My 'small' garden. How small is small? Well I will maybe get around to measuring it sometime but the actual size is not really the point. It isn't huge, it hasn't got its own lake. There is no river at the bottom, no old barns or other such wildlife sanctuaries.  It is just a run of the mill back yard. We also have a shared gravel parking area and driveway and a south facing front garden given over mostly to gravel at the moment but with huge lavender bushes and a clematis.

It faces North so for much of the year it is cold and damp.  If you imagine an A4 piece of paper portrait and folded in 4 and unfolded again then the garage takes up a one quarter. We have had to house an oil tank and outside boiler. There is lawn, borders, a patio area, shed and a tree.

Oh and there is a pond!  We had to replace a lot of the garden about 7 years ago due to an oil leak and added a raised pond then.  It isn't as wildlife friendly as perhaps a more easily accessible ground level pond but we now have a small grand-daughter so I don't feel as compelled to fill it in for safety.

The tree is an ornamental almond and we use to to hang the bird feeders.  They are missing from the photos as we'd taken them down as Storm Katie arrived last night.  The bird table has seen better days and needs replacing.

There is another challenge my garden faces on being wildlife friendly - my husband! It's not that he dislikes wildlife, he's just not so keen on the 'wild' part. Whilst I am untidy and like the garden full and overflowing, he prefers a neat lawn and weedless borders. We constantly do battle over the summer as I squeeze in another bee-friendly plant and he cuts things back regardless of the time of year! He has come round to the bird feeders and the mess that they, and the bird visitors, can produce, and as he can't access the back of the oil tank this is my untidy and hopefully hedgehog friendly area. It remains to be seen what he makes of the insect hotel I hope to add!