One Grand Wildlife Friendly Garden Makeover

 Typical Hackbridge problem garden

 Problem beds and borders 

Over-sized Sycamore and Conifer screen

 Stage One- Reduce conifers to tidy screen and reduce Sycmaore to garden size

 Stage 2: Re-build beds and borders, fit weed suppressing membrane and replant with range of wildlife gardening plants.

 Stage 3: Apply decorative bark to create a low maintenance wildlife friendly border

Stage 4: Cut the grass, dig in a small low maintenance border along other boundary and plant climbers against wall and trellis. Areas of bluebells have been retained.

Been spending the last several months developing some affordable wildlife gardening models as part of a programme to increase biodiversity as part of the Hackbridge Plan to develop Hackbridge as a gateway to the Wandle Valley Regional Park and Beddington Farmlands. The ambition is to blur the lines between the nature reserve and the urban area by linking the two with green corridors and habitats to the River Wandle Green Corridor.  

The problem has been to come up with some solutions which are low maintenance and affordable in an area of relatively low income so the emphasis is on re-structuring existing features, soft landscaping and planting. A grand well spent I reckon and a good investment as goes straight on the value of the property. Nothing too fancy at the moment but will grow into a nice mini-habitat. In terms of maintenance just needs two to three week lawn trimming and attention during the summer months, watering on beds when required, monthly low effort weeding, 2 year trimming cycle for conifers and 4 year re-reduction cycle for Sycamore.

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