Eco
– congregation green sheet no.3 Back to Green Sheet index
What we are doing in the Churchyard.
We do not use any pesticides – we prefer that nature does
things for us and hope that the mini beasts will oblige, though we have not
seen many ladybirds this summer.
We let the grass grow long in the lower churchyard in
order to encourage the flora and fauna and do not cut the grass until mid –
August after the flowers have set seed. (N.B. anyone who has a bit of time and
would like to help rake the ‘hay’ on a Wednesday morning get in touch with
Graham Buckridge or Liz Ashley).
When the trees were pruned last year the branches were
shredded and spread on the paths: grass cuttings and other non-woody items are
put on a heap in the lower churchyard. This will be used when rotted to improve
the flower beds.
Two ‘rescue’ hedgehogs were released into the lower
churchyard a little while ago, and there are photographs of them in the Eco –
congregation file at the back of church. If you find a hedgehog in distress
(usually one seen in the day is unwell) and want to help it, you can take it
home and feed it on tinned cat or dog food (not fish based), chicken, scrambled
egg, chopped peanuts or grated cheese, but never bread or milk! Sometimes they may get infested with ticks or
lice and if you don’t feel up to treating these problems then you could take it
to the ranger at Thurstaston for advice. Do be aware though that a female may
have young nearby, so only remove the creature if you’re sure it’s in need of
help. Needless to say, our hedgehogs, Harry and Henrietta have not been seen
since we released them and we take that as good news! For more info visit: http://www.naturalcollection.com/organic/hedgehog-natural-garden-wildlife.asp
or get The Miss Tiggywinks book from your library.
Please take
this home with you and take a copy for your friends and if you’d like to
contribute information for the green sheets contact Sally Cashen on 625 2659.
At
home: what you can do:
Use the white garden waste bags provided by the council
for things which cannot be composted.
Start a compost heap if you have not done already –
remember – nothing of carnivorous animal origin should go in it: e.g. cat
litter, but rabbit or other herbivore waste is okay. Even the contents of your
vacuum cleaner can go on. Compost bins can be obtained locally ( with Council
discount) from the following:
Port Sunlight
Garden Centre 0151 645 6244
Carr Farm,
Birkenhead Road 0151 632 1457
Carr Farm also has water butts. (There may be a delivery
charge if you cannot pick it up yourself.) Don’t forget that you can speed
things up with compost accelerator also available at the above.
The blue slug pellets are harmful to other creatures and
can kill animals directly or indirectly : e.g. thrush eats poisoned snail.
There are products which do not harm other creatures and will do as good a job,
– e.g. ‘Growing Success’ which is a white powder.
More farmers are going organic and more of us want to buy
organic food. It is, therefore, a shocking fact that our use of pesticides in
the garden increased by over 75% between 1998 and 2001. Pesticides
do not specifically target greenfly and vine weevil, (regardless of what it
says on the tin!) and such poisons kill countless beneficial or harmless
butterflies, moths and other insects in gardens every day. They also, as do
slug pellets, have nasty knock on effects on the garden birds, mammals, and
amphibians which feed on insects in your garden. Give natural predators a
chance to sort those pests out for you and also save yourself some money. For
more info on moths etc contact www.butterfly-conservation.org
or tel. 0870 774 4309.
Let’s do
what we can to conserve our fragile environment so that the next generation can
also enjoy it.