FuFWiG Mansions - open to residents

At last we have a habitat tower of sorts - one tier short as someone has made off with one of our pallets!

There are still "slots" available within it if anyone would like to contribute.

Mindful of the requirements of stag beetle, we have also installed some interred decaying wood (a tree stump and railway sleeper) for extra habitat goodness.

broadening the habitat pallet

Paolo has suggested a more achievable habitat tower design - using discarded pallets, like this one shown at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show three years ago this week.

Well, we have the pallets, but we could still do with the following to put within them:

• any sort of untreated dead wood, e.g. pruned branches, logs
• terracotta plant pots or (even better) pipe sections
• those sorts of bricks with holes in them (I'm sure there's a technical term)
• bamboo canes and other tube-like woody plant stems
• straw
• corrugated cardboard
• ivy plants

We will install all this on the morning of next Saturday (11 July) between 10 and 12, i.e. before our Summer Fun Day - any help and/or loan of tools is appreciated!

never say die!

Despite the prolonged warm dry spell, several of the hedging plants I'd given up on are showing some regrowth.

Also doing surprisingly well are flowers from the "wildflower mix" sown in spring. I'm not sure if the likes of cornflower, field poppy and marigold would naturally be found in a shady, nutrient-rich spot like FuFWiG, but they are a welcome dash of colour anyway.

There are also a number of ladybirds, though whether they are the invasive harlequins is hard to tell as these come in a perplexingly wide range of coloration. Could we unwittingly be providing habitat for the bad guys?