thanks Wurzel, sorry i missed your post.
I have been decidedly slacking in my diary this year, mainly due to not really getting out and about, but today prompted me to.
so the story of the front garden.
The front garden was never a bowling green like many of the lawns down my road and every year i always had a couple of grasshoppers in the unkempt borders. so as well as continued efforts in the back garden i decided the front was really a wasted space. a plan was hatched when 2 years ago I found that Dorset Wildlife Trust did a wildlife garden plaque. I applied immediately and filled many of the criteria required without having to do anything. What i wanted though was the plaque. It arrived and was immediately screwed into an old piece of log and put on display out the front.
![plaque.JPG (435.96 KiB) Viewed 1285 times here it is with grasshopper.](./files/thumb_3673_d777e3bc77cebf37c54ef6cb80b4c942)
- here it is with grasshopper.
so now all i had to do was wait, as the grass grew more grasshoppers survived, craneflies, grass moths, meadow ant hills. a veritable wonderland. 2 years later here is the result.
this year i saw a single meadow brown emerge wings partially inflated, and i suspected 2 small skippers but couldn't confirm. but what has happened just this week and i spend very little time out there so this must just be a snippet of what actually goes on.
at least 2 skippers egg laying and today my day was made by a common blue.
I know many will consider it a mess but it is one of the most rewarding things i have ever done with regards to gardening for wildlife. and thanks to DWT scheme and plaque any passersby will know that it isn't my being lazy. It will all get cut by hand grass shears in october, harder work than any strimming and mowing but the rewards are worth it.
Chris