www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I have a small area of rough grass. Over a period of several years, i have made this into a veritable butterfly haven. I have mown paths through the area to enable access for photography, and general observation. In this small area i have grown the following species:
Four Silver Birch
One Oak (small as yet)
Marjoram (loads)
Field scabious (loads)
Greater knapweed
Lesser knapweed
Teasel
Oregano
Ragwort
St. Johns wort
Birds foot trefoil
Tufted vetch
This year it has all looked great, and i have attracted about 16 species in. In the past i have been cutting this area down to 6 inches twice in every year, once at the beginning of Nov. after most of the seed has dropped, and then again in March. With most of these plants having a nectaring attraction for butterflies this seemed the best way to manage it. Any views on my approach to this would be cordially received. Or am i doing it all wrong, and destroying over-wintering insect life?
No nettles are on my property, but some are thriving outside.

This is my rough butterfly haven;

That looks fantastic and I'm not surprised you get plenty of visitors.

I'd love something like that in our garden but we keep chickens and they'd decimate the greenery within hours unfortunately

That's funny, i've been thinking about getting two or three hens in a small run to get rid of some very invasive Orange Hawkweed that seems to be taking over, in places. Also, some of the Dandelions, Brambles, and Ivy needs controlling. I thought if i purchased a small hutch, i could move them around, and let them chickenise all the undesirables. Plus i'd have an egg for breakfast.

Zonda wrote:That's funny, i've been thinking about getting two or three hens in a small run to get rid of some very invasive Orange Hawkweed that seems to be taking over, in places. Also, some of the Dandelions, Brambles, and Ivy needs controlling. I thought if i purchased a small hutch, i could move them around, and let them chickenise all the undesirables. Plus i'd have an egg for breakfast.

And rats
My next door neighbour keeps chickens, and the rat population (visible anyway) has trebled in 3 months!
When you say Orange Hawkweed, do you mean 'Fox and Cubs'? I have it in my garden. I planted one plant two years ago to brighten up a shady corner, and now I have a 2 metre square that I can't get rid of. No wildlife went near it until this summer, when Painted Lady rested on it. It self seeds and produces more plants on runners. I have to wear thick gloves and long sleeves to tackle it as it brings me out in a wasp sting like rash, and it's really painful.

Denise

My next door neighbour keeps chickens, and the rat population (visible anyway) has trebled in 3 months!
When you say Orange Hawkweed, do you mean 'Fox and Cubs'?

I keep a close eye on rats around my property, and deal with them. I do a lot of wild bird feeding, and have a compost heap, so i have to. I think Orange Hawkweed is the same as 'Fox and Cubs'. It came from a neighbour, and i advise everyone to have nothing to do with it, along with Japanese Knotweed, and Himalayan Balsam. It's a very hard thing to get rid of, so grabbing at straws, i thought aaah chickens. It could potentially ruin my butterfly haven.

Orange Hawkweed. Quite pretty, but hard to control.

Yes, that's the damn stuff. Here is a Painted Lady on some. I find mine gets paler as it ages, and wildlife as a rule avoid it!

Denise

Hi Zonda,

Your garden looks great.

Don't get me started on Japanese Knotweed, I have a patch by my front door that we have to keep pulling up.

However, this firm had a van in my workplace this week:

http://www.jksl.com/

Cheers

Lee

Hi Lee. I haven't actually got Japanese Knotweed in my own garden, but thanks for the website anyway.

It's worse than i thought, look at the wiki page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Hawkweed

I think I have seen that plant once...or it was an orange form of a hawkeed I saw. It was only one though, never seen any more where I live, just the one orange hawkweed flower.

There is quite a few knotweed here, its starting to take over a patch of forest path not fr from my house, it gets cut right back and some even get pulled up, does not stop it coming back though.

Zonda wrote:That's funny, i've been thinking about getting two or three hens in a small run to get rid of some very invasive Orange Hawkweed that seems to be taking over, in places. Also, some of the Dandelions, Brambles, and Ivy needs controlling. I thought if i purchased a small hutch, i could move them around, and let them chickenise all the undesirables. Plus i'd have an egg for breakfast.

Make sure the run is hermetically sealed or within days you'll have scarcely any plants left (although I'm sure the hawkweed will be very efficiently dealt with too).

Sure, the hens will eat all the insect pests that feed on your plants but unfortunately they'll eat the plants too. Furthermore, given a chance the chickens will chase any butterflies foolish enough to flutter around at low levels.

For rats, there ain't nothing better than a cat or two. We have three, and they and the chickens get along fine, and we have had just one rat in our garden in the last two years now.

PS: Chickens won't eat ivy. It's one of the few planys we have left at ground level (it grows up the trunks of our fruit trees and has remained unmolested ever since the chickens arrived). I think it must be either poisonous or it must taste awful to a chicken (spring bulbs are the same, they won't touch daffodils, crocuses or tulips).

To prove a point, we have a greenhouse and there are only two days per year when the chickens are allowed in (bear in mind we have 24). The first is in March when we want to prepare the soil for planting. Having fertilised the soil with pig manure all winter we allow the hens access for a day and they scratch and thus aerate the beds looking for woodlice, earwigs, etc which saves us from digging it. After that, when the tomato crop has finished, we let them in for a day and by the time they've finished there are literally only the bare stalks left and many of the plants have been completely dug up.

Delightful things, hens, but they need firm discipline and constant supervision.

Your hens must be teenagers. I was only thinking of two or three enclosed, for weed destroying purposes. So how about my question of 'When to cut' then?

Zonda wrote:Your hens must be teenagers. I was only thinking of two or three enclosed, for weed destroying purposes. So how about my question of 'When to cut' then?

LOL. Sorry about the off topic stuff. Unfortunately, I can't answer your original question as we have no grass/shrubs to cut due to the chickens.

Ok david...No sweat...enjoy those eggs.