About

We bought our house in south Bristol (less than 2 miles from the city centre) on the 16th July 2004. This blog charts our progress as we hope to turn what was a neglected and barren strip of land into a wildlife haven. The intention is that this blog will record all our changes to the garden as well as wildlife sightings – it may even highlight what can be done to encourage wildlife into an average urban garden.

When we got the keys to the house our garden was a barren wasteland and (unknown to us at the time) had been used as a rubbish dump by the previous owners. We hope that the blog will chart our highs & lows and successes & failures as we try to live an environmentally friendly and ecologically conscious existence. With this in mind we will not use pesticides or other chemicals in the garden and, since we’re both keen naturalists, want to encourage as much wildlife as possible.

Gardening is very much a hobby and, because of other time pressures, we can’t devote as much time to it as we would like. We also see our garden as a long term project and hope this will make this blog an interesting read as we slowly develop the garden over time.

This blog was inspired by the work of Gilbert White (1720 – 1793). Gilbert White was possibly the first naturalist to record observations on the behaviour and interaction of organisms rather than focus on their anatomy. In some small way we hope our observations on the wildlife in our garden echo the ideas he fostered.