Wildlife in Your Garden
As Autumn is firmly approaching, it’s great to look back on the Summer months – Summer is always a blast at Pennywell Farm!
Just like us, the animals enjoy chilling out in the afternoon sun, and having a snooze. Humphrey the piggy is extra good at this!
But even while the animals relax, the wildlife around the farm is busy as ever!
The hedgerows are full of chirping birds and buzzing insects, and as for the pond – it may look calm, but it’s teeming with activity, both on the surface and underwater.
Ever since Chris Murray and his wife Nicky started their Pennywell adventure over 30 years ago, they’ve always aimed to make it as much a home for wildlife, as for our animals. That’s why they’ve planted so many trees over the years, carefully look after our hedgerows, and why they made the ponds!
Caring for creations and the wildlife around us is something we’ve always been passionate about, and there’s nothing better than seeing little explorers get excited about the wildlife in our gardens.
In this blog post, we are excited to bring you 5 quick activities for little wildlife warriors, as well as 3 projects to help encourage creepy crawlies into your garden!
Five Quick & Easy Home Adventures
1 – Lift Up a Plant Pot! 
Carefully lift a pot and look underneath. It can reveal all sorts of creatures – from wiggly worms and tiny slugs to woodlice, ants and maybe even centipedes! Make sure you put the pot back gently after recording your findings.
2 – Make a Leaf Rubbing 
Using some paper and wax crayons, gather a selection of leaves and make colourful rubbings. Then cut them out and stick them on more paper or card to make a tree picture! See if you can identify the trees that the leaves came from.
3 – Make a Mini Pond 
Find a small container, an old tin or shallow plastic tub and fill it with some water. Decorate around the edges with small stones or moss. Put a few pebbles in the water so anything that falls in can crawl out. Wait a few days and see what creatures start arriving!
4 – Let Your Radishes Flower! 
This may sound odd – but one of the best ways to attract pollinators to your garden or windowsill is by planting radish seeds. But don’t eat the radishes! Let them grow on and flower – the bees go mad for radish flowers! Radishes grow quickly, and you can always eat one or two while you wait for most of them to flower!
5 – How about a Nature Treasure Hunt? 
Find the items listed below or make your own list to challenge yourself!
– 
A yellow flower
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A feather
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3 different grass seeds
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3 different leaves
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Perhaps you’ll spot a flying insect!
TOP TIP – Next time you visit Pennywell, head to our gift shop and pick up a mini magnifying glass, bug finder and pond net – then you’ll have all the tools you need to see wildlife up close!
Three Garden Wildlife Projects
These activities require a little more time and effort but are great fun!
The impact that these projects will have on the environment is amazing and what better way to keep the kids entertained at the weekends?
Click the buttons for in-depth tutorials on each of the following…
We Would Love to Hear from You!
Please do send in some photos of your creations and discoveries, or post them online and tag us (@pennywellfarm) on your favourtie social media platform!
This story appeared on September 20, 2022
