fl0wer

Neither, e-dealer and *Bob*, glad to say. It is as the letter says, just a polite request.

Can folk use the wheelie bins and compost makers and dry hedge techniques to get their gardens shipshape, this year, pretty please? Having checked the 'rules', I see that we CAN have a one-hour bonfire, and it MUST be around dusk, however, with the warm weather at last, so many of us would like evening time outdoors, and keeping the windows open too. No bonfire = civilised clean-air gesture for the whole neighbourhood.

It was tile adhesive by the time they reached one bit of street - like thick porridge. Bad luck if they targetted you - go to the Police who are gathering up all the incidents. They said a moped's been stolen too. Gestures of vandalism are usually intended to scare people and thus reclaim a sense of 'ownership' of 'territory'. The ones who did it will be delighted if there is a big fuss and we all creep away indoors.

Thanks Alice, I just checked this and UncleGlen I suggest try again. Original post got moved from another section.

Following my sighting of a kestrel locally, a friend recommended I add it to the survey http://www.kestrelcount.org/ ...and while I am writing, if you have a minute please link to the Plantlife wildflower survey here => http://www.plantlife.org.uk/things_to_do/wildflowers_count/, this time of year usually great for botany especially once the sun's brought a few things into bloom.

http://www.plantlife.org.uk/ = easy to follow, pictorial information Renata, this is about the best way to get to grips with the topic I think. The last 5 decades has wrought the greatest damage, through over-use of clumsy machines and sprays, but also by humankind bungling the timing of interventions. Alongside this decline, there has been a steady reduction in general knowledge of natural history for each generation - as a school topic or as something your grandparents would teach you. The loss overall to insect and birdlife is estimated at 75 - 90% and because we have a shared duty to prevent it getting any worse I trust you will share this informative link with as many colleagues as possible.

Dear friends and neighbours, if you regularly walk round East Dulwich please take part in a general public 'mass observation' project. All are invited to help the charity Plantlife by gathering sightings of wildflowers in our districts. As well as being a lovely hobby especially for getting children engaged with their immediate surroundings, this botanising offers longterm support to insect and bird life, as so many species are interdependent. http://www.plantlife.org.uk/things_to_do/wildflowers_count/ Free information pack & no need to worry about not being an 'expert'.

During this recent week I have been observing birds as they fledge from the cemetery's woodland area. In the middle of the city we are so fortunate to have all sorts there. It's been difficult to predict their timing this year, because of the long winter, but these little flocks of small garden birds are making a success of breeding and they deserve all human efforts to help. Viewers of Springwatch will know already they face many natural hazards during their nesting season, such as predation e.g. from rodents and corvids. The chainsaws and other petrol driven machines are totally avoidable and the Council gets close to breaking wildlife protection laws if it fails to recognise that.

Just want to raise a round of applause for the hardworking wildlife gardeners and beekeepers who tend the 1 yr old wild garden in Peckham Park. Reading this =>http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/13/honeybee-colonies-england-winter today made me doubly grateful. In my front yard containers of herbs are attracting honeybees whenever there is sunshine. They seem to adore the aromatics such as thyme and rosemary and I wonder whether these offer protective substances they can carry back to the hive? Making me happy and doing something to help by gardening for their delight in return. Thanks.

There is also a corner of the Horniman Museum garden devoted to wildlife, if that's nearer for you to reach. On the topic of wildlife it is an offence to disturb it especially during the breeding cycle. A 'drastic makeover' would be a disaster for your biodiversity, unless you get someone skilled it will just be the usual, scoured back to minimalism - like nature's something we revere on TV instead.

Here's an interesting take on new grassfree lawns. One to visit in W London, =>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22846419

There are plenty of other animals and birds which go after carrion, not necessarily another fox.

Burying it ASAP would be the best option environmentally. Burial pit needs to be at least 4ft deep. The fox's body, although disgusting on the surface, will provide food for many invertebrates and these in turn add to healthy topsoil.

Can we not descend into an 'us' & 'them' trough just now? We all have to live with the consequences of neglect, wrong planting, wrong attitude to climate in the past, failure to act to reduce fossil fuel use, etc etc. All means all - the wildlife included. One issue confronts us all caring for the planet: science encourages ever more specialist study & narrower degree subjects proliferate. Wardens, treasurers, road designers and planners who serve the borough may only have a basic grasp of salient aspects for biodiversity. It is up to them whether they find sufficient time & enthusiasm to study in more depth. Administrative drives to current budget slashing and reducing carbon footprints could be pretty good places to start, from the wildlife's viewpoint, because these should lead to less drastic interference and fewer unnecessary tidy-ups. Cherishing the natural green coat on topsoil, is actually a hands-off business much of the time. Enlightened planning looks ahead as far as our grandchildren, not the next election or the next grant application. For council tree advisors and park managers & staff to communicate with each other and learn lifelong re: bird life, ground flora, invertebrates and amphibians, would appear to be common sense from where I sit, but it cannot be taken for granted. There are often pockets of great expertise in natural history amongst keen, self-taught members of the general public, people who love their locale & have spent decades studying what lives in it.

Even if the trees are diseased there is no reason to upset all the bird life right at this critical stage in the breeding cycle. ANY other season of the year would be better than this. All the 'disease' would probably do is offer more insects for parent birds to predate on, anyway. It's a money sapping scam and next we anticipate alarmist talk re: spending our taxes on toxic sprays against the plane tree disease and the oak processionary moth and the ash fungus. No, no, and no again. This is not how biodiversity works. You want those sudden surges of insect larvae, and stronger flocks of birds to build up again. Later, having carefully observed tree growth over the summer, some dead branches can be removed in the autumn. Don't want any jolly bonfires either. Stack 'em in a safe place and let the stag beetle and dragonfly life regenerate.

Dear Linz, 2 of my friends have had very good things to say about this group =>http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/

The chainsaws are out today and I have written to complain to the ED Councillor about this timing. Fledgeling birds are at a critical point in their lives, and need the Camberwell Old Cemetery woodland to remain safe for at least another 6 weeks. Whereas humans have had all winter long to mess around with mega noisy machines and felling on this site.

Can I refer anyone interested in this topic across to James Barber's 'How Can I Help' thread, where I have posted about the illegal disruption currently being caused by tree surgeons etc, severely intruding on fledgeling birds in the Camberwell Old Cemetery. Also can I emphasise the councillor should receive as many comments as possible on this and related nature issues. My major concern at present, as the weather heats up, to see short grass anywhere - because it is impossible to keep damp-loving amphibian creatures safely sheltered there in the daytime. There are too few refuges in the capital. Even though we are fortunate in having green space in ED it should be managed for fossil fuel reduction and biodiversity 100%. And left alone except for having a few pathways mown through, at least until late August.

I'm staggered that tree surgeons are at work in the Camberwell Old Cemetery area just as the wild birds start to fledge. The humans have had a whole long winter to clatter around and disrupt everything in this area of sanctuary woodland. I would remind everyone that we're bound by the various wildlife protection acts, and doing anything to hurt nesting birds is an offence. Chainsaws and noisy strimmers count as 'hurt', OK, whatever anyone tells you. Furthermore I am not at all happy to see that our taxes and rates are being used to strim right down to a mush, many areas of beautiful flowering wild plants around the gravestones. There is no call to reduce this grassland to a short back & sides. It is full of invertebrates and increasingly threatened, rare amphibians. Also protected species. Please intervene, ASAP James.

In recent times I saw a man + van gathering fallen timber including decaying wood from the nature reserve around One Tree Hill. Taking it away for firewood I suppose. Anyway, sorry to say that until this is stopped, our stag beetles won't be safe there. My news is about the kestrel - soaring above Camberwell Old Cemetery today.

please see the new thread started on this topic, thanks.

Feathers can easily decompose, therefore add to compost bins/heaps. If the pillows had cotton or linen covers shred them in too. Not polyester. Have ready a can of water to stop the dust dispersing. Add another layer of vegetable material immediately after. If you don't have a heap you can use Council bins; label a plastic bag to say its contents before you put it out. Keys can be added to your recycle bin.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jun/01/thames-water-raise-bills-inflation

Can be more longdrawn out healing than broken bones. Even a year is normal. Take it gently and have confidence that they will mend. Saying this so you do not waste resources on things meant to speed it up.

Dear Zoe, don't panic. When the gods take away with one hand, they give back with the other. Luckily this "lawn" instead of growing into a tedious, mower-hungry ryegrass monoculture - can become a beautiful wildflower-rich patch. You will enjoy it far more once you put the right weeds back as they will attract insects including butterflies. The seedheads attract small garden birds such as finches. It is hard to describe the relief, too, at not needing to mow it more than once a year (usually August or early September, and then not very short). The thing is to use the places which have meagre turf to transplant some wildflower plugs. Choose anythng you like, sweet scented clovers, cuckoo flowers, yarrow, hawkweeds, low growing daisies and thyme, even mint amongst the shade and moss - it all turns into habitat. You can sprinkle wildflower seeds, but these will tend to vanish just as your grass-seed is doing - something is munching it, probably city pigeons and rodents and snails. If you wait till the autumn some patches start to fill with small spontaneous plants too. Some of these will be tree-seeds, which will get to potting-on size next year, when you dig them carefully out and nurture them as a future forest for grandchildren.