a house of sticks
Perhaps I was a piggywig in a previous life? I have certainly built quite a few houses of sticks recently.
Our gardens create a lot of waste material, and when we've been around with the secateurs and loppers we are frequently left with collections of twigs and sticks. Pile 'em up, is what I say!
In gardening for wildlife we mustn't forget how important it is to see the world from ground level. Bugs of all kinds scuttle or slither around the soil - and piles of sticks can be a great haven for them. If the sticks have begun to decay, that is even better. And if the garden is replete with creepy-crawlies, the next creatures in the food chain will benefit. So, small birds and amphibians will grow fat from the greater food source you have created.
And of course, toads and newts will not only want to go a-hunting around the sticks, they will find lovely damp shelter in there too.
2 comments:
Umm, what's a piggywig? Sounds delightful! We love having a (giant) brushpile as a haven for wildlife.
For awhile, we had a neighbor who was worried that we were encouraging snakes, but she moved and we're back to piling up our branches and woody debris in the back of the garden again.
But, I think the woodchuck is hanging out back there, too. I need to find him/her a new home soon!
The piggywig is featured in Edward Lear's nonsense poem 'The owl and the pussycat'. Here is the piggywig's bit...
'They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose'.
In the story of the three little pigs, the second little pig built his house of sticks.
It's all rubbish really!!
Rob
PS How I would love to boast of grass snakes in my garden!!!!!
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