Team Wilder wildlife garden 2024 Geoff in Warmley

Name: Geoff Wilmer
Category: Individual garden
Area: Warmley

Geoff was a finalist in the wildlife gardening competition 2024!

Tell us what you or your group love about your garden 
Geoff: Everything! Tried to create as diverse a garden as possible. Everyday provides a natural history surprise. I can go out in my small garden and find something that surprises, excites and amazes me be it a tiny insect, plant, fungus bird or animal. I am never happier of more at peace than in my garden.

What makes your garden wildlife friendly?
Geoff: I don't use pesticides and I let native plants grow alongside wild ones. I feed the birds, hedgehogs and foxes and ensure access is there for all. I actively set up the garden for wildlife to be there alongside us whilst keeping a patio areas and standard garden kit: furniture for us humans!

What wildlife have you seen in your garden?
Over the years so much but of note from the past a visit from a badger for a few days of a very dry summer and slow worms breeding in my compost bin until they built more houses at the side of us. Currently, I have foxes visiting every night and have signs that a hedgehog is around somewhere.  

A variety of birds including blackcaps, long tailed tits, robins, wrens, gold finches and more. The blue tits produced 5 young this year and have just fledged and gone. There are newts in the pond and the odd frog plus damselflies, leeches, pond snails. Have seen orange tips butterflies, brimstones, speckled woods and small whites so far this year. Plenty of bees chafers and beetles and lots more in the log piles.

The Team Wilder Community Ecologist visited Geoff and was super impressed with his garden in Warmley:

Geoffs garden is a testament that modest does not need to mean boring! The garden backs onto a brook and he welcomes wildlife into his space, offering an oasis for mammals and insects alike. Geoff successfully battles invasive bamboo back from under his boundary wall and outwits slugs with his sacrificial Hostas (extra points for this!), resulting in colourful beds that buzz with pollinators even after rain. His wildlife pond hosts a large newt population of which he brings on efts in mini tanks, and a feeding station for hedgehogs that is well used. My only consideration for this garden, is that the young oak trees may need removing sooner than later as they are close to brick walls.

Consider moving them if possible, and replacing with smaller growing trees that also offer great wood habitat, such as Apple, which develop deadwood features younger than most hardwoods and shouldn’t need to be cut down before reaching maturity.