So I could talk about how our little front garden is a productive little space constructed on permaculture principles to give us multiple crops of greens, berries, nuts and other produce. I'd be sort of telling the truth too. What I'd be missing is that I also designed it to be a little oasis of interesting wildlife habitat in an otherwise mown-to-oblivion suburban landscape. Its usually got hedgehogs wombling around in it all summer, and the bird feeders and sheltered nesting spaces (with spiky, cat repelling plants making up much of the planting and wild garlic on the floor that cats hate the smell of) make it a frequent nesting site. Once in a while we even get someone nesting right under our bedroom window, giving us a superb view of the baby birds. And yes, we lose plenty of fruit to the beasties, but its totally worth it.
In about a fortnight from hatching, the first blackbird brood of the year has gone from blind pink things to fluffy little fledgelings.
Its almost 'blink and you'll miss it' with blackbirds. They hatch and grow so quickly. But totally worth planting a garden with nesting birds in mind.
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