Your online resource for the Garden Guardians project, launched at the Big Nature Festival in the Park 2019.
Here you will find information relating to garden wildlife – some of the species of animals that visit our gardens, how to attract more and provide habitat, food and shelter for them. How to involve the whole family, friends and neighbours in learning about and caring for local wildlife and how in doing so, you can create greener, more natural corridors through which nature can move, ensuring that wildlife has a fighting chance. You can also improve your own health and well being by being closer to and engaging with nature and help a little towards fighting climate change.
Don’t take anything for granted
Some of the species that visit our gardens are so familiar to us that we may take their presence for granted, barely giving them a second look. We may compare them to some of the wonderfully strange and exotic creatures we can see on our tv screens and computers and not really give them a thought. But look again and consider how wonderful some of these species are. Then consider the plight of much of the UK’s fauna and flora. The numbers of many once common species have been drastically reduced, due to the loss of suitable habitats and pollution of land, air water, affecting food sources and damaging the ecological systems that bind them all together.
As a consequence, our gardens have assumed vital importance as sanctuaries for wildlife. We are the only ones who can take responsibility for our own patch of land, no one else will. If you are already doing all you can for wildlife, that is fantastic. If you want to, but need some help, we hope we can provide some for you. There is already a lot of information out there. We will try and tailor these resources to Stroud and the surrounding area. We hope, however, that others elsewhere find it interesting and are empowered to do something.
Visit the Garden Guardian pages in the months to come as we add things to read, things to do, both in the garden, in your home or at school. Stroud Nature and its partners will also be organising events and workshops in the area.
Stroud Nature 