Further info & resources

resources

Here are some great resources if you want further information on various topics. This list is by no means exhaustive. please do get in touch if you have details of any groups or organisations you’d like to see included.

Please note, not all of the terminologies or methodologies used by the groups below are endorsed by Garden Guardians. We understand that change takes time to filter through so please do use the advice given in conjunction with respect, compassion & kindness. Click below to find out more about our ethos.

Animal Aid

ARK Nature

Badger Trust

Bat Conservation Trust

Buglife

Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Butterfly Conservation

Common Cause

Crops Not Shops

Earthwatch Europe

Food Plants International

FRIEND Farm Animal Sanctuary

Friends Of The Earth

Frog Life

Green Witch

Guerilla Gardening

Hedgehog Preservation Society

Hedgehog Street

Humane Wildlife Solutions

Jane Goodall Institute

Jane Goodalls Roots and Shoots

Love Wild Gardens

OneKind

Peoples Trust For Endangered Species

Paul Watson Foundation

Plantlife

Protect The Wild

Rewilding Britain

RSPB

The Fox Project

The Nature Network

The Phantom Planter

The Retreat Animal Rescue & Sanctuary

The Wildlife Rescue Directory

Treehugger

Vegan Organic Network

Vegan Street

Viva!

Wildlife Trusts

Wildlife Watch

Woodland Trust

Woodmeadow Trust

WRAS - East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service

Animal Aid

ARK Nature

Badger Trust

Bat Conservation Trust

Buglife

Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Butterfly Conservation

Common Cause

Crops Not Shops

Earthwatch Europe

Food Plants International

FRIEND Farm Animal Sanctuary

Friends Of The Earth

Frog Life

Green Witch

Guerilla Gardening

Hedgehog Preservation Society

Hedgehog Street

Humane Wildlife Solutions

Jane Goodall Institute

Jane Goodalls Roots and Shoots

Love Wild Gardens

OneKind

Peoples Trust For Endangered Species

Paul Watson Foundation

Plantlife

Protect The Wild

Rewilding Britain

RSPB

The Fox Project

The Nature Network

The Phantom Planter

The Retreat Animal Rescue & Sanctuary

The Wildlife Rescue Directory

Treehugger

Vegan Organic Network

Vegan Street

Viva!

Wildlife Trusts

Wildlife Watch

Woodland Trust

Woodmeadow Trust

WRAS - East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service

Growing Together

Some handy tips to help you garden kindly & effectively

Hedgehog highway

Hedgehogs are in massive decline and need our help. Making a hole in the fence of your garden will enable them to get about a lot easier, but don’t forget to make your pond hedgehog friendly too, if you have one – make sure there is a way for our little friends to get out should they fall in by creating a gentle slope with bricks or stones.

When to plant

If you are a novice at growing your own vegetables, here is a link to a handy guide that tells you when to plant fruits and vegetables throughout the year. This information comes from the book by Piers Warren, The Vegan Cook & Gardener, available to buy here. But please do remember to leave some space to be wild, and don’t forget that if there is nothing eating the plants in your garden, then you are not a part of the eco-system and not a true Garden Guardian!

Cucumbers keep the slugs off!

If you place some cut-up cucumber on an aluminium baking dish, the cucumber reacts with the metal, emitting an odour undetectable to humans, but that keeps slugs and grubs away from plants you don’t want to share! Other things that help include soot, ash and copper strips.

Another way cucumbers can be utilised is as sacrificial crop. You can place a cucumber – or lettuce, or brassica, anything slugs are known to love! – away from the plants you want to keep safe. They will cheerfully munch away on the kindly donated meal, leaving your crops safe.

Companion planting

Using certain plants can help keep marauders to a minimum! You could plant sacrificial plants such as nasturtiums that are susceptible to blackfly attack. These will in turn attract the ladybirds, hoverflies and other predators which will control the aphids on your crops as well. They will also attract white butterflies away from your brassicas. Flowering plants that attract beneficial insects like hoverflies and other pollinators, such as lavender, thyme and poached egg plants. Mint which deters flea beetles. Onions and other alliums growing amongst carrots will deter carrot root fly. Strong smelling herbs like mint, chives, basil and thyme can deter aphids. French marigolds can deter whitefly.

Home sweet home

A habitat for a plethora of different little beings can be easily made and this will, in turn, encourage other visitors to the garden. An area with logs, bark and stones will encourage any number of insects, invertebrates, reptiles and small mammals to move in.

Growing Together

Books For Younger Readers

50 Words About Nature: Animals

by Lily Holland & Debbie Powell

100 Forest School Activities

by Naomi & Dan Walmsley

The Buddha At Bedtime

by Dharmachari Nagaraja

The Children’s Book Of Wildlife Watching

by Dan Rouse

Dare To Care

by Jenny Alexander with Dr Alice Brown

Don’t Squish A Slug

by Yussef Rafik

Earth Heroes

by Lily Dyu

Go Wild In The Woods

by Goldie Hawk & Rachel Saunders

Hello Bugs

by Nina Chakrabarti

How To Heal a Broken Wing

by Bob Graham

How To Make A Better World

by Kelly Swift

I Am Oliver The Otter

by Pam Eyres

I Can See Nature’s Rainbow

by Vicky Woodgate

If I Were The World

by Mark Sperring & Natalie Quek

Juno’s Ark

by Jim Mellon

Kuan Yin

by Maya van der Meer

The Little Whale’s Song

by Jefferson Ng

The Lorax

by Dr Seuss

Lucky Molly & Poor Polly

by Eve Louise Davies, Ariel Gyori & Paul Axtell

Make Art With Nature

by Pippa Pixley

Moon

by Britta Teekentrup

My Book Of Bugs

by Ben Hubbard

Natural History Fairies

by Emily Hawkins & Jessica Roux

Nature

by Alain Gree

Oh No They Aren’t; Nature

by Eric Huang

Once In A Blue Moon

by Emily Hawkins & Vlad Stankovic

One Little Seed

by Becky Davies & Charlotte Pepper

Our Animal Neighbours

by Matthew Ricard & Jason Gruhl

Out And About Bird Spotter

a National Trust Book

Out And About Minibeast Explorer

a National Trust Book

Out And About Tree Explorer

a National Trust Book

RSPB Bird Tales

by Dawn Casey

Sanctuary

by Julia DeNos

Seasons

by Hannah Pang & Clover Robin

The Secret World Of Plants

by Ben Hoare

Sister Butterfly

by Mike Mirabella

Spot Living Under The Roof

by Nadia Raud

A Story Of The Seasons

by Anna Wilson

Superhero Plants

by Chris Packham

A Thousand Blue Jays

by Fred Haynes & Dana Dorfman

The Tiny Guardians

by Aisling Faelan

Tree

by Britta Teckentrup

A Walk Through Nature

by Libby Walden

What Can You Spot In The Garden

by Andrea Pinnington & Caz Buckingham

Wild Days

by Richard Irvine

The Wonders Of Nature

by Ben Hoare

A World Full Of Nature Stories

by Angela McAllister

Get Involved!

Look at flowers, butterflies, trees, and children with the eyes of compassion. Compassion will change your life and make it wonderful.

Sign the Garden Guardians pledge to be part of our building community. Sign up to get helpful tips, growing ideas and ways to encourage more wildlife to visit, as well as learning more about the incredible micro-worlds right under our noses!