UK Gardeners Encouraged To Place Carpet Tile On Their Lawns

If you’re dealing with seasonal pests like mosquitoes and chafer grubs, you might be tempted to apply pesticides to your garden. But not only is that harmful to your garden – especially in the current hot, dry spell – the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) warns it could harm your lawn’s all-important biodiversity. Instead, you might want to consider attracting predators, rather than repelling prey. Whether you want to quash mozzies with dragonflies or damselflies, lower your fly population with birds, or prevent your garden from being overrun with slugs by drawing hedgehogs in, more really does seem to be more when it comes to backyard fauna. And according to the Royal Society For The Protection of Birds (RSPB), chucking a small patch of carpet on your lawn could prevent yet another natural enemy of slugs. Slow worms love shelter (and sunbathing)Slow worms are technically legless lizards. And because they’re reptiles, they’re cold-blooded, meaning they need a spot to sunbathe.Ideally, that’d be a sheet of corrugated iron, which both gives them a surface to catch the rays on and provides some shade when they want to cool off (the undulating surface gives them room to wriggle under the sheet). “Onduline is a great choice... the dark tar helps it warm up quickly, even in weak sunshine,” the RSPB writes. But a slightly less ideal, yet “cheaper” alternative is a “square of dark carpet tile”.A good size is about 1mx1m, they add. This will prevent grass from growing under the tile, but like a bug hotel or feeder, it’ll be worth the space for the extra wildlife it brings. If you’re worried about the look, try placing it in at the edge of your garden and/or over yellowing or patchy grass.How should I use it? Place a handle on top of the corrugated iron or carpet square – you’ll need this for inspections. You should gently lift the cover about once a week from spring ’til autumn after approaching it on tiptoe (any more risks scaring off the wildlife). You may find grass snakes, slow worms, field voles, and wood mice. As Dr Mark Wilkinson, an amphibian and reptile expert, told the Natural History Museum, ”people’s gardens and allotments can be important refuges” for slow worms.“They will return the favour. Slow worms eat lots of pests like slugs, so they are good to have around.”Related...UK Gardeners Warned To Keep Dogs Away From Part Of Their LawnUK Gardeners Told To Place Sticks In Their Garden This SummerUK Gardeners Urged To Place A Washing-Up Bowl In Their Lawn ASAP

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