Category Archives: Garden

Bees, Garden, Insects

Garden Homes For Wildlife – Fantastic addition to your garden!

Garden Homes…. Available!

Our Unique hand-crafted Garden Homes  from Creative Woodcraft offer another fine example of creative thinking  to create a great feature for the garden and a home  for wildlife!

toad_house_3

These truly fantastic and practical habitats provide shelter for garden wildlife, and is sure to be a great talking point with friends and family!

Each Garden Home is unique and individually hand-crafted by Creative Woodcraft in NZ using NZ grown materials. Check out our full range of products designed to “Bring people closer to nature” They make great gifts for all and have fantastic educational value!!

Garden Home for wildlife

 

 

 

 

Birds, Garden

GARDEN BIRD SURVEY 2014

This year’s survey: 28 June – 6 July 2014

Anybody who can identify birds in their gardens can participate.

Instructions and survey forms will be available closer to the start date.

  • Spend just one hour watching birds in your garden and recording the highest number of each species you see or hear at one time.
  • Help us monitor distribution and detect population trends in garden birds.
  • Fun school activity that connects children with the outside environment.

Bird feeder bird bath  _BANNER FLYER1

 

Check out our great range of garden bird and wildlife related product at Creative Woodcraft “Bringing People Closer to Nature”

The garden bird survey is a citizen science project established to monitor the population trends of common garden birds in New Zealand. It attempts to answer the question, “Are garden bird populations increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable?”

New Zealand has a number of rare native bird species that are declining in number, but we do not know the population trends of our more common native or introduced birds. We hope that the annual garden bird survey will act as an early-warning system if currently common native species start declining. Several currently common native species occur in our gardens, including fantail (shown above), tui, bellbird, silvereye, grey warbler, and kereru (native pigeon).

Measuring the population trends of these species is an enormous task, which is why we need your help.

http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/science/plants-animals-fungi/animals/birds/garden-bird-surveys

Ladybirds
Garden, Insects

providing a home for beneficial insects

When an infestation of aphids, mealy bugs or other common garden pest appears in our gardens it is tempting to look for a quick fix such as a chemical spray.

But a better solution is to work towards a balance where nature is doing most of the work for us. Attracting beneficial insects is a major part of creating a balanced ecosystem in our gardens that does not require expensive and sometimes toxic chemicals.

A healthy garden is good for conservation because it can help increase numbers of native insects, lizards and birds.

“The main things to remember are to provide places for insects to live”

Buy a Insect Bug Hotel for your Garden from Creative Woodcraft

insect_bug_hotel_4 Insect Hotel Creative Woodcraft

Bees, Garden, Media

NZ BUSINESS HELPS TO GROW NATIVE BEE POPULATION


Creative Woodcraft is passionate about the future of bees in New Zealand and has teamed up with a pollination expert to offer Kiwi gardeners a chance to help.

With a heightened focus on the future protection of honey bees throughout New Zealand. Creative Woodcraft spokesman Ian Morton said the company were excited to be able to offer a proven solution to help gardeners encourage native bees and help them to pollinate in their own backyard.Gardeners Pollination Package Deal

“These nest boxes and solitary beehives help your fruit trees and gardens flower and provide comfortable homes to the Leafcutter Bees, Bumble Bees and Native Solitary Bees,” Mr Morton said.

The company has teamed up with world leading pollination expert Dr Barry Donovan, of Donovan Scientific Insect Research in Lincoln, who has more than 50 years experience in the industry.

Dr Donovan has endorsed the homegrown products of Creative Woodcraft (based in Timaru), saying the native bees are extremely efficient pollinators and an excellent supplement to honey bees, which in turn help supply food to the community.

Together, Mr Morton and Dr Donovan have come up with an initiative to supply exclusive bee cells to keen gardeners willing to help grow the native bee population throughout the country.

“We have designed solitary bee hives and nesting boxes that will help to encourage our native bees to nest in these sites,” Mr Morton said.

“Dr Donovan has said he is confident with the introduction of the bee cells and a growth in population will occur and in turn positively benefit the number of pollinators out there.”

The solitary hives have been designed in a variety of hole diameters, suitable for hosting up to six species of bees and three further species of wasps.

Mr Morton added the bees were safe around both children and pets and simply served their purpose as key pollinators, while enjoying their comfortable nesting site.

New Zealand’s native insect pollinators of flowering plants such as native bees and hoverflies are not susceptible to varroa mite, they are solitary and do not produce commercial quantities of honey.

For more information, visit and register www.creativewoodcraft.co.nz to download a free and informative E-Book to learn further about the benefits of these nesting products. Ian and Jill