Maintaining your garden is good. Doing so at the expense of biodiversity is much less the case. So to maintain a beautiful garden without harming the fauna or flora, it is better to be careful and vigilant and know the good habits to adopt. Example with mowing and clearing. If you’re not careful, these simple gestures (among other things) could harm the survival of hedgehogs, an endangered species of our gardens. explanation.
The warning is given in particular in an article by France 3 by Lydia Bourdeau, head of the Poitou Wildlife Care Center in Châtellerault (Vienne). Of the many boarders for whom she is responsible, Lydia Bourdeau has to take care of a number of orphaned baby hedgehogs in particular. Their mother was hit by a robotic lawnmower working at night. Gold, “The night is when the hedgehogs go hunting”says Lydia Bourdeau, who adds: “If we could only turn on the robotic lawnmowers during the day, it would be good to avoid crushing mother hedgehogs and leaving orphans behind (…) Robotic lawnmowers are the enemies of hedgehogs.”
Another danger: brush cutters. Very effective, these tools do not give details. And if you want to get rid of, for example, the pile of brambles or the tall grass that thrives at the bottom of the garden, you also take the risk of eliminating the fauna that lives there, especially hedgehogs. So if you really need to clean up, take the time beforehand to check that the place is unoccupied. And if so, postpone your project until later. This way you avoid shortening the lives of small mammals or orphaning others.
In addition, if you want to do it right, know that since March 15 and until July it is totally not recommended to trim hedges and prune trees. These dates, as the LPO reminds us, correspond to the bird breeding season. Cutting branches during this period therefore means that the birds become detached and thus prevent them from reproducing.
In any case, let’s not forget: we share our gardens with those who live in them.