Blog

The Habitat Aid blog is set in Somerset. The blog tries to introduce some of the issues surrounding our natural environment as understood by a non ecologist. You’ll also find some practical “how to” guides. It’s written by Nick Mann, who runs Habitat Aid. Nick is an increasingly curmudgeonly bald middle-aged bloke of familiar type.

Filter by

Blossom, Blossom, And More Blossom!
April 18, 2020
You can have blossom in your garden from January to May. Here's why you want it and how you can have it!
- Read more
Hedgelaying for Wildlife
January 13, 2020
I love a bit of hedgelaying. I'm too old/knackered/incompetent to do very much, but it's a good workout and - more importantly - it's good for wil...
- hedges
- Hookgate Cottage
- Read more
September in the Garden
September 6, 2018
Things are beginning to look knackered in the garden in September. You might think it's time to cut back some of those long flowering perennials wh...
- Read more
The Cricket Field Oak
January 28, 2018
In winter when I do the washing up I can see the Cricket Field Oak. It's usually through Somerset rain which, as you can see, has left its mark ove...
- Hookgate Cottage
- trees and woodland
- Read more
The Magic of Green Roofs
October 2, 2016
It has been three years since we planted the green roof for our new house with wildflower plug plants, which has turned out to be a fabulous succes...
- Read more
British Nurseries
September 24, 2014
We are – finally – planting our small formal garden. I wanted to source the plants for it directly from the nursery – the British nursery – which g...
- Read more
Designer Habitat
September 19, 2014
I'm not a very visual person. I can't see stuff jump from the paper into the real world at all. For me it's a case of trial and error, then asking ...
- Read more
The Shock of the New: Contemporary Homes and Solar Farms
July 5, 2013
I bet that the majority of folk who stop in front of our new house* aren't wondering how many architectural awards it might win. I bet they're wond...
- Read more
The Tortoise and The Hare
June 6, 2013
Talk about tortoise and hare. We trashed the soil so badly around our new build when sloshing around in last year's mud that it's having to undergo...
- Hookgate Cottage
- meadows
- Read more
An Empty Shell
May 24, 2013
We're getting towards the end of our house build, thank goodness. Having moved into the new house - yet to be finished - we had to demolish the old...
- Hookgate Cottage
- Read more
Not Great Weather for Our Garden
March 22, 2013
Spring in SomersetLooking at our garden you'd never know it was spring. It's a smidge ironic that global warming seems to have resulted in tempes...
- Read more
Phoargh! Nice Understory...
September 11, 2012
The understory's story, chapter one
- Read more