Managing A Small Wildlife Stream.
If you have stream in your garden its a great place to encourage wildlife.
However they are a number of key points that you should take note off.
The first being not to be to tidy along the edges of the stream as a lot of insects and other wildlife use the plants along the bank for shelter and cover as they travel up and down the stream.So plants such as grasses etc on the edge of the stream are often be key to wildlife and also its possible to increase this type of planting with other plants such as hostas and primula both providing additional benefits for wildlife in the summer.
Another key area is how you treat the rest of the gardening.In creating a compost heap or fertilizing a lawn you have to be careful that no additional nitrates are washed into the stream which can cause algae blooms and starve the water of oxygen.
To encourage such wild life as newts and frogs its a good idea to create some pool areas at the side of the stream which are a bit deeper than the main stream and were the flow of water runs a bit slower.