slow worms in my front garden

[xylaria]

Moved into a house two months ago. The garden hadn't been touched in a decade. The council strimmed the week I moved and have mowed the front lawn a few times. The front lawn has slow worms. At the moment they are under the lawn. Have I stuffed up their habitat by mowing and removing the thatch or will they be ok once I let the grass and wild flower seeds I have just chucked on grow?

Any habitat management tips?
I just put some rocks out. I would quite like the garden to look pretty so it doesnt look like a scroat house. I live on a nice street of coucil houses and bowling green lawns are more normal than overgrown grass with beer cans.

 

[slowworm]

They do hibernate under the turf but when they wake up they'll move off somewhere more favourable. I'd try and keep some areas untidy, IIRC you're advised to try and keep long grass growing through shrubs at the edges of a garden to give the slow worms some cover. When we had loads in the garden I increased the thorny shrubs around the edges to give them somewhere to hide from birds, cats etc.

 

[david1]

Love slow worms I have a new bit of ground and they seem to be there too, well they were there last summer.... Just makes me smile knowing I might see more..

 

[xylaria]

They do hibernate under the turf but when they wake up they'll move off somewhere more favourable. I'd try and keep some areas untidy, IIRC you're advised to try and keep long grass growing through shrubs at the edges of a garden to give the slow worms some cover. When we had loads in the garden I increased the thorny shrubs around the edges to give them somewhere to hide from birds, cats etc.

So I had stuffed them up by mowing?
I could put a corrugated metal sheet down and have some them relocated to an eco village. My neighbours do bowling green lawns the nearest not bowling green is across the road. The only other one is quite a few gardens down the road. My tidy nice street doesnt have the scruffiness for slow worms.

I aim to increase what is growing in my gardens of course, the only shrub in the front is a large bay tree. No was no bushes at all. I found the first one digging a new bed and the next one was found by my cat in a bit the lawnmower couldn't get to.

 

[beachlover]

I counted five basking under an old carpet over my allotment compost heap today. I've had a "family" of them there for several years. Chap on a neighbouring plot found one that had been in a battle with a bird by the look of it and he joined the same commune this afternoon.
compost heaps are that way forward I suspect.

 

[xylaria]

The back garden has wood piles, uncut bits, loose paving and compost heap. They are in the front garden where I need some level of respectability. I think I have screwed them up by mowing so I'll do the corrugated sheet for a week and relocate them.

 

[daveO]

Sounds like your back garden will be fine for them as lomg as it gets some sun. Whenever I find them in my garden they're either under the carpet I use to keep weeds down or sat on top of the compost heap. Wood piles and wilder egdes will give them somewhere to find food and if theres a sunny area then some stones and stuff will give them somewhere safe to bask near cover.

 

[xylaria]

Facebooking my local naturalists I am building a refuge corridor in the front garden. There is an awkward lump on the boundary I have layed logs along it with sticks and a load of grass clippings. Tomorrow a piece of bedding fleece goes on it with wood chipping on top. It will look like a raised bed. I wouldnt be surprised if there was slow worms out the back. It only really gets shade first thing in the morning. I have distinct lack of slugs so something is eating them and it is not me.

 

[Mike313]

I don't know much about slow worms except to say I have found them in the crevice between the planks that surround my veggie plot and the adjacent lawn, as well as in the compost heap. Relocating them to the back garden sounds like a plan ...