Springy Steve

I’m passionate about gardening & exotic/tropical gardening. Gardeners World ‘Garden of the year winner 2016. Head gardener at The Medley Walled Garden, Oxford.

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@ProtectTheWild_ All wildlife are welcome in my shed at work! 😄

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@ladylynncarter Other clips have been shown about this where it shows him pointing to the direction he wants to go in and the girl is actually tripping over backwards as she moves out of his way. There was no contact between the two of them, it’s just the camera angle makes it look like that.

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@aNorthernGarden I don’t really post about my garden anymore and if I do it’s usually on Facebook now.

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

#NewProfilePic

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@TheStourbridge That advice really resonates with me at the moment! 🧡

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@niyetsel .

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@cursedlilmoo Everybody's On The Run
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@StephenShelle20 I laughed at that way more than I should have done! 🤣😂

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@devilscustard My dad and step mum used to live in Hunstanton so I have happy memories of walking along that beach with him.

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@Sarah_Gin_Fiend Done and Good luck!! X

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@niyetsel .

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@beatricegroves1 @Jemimasgarden Saw one at work today too plus a Red Admiral. One or two Brimstones flying around also. So lovely to see!

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@niyetsel .

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@niyetsel .

[Hedgehog Cabin @HedgehogCabin]

Just a quick one about slugs and snails, as it's still a common question (due to some recently published misinformation).
Slugs and snails are the intermediate host of lungworm, so can pass this fatal parasite to any mammal that is unfortunate enough to be forced by starvation to eat them, or is contaminated by their slime trail.
This includes hedgehogs - they don't have any magical protection properties.
But slugs and snails are also our heros, here's why:
As well as providing food for many amphibians, reptiles and birds, they protect us humans from all sorts of potentially fatal pathogens.
Take bird poo for example.
Birds don't wee.
Any water they consume is used and absorbed by their body.
This means they don't have to have a bladder, so they are lighter for flying.
Instead of wee they pass pure uric acid paste with their poo (that's the white bit on top), and so their poo is water resistent.
(Anyone who has tried to clean it off their car is painfully aware of this)
So if it's water resistent, therefore the rain can't wash it away, why aren't we all knee deep in bird poo?
Because of slugs!
Slugs eat bird poo.
Isn't that brilliant?
Slugs and snails are decomposers that consume various organic matter, including rotting plants, dead animals, and animal droppings, finding bird poo a nutritious source of decay from which to extract nutrients from.
So slugs - don't eat them, wash everything that touches them or their slime trail, but love them for being nature's most industrious clean up crew!🥰

[Hedgehog Cabin @HedgehogCabin]

Wild London David Attenborough
I'm getting so many posts from lovely people absolutely outraged at the misinformation regarding hedgehogs and slugs presented on this show yesterday, so I'll just address it here.
David Attenbourough is a really lovely man, and has done an immense amount of good for us, our wildlife, and our planet.
But he, like any other TV presenter, relies on programme researchers for script content.
The researchers, in turn, rely on who they *perceive to be* experts in the field.
Unfortunately, they were taken in by some clever branding and chose the wrong people:
A self-proclaimed 'hedgehog expert', often funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (see their most recent dangerous misinformation, and my response, published here:https://t.co/YWqTd4PIkv)
And the London Wildlife Trust.
Recently the London Wildlife Trust engaged me as an expert consultant on a 4 page spread article about hedgehog myths.
Many of you have seen my interview, and the draft of the subsequent article.
I was sent this draft (see 1st image below) for approval, to which I agreed.
However, before going to print, an executive at London Wildlife trust decided to do some editing of his own.
It's shocking, I know, and would be unbelievable, if not here in actual print.
I've included two versions of the full article below:
the first draft approved by me and the team at LWT, and the second actual printed version, after executive 'editing'.
It was this same London Wildlife Trust who co-produced the Wild London documentary and "provided expert help and advice".
So now you know.
We're all shocked.
But of course, as usual, it's the poor hedgehogs who will suffer.
People won't provide food for our critically endangered hedgehogs, or bother keeping their garden natural and wild, now they've been told that hedgehogs eat slugs.
After all, there's plenty of them to go round.
Rescues all around the country, who are treating hedgehogs dying of lungworm from being forced through starvation into eating slugs, will feel so demoralised and invalidated.
Like you, I'm furious, frustrated, and bone-wearily saddened.

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@Gosleepriya

[Hedgehog Cabin @HedgehogCabin]

Please don't make tonight the night you'll regret for the rest of your life.

Unlike most mammals, hedgehogs don't have the Fight or Flight Response to danger.
That means that no matter how frightened they are, they don't bite, and they don't run away.
Their response to danger is to curl up into a protective ball, and wait until the threat passes.
That's why so many get run over by approaching cars.
That's why so many are maimed and killed by approaching strimmers.
And that's why so many get burned alive in bonfires.
❌Poking a stick under the bonfire pile will just make the hedgehog inside curl into a ball.
Even if you touch her and hurt her, she won't move or make a sound.
❌Lighting it from one side will just make the hedgehog curl even tighter.
As the smoke fills her lungs and her coat begins to singe, she will freeze in place and wait for the danger to pass.
❌Shining a light under the bonfire will just make the hedgehog ball even tighter.
She'll stay silent and close her eyes so they don't reflect light and give her presence away.
The ONLY way to make a bonfire safe is to build it the same day you light it.
So if it's already built, you need to move today, before lighting it tonight.
Please stay safe, and make sure it's only the rockets that scream.

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@evilcrumpet @UB1UB2 Three has already been made years ago and it was crap!
I think this as the fourth film would be epic though 😂

[Springy Steve @springy_steve]

@LGSpace That’s not a great picture to use, especially as you are trying to inform about hazards to hedgehogs. Eating bird food gives hedgehogs metabolic bone disease and weakened limbs that can eventually break. Once this happens they can not successfully forage for food and will starve.