keep on doing what your doing as old food is just to rich and you wont just be getting animals you like in your garden leaving old food out eg rats . take care bye for now .

ow sorry i would try and dig out this fungi as best you can to perhaps . it will run out of food eventualy anyway now you sweep up .

Might be slime mould, hard to say without a photograph.

good thinking bamboo im guessing its directly related to the left overs x .

I'd guess the same as you, Nosey. Doubt they're linked. He's got a really good point about the rats, too, Lynne.
p.s. Hope you aren't feeding the hedgehogs bread or milk?

Many thanks to you all
Just to confirm, I'm NOT feeding the hedgehogs bread and milk.
The bird feed and hedgehog food is all commercially bought dried, nuts and seed so not so attractive to rats or cats.
Just wondered how worried I should be about this growth causing damage to my shrubs? Lynne

Sorry to be such a botherbody, Lynne, but not everybody is so clued up. This fallacy of feeding hedgehogs bread & milk seems to be a widespread one, and it can, and often does kill 'em. We've had some spirited tellings-off on GoY on this very issue! Ours (hedgehogs, not Goyers) eat dried catfood, and the cats who eat from the same dishes keep the rats away!

Can't say without seeing what the growth of fungus is like, Lynne, but odds are it won't be harmful.

id say the same as bamboo . as for rats not liking the hedgehog food i doubt that very much . firstly any animal that is an opertunist eg crows,rats and humans will try anything . also its not an easy life out there and youd be amazed what youl eat when your hungry . remember that plane that crashed in a snowey mountain and they started eating each other . rats unlike us havnt got a concsious either and last but not least nuts and seeds are definatly on a rats feeding list which is huge althow there are probably things they like a lot more . not trying to rain on your perade lynne honestly xx .

I am so envious of all of you with visiting hedgehogs. Absolutely no sign of any in my garden. I was remarking on the lack of them around here to the vet, and he said it's because of all the foxes and badgers - he hasn't seen one in 10 years - dead or alive.

thats a real shame ginellie it doesnt help that when hedgehogs see danger they roll up which doesnt work so well with lorries etc .

We aren't exactly rolling (!) in them here, but the ones we do have seem to breeding rather well. We have a couple in our outer cellar - I unfortunately disturbed them the other day when I was clearing up so the builders could get to our crumbling wall, but by following the droppings I've found them again tucked behind a big stack of summer tyres in the opposite corner. I left a big pile of leaves strategically placed for them to use as nesting material, and they seem to have taken the hint. It doesn't seem to be cold enough for them to have gone into full hibernation yet. Looking out of the window this morning, though, I think it won't be long.

i got to ask gattina what is a summer tire ? do they wear bikinies or something lol ? xx

Opposite of a winter tyre, Nosey. Come the 1st October, by law, we have to fit tyres on our cars that can cope with snow and ice, 'cos we get rather a lot of it, and on these narrow, winding mountain roads, you don't want to start sliding and fall off the mountain! It's a Loooooong way down! We have to carry snow chains, too. We change the wheels on the car every April and every October, because we can do that ourselves, but changing just the tyres means you have to take it to the garage for them to do it, and that costs megabucks.
I got a lovely vision of a pile of tyres sporting swimwear, there, Nosey! I have to say, they'd look better if they lost a little weight first. ;-) Winter tyres wear big boots and scarves.

I've just had to 'deal with' a number of rats because I thought they wouldn't be interested in dropped bird food.

It would be nice if the birds were as omnivorous as the rats and ate all the food rather than picking out the best stuff and dropping the rest on the ground.

yes gattina i guess most of us dont like having a spare tire lol . i just think my chest has slipped down a bit lol . i guess thats quit a good idea not to drop to your death every time it snows . there just advertising winter tires here so i guess it goes without saying theres summer tires . what wrong with just leaving the winter ones on in summer i wonder ? or is it just another scam for your wonga .
most birds are omnivorous eating insects,worms etc but theres know acounting for taste . i guess even birds have there faverite bits . rats are opertunists and will adapt to any food hence living wear ever we live .

In places like Lithuania, Nosey, they have summer and winter tyres too - winter tyres damage the road surface, they're designed for use on snow and ice, so you have to change back to summer tyres once the snow's finished. We now have them available here in the UK, but its difficult for us - we'd be changing them every five minutes because of our variable weather.

ow i see thanx bamboo . your definatly right about the uk and winter and summer tires . youd need a big boot wouldnt you . at least youd keep fit i guess .
did you know the largest lorries cause up to 25,000 times more damage going across a road than one averadge car ? true winter tires unlike the ones advertised here have little metal spikes sticking out of them . i think there just another way of getting your money here as you say with our weather as there still completly rubber . if its cold enough even 70 ton tanks can slip along the road .