Trust beetles around in a Beatle garden

Jun 24 2008 by Richard Down, Liverpool Daily Post

Ext Mendips

THE back garden of John Lennon’s childhood home is being invaded by beetle enthusiasts.

A National Trust wildlife survey at the Menlove Avenue house in Woolton will reveal what wildlife can be found in the garden and the steps needed to allow it to thrive.

The Trust is using the garden to study everything from song birds to beetles.

During the survey, ecologists will set humane traps for moths and butterflies and make a record of the birds seen on the site.

To help the Trust find out what else is hiding in the garden, pits will be created to trap bugs and beasties and a butterfly net will be used.

The National Trust has been carrying out wildlife surveys at its properties since 1979 and they play an important part in determining how the Trust manages properties for the benefit of wildlife.

Unlike its one-time occupant, the Mendips, as Lennon’s home is known, is a fairly conventional affair. It is L-shaped, about 100ft long and dominated by lawn.

Like many other suburban homes, it has borders with shrubs, roses, rhododendron and laurels. There are some trees at the back of the garden and also a fruit tree.

Peter Brash, an ecologist with the National Trust, is carrying out the survey.

He said: “Gardens are really important habitats for wildlife and can be home to a whole host of different species that lurk behind sheds and in the borders.

“The back garden at Mendips has been fairly undisturbed for years so, fingers crossed, we’ll find some interesting wildlife . . . and no doubt a few species of beetle.”

The home is close to the famous Strawberry Field and a large cemetery which backs on to woodland.

Lennon lived at the house with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George from the age of five to 23. By then Beatlemania had begun.

‘Mendips’ was the most middle-class of all the Beatles’ childhood homes.

It is here that his aunt told him: “The guitar's all very well as a hobby John, but you'll never make a living out of it.”

It was donated to the National Trust by John’s widow, Yoko Ono, in March 2002 and was restored to the way it looked when he lived there in the 1950s and early 1960s.

The results from this survey will be published in the autumn and will help inform any future planting in the garden to create refuges for wildlife and attract wildlife into the garden.

richarddown