Gardening for wildlife

Our gardens can be a refuge for wild plants and animals and help prevent them from fast disappearing.

Once a natural balance is established, we can do away with harmful chemicals and save money as well as protecting the wider environment.

All wildlife needs food, water and a place to live and breed. We can provide these whatever the size of our garden.

Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Build a pond, as large as you can manage.
• Create a marsh or bog garden (safer than a pond if you have small children, or if children visit your garden).
• Grow climbing plants against walls and fences to create safe roosting places for birds, and hibernation sites.
• Leave cracks and crannies in walls and paving for hibernating newts, hunting spiders and bumblebees.
• Pile up old logs and autumn leaves in a shady corner for beetles and hibernating hedgehogs.
• Leave some grass to grow long and add some meadow wildflowers for crickets and butterflies.
• Grow some native plant species. They support a much greater range of native wildlife.
• Don’t use chemicals – allow a natural balance to develop so that predators dispose of garden pests.
• Provide pollen and nectar for foraging insects throughout the year.
• Use peat-free compost to save our remaining peatlands and their unique wildlife.

In creating a wildlife garden, we are trying to reproduce some of the habitats that would be found in the wild.

By using some of these ideas, it is possible to attract many different animals into our gardens without having to create a jungle!

Planting for wildlife

Trees

Rowan, crab apple, silver birch and bird cherry are best. Beech, ash, elm, field maple and wild cherry are too large for the average garden, but can be coppiced.

Plants for the ‘woodland edge’

Foxglove, white deadnettle, red campion, English bluebell, stinking iris, lily of the valley, herb Robert, wood anemone, yellow archangel.

Climbing plants for walls and fences

These provide food and shelter for a wide range of animals. Ivy, honeysuckle, clematis, single flowered rambler roses, quince, Russian vine, pyracantha, cotoneaster, ceanothus.

Shrubs for hedging

Hawthorn, dogwood, wild privet, holly, blackthorn, wild rose, hazel, alder buckthorn and elder; these should be cut back each year to create a dense hedge. Although not native, berberis, cotoneaster and pyracantha are good.

Plants for ponds

Arrowhead, burr reed, white and yellow water lily, fringed water lily, water soldier, water starwort, floating sweet grass.

Plants for bog/marsh gardens

Meadowsweet, purple loosestrife, ragged robin, lady’s smock, hemp agrimony, marsh betony, bog arum, brooklime, water mint, marsh marigold, bogbean, water plantain, rushes.

Meadow wildflowers

Knapweed, sorrel, scabious, musk mallow, cowslip, buttercup, cranesbills, plantains, vetch, yarrow, white campion, cat’s ear, goat’s beard, lady’s bedstraw, bird’s foot trefoil.

Birds

Try to provide natural food whenever possible.
For berries: elder, pyracantha, hawthorn, berberis, spindle, crab apples, holly, honeysuckle, ivy, rowan, cotoneaster. For seeds: birch, teasel, sunflower, honesty, yarrow, golden rod, globe thistle, primula. For insects: lawn—ants, leatherjackets, snails, worms.

Butterflies

Position plants in a sunny, sheltered position.
Nectar plants: buddleia, ice plant, michaelmas daisy, mint, catmint, marguerite, marjoram, lavender, scabious, tansy, marigolds, ivy, heliotrope, lemon balm, candytuft, ceanothus, hebe, sweet William, comfrey, thyme.

Caterpillars

Provide plants for egg-laying butterflies.
Food plants: nasturtium, holly, honesty, garlic mustard, bird’s foot trefoil, thistle, nettle, dogwood, alder buckthorn, lady’s smock, vetch, sorrel, cowslip, dog violet, meadow grasses.

Moths

Providing for moths will also encourage bats.
Nectar plants: bladder campion, night-scented stock, evening primrose, night-scented catchfly, nicotiana, sweet rocket, dog rose, honeysuckle, soapwort.

Bees

Avoid double flowers as bees prefer single flowers.
Cotoneaster, berberis, escallonia, borage, bellflowers, golden rod, rock rose, ivy, hydrangea, heathers, wallflower, flowering currant, broom, rosemary, chives, cranesbills, mint, ground ivy, mignonette, lemon balm, forget-me-not.

Other beneficial insects

Will help keep your pests down.
Poached egg plants, honesty, leopard’s bane, golden rod, ivy, parsley, white alyssum, sunflowers, lovage, fennel, yarrow, globe thistle, angelica, teasel, hyssop, rosemary, candytuft, pot marigold, California poppy, houseleek, mullein, rock rose.

More ways we can help our local wildlife

• Feed birds when natural food is scarce. Try kitchen scraps (cooked rice, potatoes, fat and fruit), raisins or sultanas and sunflower seeds. Don’t forget fresh water.
• Provide nest boxes for birds. A wide range is now available to buy or it’s easy to make your own.
• Provide roosting boxes for bats.
• Help hedgehogs through the winter by providing a pile of dry leaves under a hedge, or you can make a special hibernation box.

Insects are important in the garden

Help them through the winter by:

• Stacking a pile of twigs in a quiet corner of the garden
• Tying short lengths of plant stems or paper drinking straws into small bundles to create nesting sites for solitary bees
• Creating a lacewing hotel. Remove the bottom of a plastic bottle. Roll up a length of corrugated card and put it inside the bottle. Secure it with a piece of wire. Hang the bottle up outside in a sheltered area.