Even in the smallest of gardens, an area can be managed to welcome in more wildlife. Often involving only small changes in the way tasks are undertaken, the results can be a well-balanced environment in which flora and fauna will thrive.
Plants for encouraging bees
Plants for encouraging birds
Plants for encouraging butterflies
Starting small
When setting out to encourage wildlife into your garden remember that diversity is key. By providing a range of habitats many different inhabitants can be attracted. If animals are to be encouraged they will require food, water, nesting sites and roosting sites.
Insects may not be every gardener’s idea of desirable wildlife, but they are fundamental to increasing the larger and more obvious forms of wildlife in the garden. Gardens with a healthy population of insects and other invertebrates will be self-sustaining and hold the widest range of wildlife.
Lurking in the undergrowth
There are many books devoted to encouraging birds and butterflies into the garden. Much less attention, however, is given to less-attractive small invertebrates, yet these form the base of the food chain.
Ants are food for green woodpeckers; caterpillars and spiders for blue tits and robins; slugs for slowworms, frogs, toads and newts; moths and other night-flying insects for bats; and more than 50 percent of a hedgehog’s diet is made up of beetles, beetle larvae, caterpillars, earwigs and earthworms.
Providing habitats
Ensure your garden is desirable to wildlife by creating suitable habitats. Ponds (left) are extremely valuable to wildlife; even a large tub or half barrel in a small garden will improve biodiversity.
Much of the fauna that inhabits your garden is frequently overlooked or simply too small to see, but can be encouraged by making and using garden compost, stacking rather than burning dead wood (bottom left), leaving zones with undisturbed leaf litter (bottom right) and, where possible, using only rainwater to top up ponds. Soil is home to many animals, so try to keep off heavy, clay soils when they are wet in order to avoid compaction. Consider using raised beds and no-dig methods of gardening to maintain good soil structure.
The leafy layer
Plants create the foundation that sustains
garden wildlife. It does not take a jungle to attract animals, so look to existing plants to assess their suitability.
Different coloured flowers attract different pollinators: bees are said to be attracted to the colours blue, lavender, purple and white; moths are guided by scent and pale colours, while butterflies feed on the nectar of plants such as buddleia, Sedum spectabile, Centranthus ruber (red valerian) and sweet William. Beneficial insects such as hoverflies are attracted to plants in the daisy and cow parsley families.
Selecting suitable species
When choosing plants to include in the wildlife garden consider their potential to provide pollen, nectar, fruit or seed valuable for wildlife. It is not just native plants that are beneficial. Many exotic ornamental species produce a plentiful supply of nectar and pollen. Lobelia cardinalis (cardinal flower) is pollinated by hummingbirds in its native habitat, but in the UK its nectar will attract butterflies and moths.
Bedding plants
Though bedding displays are usually brief and spectacular, careful choice of plants can make a difference to wildlife. Annual bedding plants such as Nemesia, Heliotropium (cherry pie plant), and nasturtiums are rich in nectar and pollen, attracting hoverflies and butterflies. Wild flowers and garden plants can both attract moths at night. Consider wild flowers, such as lady’s bedstraw, primrose and purple loosestrife.
Herbaceous border
Spring displays in the herbaceous border begin with flowers such as Pulmonaria and Doronicum, moving into the summer flowers, catmint, Solidago virgaurea (golden rod) and Thalictrum and finally the autumn displays of Helenium, Eryngium (left) and Aster novae-angliae.
All provide a bounty for many hoverflies and bees. Leaving on the dead seedheads of Echinops, Dipsacus (teasel), evening primrose, sunflower and grasses such as Molinia caerulea and Miscanthus sinensis (right) will provide a supply of seed for birds from the autumn well into the winter months.
Many insects benefit from dry, safe places to rest, particularly in the winter months. Delay cutting down the stems of herbaceous perennials and ornamental grasses until spring. If this is too untidy then at least bundle up some of the cut stems, particularly hollow stems such as Delphinium and Onopordum, and leave them at the back of the border.
Camouflage cover
Shady, overgrown areas provide cover and nesting places for shy foraging creatures such as shrews, voles and hedgehogs. Frogs, newts and toads enjoy leafy cover, the shade of which keeps the temperature down and the humidity up. Common ivy flowers attract bees, hoverflies, holly blue butterflies and night-feeding moths. Ivy offers nectar and pollen up to December and berries thereafter.
Mature shrub shelter
An established shrub garden requires little maintenance and as such provides wildlife with a relatively undisturbed sanctuary. The opportunity for nesting, shelter and roosting is enjoyed by a variety of songbirds such as wren, thrush and blackbird. Activities that would disturb nesting birds, such as hedge pruning, should be avoided from March to August.
Leaf litter and annual mulching creates a habitat for beetles, worms and slugs - all good foodstuff for foraging thrushes, blackbirds, shrews and hedgehogs. Choose flowering and fruiting shrubs such as Berberis, Pyracantha and Mahonia for the benefit of insects and birds.
Winter retreats
Many insects benefit from dry, safe places to rest, particularly in the winter months. Delay cutting down the stems of herbaceous perennials such as ornamental grasses until spring. If this is too untidy then bundle up some of the cut stems, particularly hollow stems of plants such as Delphinium and Onopordum, and leave them at the back of the border.