Planting
for wildlife in your garden
Whether
it’s a tiny terrace or roof garden, a balcony or a 40 foot
garden, by thinking a little more about what you plant you can enrich
the range of wildlife in your garden and create a more biodiverse
environment.
In
turn the wildlife in your garden will reward you by keeping the
natural order of things in balance in the garden; you’ll have
less of a problem with pests and diseases and the garden will look
more interesting all year round. Your children will delight in spotting
the birds and butterflies and ‘hunting’ for ladybirds,
counting snails, and watching with great pleasure as tiny tadpoles
emerge from the spawn and grow into frogs who’ll come back
year after year to spawn.
Most
of our gardens are probably a combination of native and exotic plants
and they’re likely to give you the greatest show of colour
and flowers during the summer months. To attract a wider range of
wildlife you need to provide shelter and food throughout the year
for insects, butterflies, birds, small mammals, frogs and toads,
especially in winter when both these things are in short supply.
It’s fine to include one or two more exotic architecturally
exciting plants for focal points such as tree ferns (make sure they
have ‘plant passports’), or ornamental rhubarb with its
giant leaves all summer long. Kids love these big leaved plants
and you’ll love the effect they have of drawing your eye away
from that unsightly climbing frame towards this lush planting effect.
The leaves of our giant rhubarb have been shown at school, used
as fans in hot weather, draped over climbing frames and used to
camouflage dens.
Involve
the children
Annuals
make good plants for kids to grow and making your own planters can
be great fun: let the kids paint and plant your old wellies or boots,
broken pots, even large empty cans can make interesting plant pots.
Paint on a theme - Karki camouflage, waterscapes, wild animals or
just simply wild colours. Leave annual sunflowers to provide seed
food all winter. Poppies will self-seed around the garden if you
enjoy their flimsy, papery flowers, and the flowers are visited
by bees, hoverflies and butterflies, seeds are eaten by birds. Nasturtiums
and sweet pea are other favourites. Poppy seeds, sunflower seeds
and nasturtiums make good homegrown baking/cooking ingredients.
Herbs planted in the childrens’ planters might encourage an
interest in cooking, maybe start with a simple herb salad, mixed
with nasturtium leaves.
Don’t
be too tidy in the garden: leaving the seed heads on ornamental
grasses and perennial plants until spring provides winter shelter
and some much appreciated seed foods at a time when food and shelter
is at a low ebb. Seed heads make fascinating items to take into
school for ‘show and tell’, and a good mix of large and
small ornamental grasses among your perennial plants will give a
striking winter display too. Teasel provides nectar for bees and
butterflies, and the seedheads supply seeds for goldfinches and
crossbills. Dogwood will give you a spectacular show of colour in
autumn and winter and a rich source of nectar for early butterflies.
With
children you’ll want to keep as much lawn as possible so use
climbers at the boundaries if you don't have room for hedging or
shrub borders. Include some native climbers to encourage native
nesting birds and provide shelter all round the garden (Ivy is a
particularly good plant for nesting and roosting birds). Honeysuckle
and quince have nectar rich flowers and fruits follow. Clematis
vitalba is a native climber that will decorate your fencing or hedging
with flufffy seedheads in autumn.
If
you are planning to renew some fencing why not consider planting
a native hedge instead, providing nesting sites, shelter and food
for birds, small mammals and insects throughout the year. Shrubs
such as hawthorn, field maple, blackthorn, beech, hornbeam and holly
make good hedging; left informal and not clipped regularly will
encourage more fruiting and berries. Rambling wild rose and honeysuckle
can be grown through the hedge. Include one or two evergreen hedging
plants for winter cover and for some winter privacy.
If
you have a large lawn area why not let a small part of it grow long
and plant it with a few wild flowers. If you buy tiny plants - plug
plants - they are more likely to establish in an existing area of
grass than sprinkling in seed. Growing some wildflower seeds in
trays before planting them into the lawn could be a project for
younger children. Try cowslip, ox-eye daisy, buttercup, and poppies.
Where
to start
Remember
that what you do at this back garden level contributes to the local
wildlife diversity and ultimately impacts globally, helping to stem
the loss of important native plants and animals. So when you visit
the plant centre be a bit more selective about what you choose,
if they don’t stock what you want then go somewhere else -
most good plant centres will order your plant for you. You don’t
have to be radical, or spend lots of money, you can slowly begin
to redesign borders or replace some less wildlife friendly plants
this year, a few more next year.
If
you want to know what wildlife has been spotted in your area, the
natural history museum have a post code directory of flora and fauna
in your area visit: www.nhm.org.uk
The
Wildlife Trust has a useful website at www.wildlifetrusts.org
The London Wildlife Trust, based at 28 Marsden Road, London
SE15 has a visitor centre, ideas for making your garden more attractive
to wildlife and runs a small plant nursery offering water plants,
herbs, wildflowers, and trees in season.
How to choose the right sort of plants to for a rich and biodiverse
garden:
-
For the nectar and pollen feeders, select plants that have a long
flowering period: Verbena bonariensis is nectar and pollen rich
throughout the summer, fuschia is the foodstuff of the elephant
hawkmoth caterpillars from July to September. Include aubretia and
primrose for spring, lavender, thyme, hebe, buddleia and knapweed
for summer, sedums and teasel for the autumn. Cowslip, red campion,
and evening primrose are nectar rich native species.
-
Flat topped flowerheads like achillea and open daisy-like flowers
such as Michaelmas daisies are particularly attractive to insects
and butterflies as they are very visible and accessible. Avoid complicated
flower heads that need a lot of work to get to the nectar. |Plant
in blocks of colour as this will not only get you to think more about
use of colour in your garden it will also benefit poorly sighted insects
such as butterflies.
-
Include some night flowering or scented flowers to attract moths,
e.g. night-scented stocks, honeysuckle, evening primrose, tobacco
plants and jasmine.
-
Select shrubs and trees that produce fruits and berries – cherries
and elder for early fruits, Viburnum lantana (wayfaring tree), snowberry,
holly and cotoneaster provide a rich supply of berries in the winter.
Include hawthorn for fruits or ‘haws’ (hawthorn provides
food for over 150 species), wild roses for winter hips (while thorns
are protective for nesting birds, they’re not child-friendly
so plant in ‘traffic free’ spots in the garden).
-
Put plants in the right places to ensure greatest success: plant
shade loving species under trees or in shady corners to offer a
cool retreat for frogs and insects - evergreen ferns: hart’s
tongue ferns, broad buckler fern, and the beautiful soft sheild
fern. Plant red valerian and centranthus, with their domes of nectar-rich
flowers against walls or in cracks and crevices.
Winter
and spring flowering bulbs (native bluebells, snowdrops, native daffodils)
and ground cover perennials provide nectar for waking insects, when
most shrubs are bare.
