Attracting wildlife to your garden
The habitats you create and the
plants you choose should be compatible with the type of garden you want
to have and the amount of time you want to spend on it. It is your
garden, though you share it with lots of other creatures and, with a
little extra thought, most gardening styles are quite compatible with
the needs of wildlife. If your garden is small you won’t have room for
everything, so choose 2 or 3 things that will fit in with your style of
gardening. Remember a lot of small gardens put together make one big
habitat – your garden is not alone.
For
every creature you see, a million others are playing a vital role in the
web of life that is your garden. So while it’s important to feed birds
and provide them with nesting sites or boxes, it’s every bit as
important to create suitable conditions for your near invisible garden
residents. These are some of the habitats from which you can choose.
The Compost Box is perhaps the most important single habitat for wildlife we all have. It is home to billions of microscopic and tiny creatures which work on the steady stream of biodegradable materials that we supply and which are essential for healthy soil. While we’re most unlikely to find a grass snake or slow worm in a Scottish compost bin, voles will be there to contribute to the breakdown of garden rubbish. The finished compost is then added to the garden soil, thereby enriching it and acting as the base for garden life.
A
Dead Hedge is the ideal way to get rid of prickly and
awkward prunings and those difficult rootballs, see our leaflet
on woody prunings for information on how to construct one. As this all rots down
over several years, it provides an ideal home for many insects and
spiders, and these in turn provide a welcome snack for passing wrens and
dunnocks. Toads and hedgehogs will also shelter here and feast on the
slugs in your garden.
A
Logpile, which you can make out of larger woody
material, will act as home to lichens, mosses and many insects,
especially beetles.
Long
Grass provides shelter for invertebrates and small
mammals; adding a selection of wild flowers will look attractive while
providing nectar and food for many insects and their larvae.
The
Herbaceous Border is an important source of shelter and
food for an endless selection of creatures: bees, butterflies
hoverflies, parasitic wasps, birds and frogs to name a few. Because it
is a permanent feature they don’t get disturbed. That is one reason for
not cutting it back too hard in the autumn, but leaving some tall growth
over winter. Another reason is that you will protect many of your plants
from the worst ravages of frost and snow.
A
Pond is a very important habitat and even a tiny one
will become home to the aquatic larval stages of many insects.
Choosing Plants
The greater the diversity of plants
you have in your garden, the greater the diversity of wildlife you will
attract.
Large, permanent plantings like trees, shrubs and hedges provide the
most shelter and food. Native species are home to the greatest number of
invertebrates. Birds will eat a range of fruits and berries but prefer
red ones and don’t always recognise strangely coloured ones.
We want to have as long a season of flowering in our gardens as we can
and so do the butterflies and other insects that need nectar and pollen.
Butterflies react best to blocks of the same colour or the same species.
Purple and pink flowers attract butterflies and bees because they see
further into the ultra violet end of the spectrum and can see markings
on flowers that are invisible to us. Tube shaped flowers suit
butterflies with their long tongues, while bees and hoverflies prefer
flat open flowers. And it’s worth remembering that you need to provide
food plants for caterpillars. Few cause damage on the scale of the
cabbage whites as most butterflies lay their eggs on wild plants.
Scented flowers attract more insects. Double flowers can be less useful
for wildlife as they may produce no pollen or nectar. Gardening
catalogues and the plant labels in nurseries usually indicate species
that are especially attractive to butterflies and to bees.
Native plants or garden varieties? Many native species are beautiful and
support lots of creatures that have evolved to use them. Choose species
that grow locally so you know they can cope with the weather and the
geology. Growing wild plants is a good way to learn more about them.
However, many birds and insects are adaptable and will exploit garden
varieties. The very specialist species of insect that rely on just one
kind of plant are unlikely to turn up in your garden anyway.
Don’t choose any of the species, especially of aquatic plants, that are
known to be invasive. Always compost plant material so it cannot escape.
See www.plantlife.org.uk for
more information on invasive species.
Wild plants and animals should make your garden a more interesting place
in which to work and relax: very few will ever be a problem, most are
beautiful, often helpful to the gardener and can provide you with hours
of free entertainment.