OTHER WAYS TO ATTRACT WILDLIFE

Aside from growing the right herbaceous flowers, there are many other ways you can entice more wildlife to come and live with you. Bee hotels provide nest sites for some solitary bees, while a ‘hoverfly lagoon’ might attract some types of hoverfly that have aquatic larvae. Ponds are of course wonderful habitats for insects, such as dragonflies, damselflies, caddis flies and whirligig beetles. A compost heap will team with insect life. If you have room for a flowering fruit tree (even a small one on a dwarfing rootstock), you will provide blossom for pollinators, and a host of nooks and crannies for insects to live, as well as getting your own zero-food-miles fresh fruit. Of course, don’t use insecticides; there’s no need, if you have a healthy garden with natural pest control, such as ladybirds and lacewings.