Monty on planting for pollinators
Pollinators are vital to our gardens — and the planet. Monty explains why the plants we grow can make all the difference and reveals his favourites
He reveals the plants they need and that you’ll love
At some stage this year, I can guarantee someone will compliment me about Gardeners’ World but then add, “I do wish the BBC wouldn’t add the ridiculously fake bird soundtrack. It would be much better to be more natural.” And – as I have done so many times before – I will assure them that the soundtrack is real and natural, and that one of the noticeable elements of Longmeadow is that it is resonant with loud birdsong of all kinds. Now, if Longmeadow blackbirds and thrushes appear to sing extra loud, it is an indication of the population density of these and other songbirds in the garden – and that density is more a measure of habitat and food supply than the garden being any kind of horticultural des res. You need cover to attract birds, both for protection and nesting, for which deciduous hedges and small garden trees are ideal. Add in the other essential ingredients, of a certain lack of tidiness, water and long grass, and the garden – any garden – becomes the ideal home for songbirds. But bear in mind that all those hungr y predators need prey, meaning a certain balance has to be struck. So, you don’t try to eliminate all slugs and snails (chance would be a fine thing!) or aphids, whitef ly or any other ‘pests’, but leave enough so that your garden can cope with their s l ight depredat ions and the predators – whether songbirds, hedgehogs, toads or beetles – have enough to eat. This, in turn, means that you have a high number of predators to eat these pests, which are nearly always a symptom rather than the disease. So, instead of trying to get rid of them, work out what you are doing to make pests so welcome to your garden. Almost cer tainly you have upset the restraining, self-regulating balance. Fear not, it can be regained – but never by isolating and zapping pests. That balance, however, doesn’t happen without the helping hand of a gardener. A healthy garden is one where every action has a
reaction that secures the balance rather than dislodging it. Much of a gardener’s skill is best applied to maintaining and setting up this balance. A natural balance of sorts will be struck over time – and there is a fascinating and long-term rewilding experiment underway in the Netherlands, at the Oostvaardersplassen, north of Amsterdam, led by ecologist Frans Vera, to observe what really happens when man doesn’t intervene at all. But that isn’t gardening. As with all definitions of a garden, it has to involve a gardener, however natural or rich with wildlife you wish it to be.
Bee focus
I’ve spent the past 25 years at Longmeadow trying to provide the best conditions for that balance to establish itself and flourish in the face of al l seasons, weathers and circumstances. Some of this has been specific and others more a set of attitudes and approaches to how I manage and run the garden. The specific includes areas such as the Wildlife Garden (the clue is in the name), which I deliberately allow to become as ‘wild’ as it can without losing what I consider to be its horticultural charm. These things are subjective but I have created it to be an inner haven at the heart of what is already a very wildlife-friendly garden. It was also created to provide a good source of nectar for the two swarms I acquired, each of 10,000 honeybees, that now reside in two hives in the orchard. One is a top-bar type and the other a more conventional WBC kind. From dawn to dusk there is a constant procession of bees going out to forage in the garden and others returning laden with nectar. I’ve been mentored in this by a wise and charming local beekeeper who will watch over me for the next year or so, until I have learnt my beekeeping ropes. Plant ing for bees is based on the knowledge that honeybees will always target a supply of preferred nectar before moving to another source – whereas bumblebees are more fickle, grazing from plant to plant. So, the key to planting for bees is to supplement existing supplies, such as fruit blossom or heather, that f lower en masse for a few weeks, during which time the bees will gorge themselves exclusively on them before they fade for the year. Plants with a long-flowering period and a succession of blooms are better for them than a short, spectacular harvest. These may be simple and very common – ox-eye daisies, cornf lowers and all forms of scabious are firm bee favourites – but are, crit ically, increasingly rare in the agricultural landscape. Gardens are becoming one of the most important habitats for bees, as they are for so many forms of hitherto abundant wildlife. Bear in mind that bees don’t see red – so a purely red flower appears black, and is likely to be
ignored unless it has blotches or stripes that lead to the pollen and nectar. Blue, pink, green and yellow plants will always be the most attractive to bees. Bees also love fruit trees (in fact, any flowering trees) and all legumes, as well as dandelions, blackberries, asters, willow and ivy. The last two are important for early and late feeding. As to the type of flower, it’s always better to have simple, open, saucer shapes that are easier for their short tongues to dip into than more complex and inaccessible flowerheads of – to the human eye at least – spectacular hybrid varieties.
Habitat essentials
Any water in the garden will bring in dragonf lies, frogs, toads and even grass snakes – as we have found at Longmeadow with two ponds, one in the Damp Garden and a smaller one in the Wildlife Garden – as well as increased bird and bat activity. If the water is planted with plenty of marginals that provide cover, stones or logs that stick out of the water to perch on (and frogs love the floating log in our wildlife pond), as well as having a section of shallow ‘beach’ so mammals such as hedgehogs can safely drink, then so much the better. Long grass, be it a sweep of wildflower meadow or a straggly uncut corner, is essential. Longmeadow has areas that have long grass, including the orchard and coppice, but the main meadow is the Cricket Pitch, which has grass left uncut from October to the following July. This gives cover for insects, small mammals, invertebrates and reptiles. Ideally, you’ll have grass of varying lengths to provide a wide range of habitats, but a square metre of long grass makes all the difference. The most active predatory insects to keep your damaging pests under control, far better than any insecticide, include ladybirds, lacewings and parasitic wasps. Hoverf lies, which have aphid-feeding larvae, can be encouraged by planting essentials such as calendula, cosmos, dill and tagetes for the nectar- and pollenfeeding adults. All are beautiful plants that can be enjoyed by you as much as them. After the indiscriminate use of pesticides, nothing is more detrimental to wildlife than officious tidiness. Leave long grass, fallen leaves, windfall fruit, rotting wood, patches of weeds, grass in cracks and moss on stone. These are crucial habitats for wildlife and they can be gently tweaked to look beautiful as well as be useful. I keep logs from larger branches that I prune and stack them in the coppice to slowly rot down, making not so much a bug hotel as a complete wildlife city that will accommodate a range of beings as diverse as fungi and field mice. There is evidence that butterfly numbers last summer plummeted although, as yet, the reasons are unclear. Butterflies can be encouraged by specific planting in the garden and should include plants for their young – the caterpillars – as well as adults. So nettles, ivy, holly and long grass are all favoured sites for butterflies to lay their eggs. The adult butterf lies will want nectarfilled and scented plants (especially vanillaf ragranced, which seems the most irresistible scent for butterf lies). These include honeysuckle, sedum, lavender, buddleia and valerian. Some wildlife organisations consider buddleia too invasive and overshadowing to recommend, but cut it back hard now to stop it becoming straggly. Hard pruned, it will produce new, flowering growth to entice butterflies this summer. The lessons that we are all learning are clear. Nothing can be taken for granted. We either nurture our wildlife or lose it forever. But in that nurturing, we not only increase the range of interest and reward from our gardens, we also make them more beautiful.
After pesticides, nothing is more detrimental to wildlife than officious tidiness