ECO ACTIVIST

This month Jim and Joel Ashton, The Butterfly Brothers

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BESOTTED WITH BUTTERFLIES?

Since we were kids. We grew up in Bourne in Lincolnshire. Our mum is a keen gardener and Dad is a carpenter, so we made birdboxes, attracting robins, blue tits and great tits. We also loved seeing Red Admiral and Peacock butterflies on Mum’s buddleia, but they’ve declined recently.

SO WHAT DO YOU DO NOW?

We launched Hazelwood Landscapes in 2006, specialising in wildlife gardening. There isn’t much unmanaged countryside left in the UK, making our gardens a last refuge for nature. Wildlife gardening is about creating outdoor spaces full of shrubs, trees, ponds and miniature meadows for birds, bees and butterflies. And it’s really caught the public’s imagination. We’ve appeared on Gardeners’ World, become ambassadors for the Butterfly Conservation charity and interviewed Sir David Attenborough for our Youtube channel, The Butterfly Brothers.

WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT BUTTERFLIES?

They’re reliable indicators of the health of the environment, and are crucial pollinators of many plants and wild flowers. They’re valuable in their own right, too. We’re fascinated by their lifespan – how they develop from eggs to caterpillars to chrysalises over a year, before emerging as beautiful winged insects that only live for a few days.

HOW MANY SPECIES HAVE YOU SEEN?

We’ve seen 51 of the 58 species in the British Isles (the number varies depending on whether you count migrant species). We’re desperate to see an Adonis Blue, but they live in the south of England and we’re always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Numbers as a whole have fallen by 77 per cent since 1976. Tortoiseshells were once common – it wouldn’t be unusual to see 25 on a buddleja– now we’re lucky to see one.

WHAT’S GOING ON?

Many species struggle to find the right habitat, especially those with specific requirements. The Chalkhill Blue lives only on chalk plains, while the Duke of Burgundy is restricted to a few scrubby grasslands across the country. How we use our gardens affects them, too. Many of us want neat and tidy plots, but these are hostile homes for nature. Nettles are cut back or dug up to make way for borders, and the Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies, which rely on wild plants for food, suffer as a result.

SO NO MORE MOWING?

It does help not to mow so often. We plant self-heal, red clover and bird’s-foot trefoil in lawns as butterflies such as the Common Blue both feed from and lay their eggs in them. You can even plant up a patio – fill gaps with marjoram and thyme.

ANYTHING WE SHOULD PLANT NOW?

April is a fantastic time to plant borders of herbaceous perennials such as lavender and verbena, which many insects love. Orange Tip butterflies lay their eggs on cuckoo flowers and garlic mustard, while Brimstone butterflies lay theirs on alder buckthorn shrubs. If you plant these in your garden, you’ll create a whole ecosystem, with insects laying eggs in spring and birds feeding on berries in autumn.

THE BEST THING FOR BUTTERFLIES?

Ponds are brilliant for wildlife. Add oxygenators such as hornwort and marginal plants such as brooklime to attract newts, dragonflies, frogs and birds, and plant wild flowers such as ragged robin along the margins for butterflies and bees. If the water is shallow, hedgehogs, badgers and foxes will drink from it. This, above all, is the best thing you can do.