4.THEWILDLIFEGARDEN

If you want to share your garden with fascinating creatures, then start by not using pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. Stop killing wildlife in the name of neatness or a very selective version of ‘health’. Chemicals are not selective. Although there are occasions when munching caterpillars might be classed as ‘the enemy’, in almost all circumstances they are part of a much bigger, much richer picture. Live and let live.

I deliberately allow the Wildlife Garden to become as ‘wild’ as it can be without losing what I consider to be its horticultural charm.

It was made in 2015, primarily to show that you don’t need a big area to attract a wide range of wildlife, and also to demonstrate that a wildlife garden can be good for your fellow creatures as well as being beautiful. When the first edition of this book was published, this area contained a greenhouse, our soft fruit and two asparagus beds. We moved all that and planted hazels, an oak tree and a field maple, all behind a high hawthorn hedge. Having done this we left them to do their thing. As such, it truly was good for wildlife – but not very attractive in any conventional horticultural sense. So I set about seeing to what extent I could combine horticulture with a wildlife preserve. The first thing I did was make a pond. Any pond is good for attracting insects, birds and bats to your garden as well as amphibians and reptiles. However, unlike with the pond in the Damp Garden, I added a shallow beach made up of small stones so birds and mammals could walk in and out of the water, plus a log floating on the surface that is ideal for beetles, basking birds and frogs, and plants such as the native flag,

Iris pseudacorus (below).

But in 2020 I decided this pond was too small and in the wrong place, so I carefully rehomed all visible life and made a bigger and more central pond. Next to it I planted a border filled with plants to attract bees (left) and a range of other insects and pollinators. Although it looks natural, the Wildlife Garden is as carefully ‘gardened’ as any other part of Longmeadow.