Share a small garden with wildlife Mammals, insects and birds don’t care if a garden is tiny!
Mammals, insects and birds don’t care if a garden is tiny – as long as it offers food and shelter! Adrian Thomas explores ways to lure them in
You might imagine that gardening for wildlife is the preserve of those people with expansive meadows and giant ponds. But no, the good news is that you can provide sanctuary for lots of wild creatures in even the smallest of spaces.
Pocket gardens, roof gardens, even balconies can all host some exciting visitors, bringing you pleasure as well as helping you do your bit for nature.
And remember, wildlife-friendly doesn’t mean your garden has to look wild and untended – far from it. A great-looking garden can still be a magnet for wildlife, if you follow our key principles below.
Nor do you have to set aside a special ‘wildlife corner’: the reality is that we can incorporate wildlife-friendly practices from the lawn to the flowerpots to vegetable planters, and that’s nowhere more important than in a small garden.
Once you’ve done some or even all these things, you’ll find that passing wildlife will stop and stay. The smaller your garden, the longer it may take, but celebrate every success as it happens, knowing that wildlife is giving your efforts a thumbs up!
1 Grow as many plants as you can
Plants are the bedrock of a flourishing ecosystem. All that foliage, the flowers, seeds and berries fuel the foodchains above them, so the less hard landscaping you have, the better. However, in a small garden your plant choices need to be extra savvy. While you probably want plants to work their socks off visually, you can also factor in wildlife at the same time. So, for example, if you want to grow a clematis to make full use of a wall or fence, choose a species such as Clematis tangutica – better than many big-flowered cultivars because bees prefer it, and birds use the fluffy seedheads for nesting
material. Even better, why not double the value and grow it up into a woody climber such as climbing Hydrangea anomala petiolaris, which can offer great nesting sites for blackbirds and robins.
Don’t discount trees for a tiny garden, either. To be a big hit for you and for wildlife, you can’t do better than a fruit tree, whether that be an apple, pear, cherry or crab apple. On a dwarfing rootstock, they won’t outgrow your garden or even your balcony. ➤
2 Include a water source
This is the magic draw in any garden, and there are ways to include water in even the tiniest space. Start with a birdbath that’s as wide and shallow as possible, and if you can raise it up on a pedestal it will give birds a better view of any approaching danger.
If you have enough space for a small pond, this really ramps up the wildlife value. With shallow margins, it can still deliver bird-bathing requirements, but also allow you to grow yet more plants, which in turn provide a home for pondlife. You may think there’s little chance of pond creatures managing to get to your pond if it’s on a roof terrace or balcony, but many pond dwellers are accomplished fliers. Diving beetles, water boatmen and pond skaters all happily take to the air to find a new home, so you may be surprised what turns up.
3 Make compost
Decomposing matter is often seen as useful to the gardener, but it’s also invaluable to so much wildlife. Where would our blackbirds and robins be if they didn’t have dead leaves to flick over, or mulch to rifle through? In a small garden, it takes a little ingenuity to find ways to incorporate a compost heap and leafmould pile, but they can be tucked away into a corner or turned into a feature, with a beehive compost bin
(see inset, £110 from Bespoke Garden Products). Or how about making a log pile? Slot one under a bench, or stack them creatively as a sculpture.
4 Add bird and hedgehog feeders
A lifeline in a small garden, feeders can really boost your guest numbers. Just make sure you feed your dinner guests in a way that doesn’t put them at danger from cats or other predators. Guard against rats by only putting out as much as is taken each day and feeding on a hard surface that can be swept clean.
5 Put up nestboxes
In a small garden natural nesting sites are at a premium. Face birdboxes between north and east out of direct sunlight; bee hotels need a sunny south-facing spot.
Boxes for tits should have a hole that’s 26-29mm (approx 1in) in diameter, while for house sparrows it should be 32mm (1⅛in). All can happily go on a house wall. Robins and wrens may take to open-fronted nestboxes if they’re tucked right out of view behind a climber or dense bushes. As a rule of thumb, they’re very unlikely to use a box that you can see.
6 Don’t use pesticides
Every time you use a chemical to blast a ‘pest’, you’re removing a food source for other wildlife, and more than likely killing beneficial wildlife in the process. After all, any product advertising itself as some kind of universal ‘bug killer’ will be pretty indiscriminate, with knock-on effects right up the food chain. Let nature take the strain by using more natural methods to achieve a balance.
Let nature take the strain by using natural methods to achieve a balance
7 Exploit a suntrap
My special extra tip when thinking about making a small space more wildlife-friendly, is to consider how you can make the most of any sunshine. The brighter and warmer your garden is, the more alive it will be with insects. They’ll bask in the warmth and visit flowers bathed in sunlight. So, when creating your planting plan, think how it can become a life-giving suntrap. Think about potting up sun-loving, nectar-rich perennials such as verbascum and stachys, or a dwarf buddleia shrub.
8 Create ladders & highways
Wildlife isn’t concerned with who owns which garden: it’s all one big habitat to them, divided into ‘rooms’ by fences and walls. As long as they can move from one ‘room’ to the next, they’ll make use of the entire jigsaw. To help wildlife get in and out of your garden, grow climbers as ‘living ladders’ over walls and create hedgehog highways under fences. On a balcony, focus your efforts on the wildlife that is able to reach you – the birds and bees that can wing their way in your direction. ✿