PLAN YOUR PLANTING
The most biodiverse gardens are full of plants
Wildlife needs food, roosting or nesting places, as well as shelter, and particularly requires cover from predators. Mix trees, shrubs, climbers, bulbs and perennials, ensuring that their different heights overlap – trees rising straight out of grass without connecting shrubs and perennials don’t offer cover. Add shrubs and perennials to create a continuous link from ground level to tree canopy.
The most wildlife-friendly gardens are crammed full of plants, with little ground showing at all. Walls, fences and roofs can all be used – containers and wall-mounted planters brimming with nectar-rich plants are invaluable to wildlife. Living-wall herb planters or a window box will allow you easy access for cooking, but also provide a nectar station for local pollinators. Shop for low-maintenance, drought-tolerant Mediterranean herbs, such as rosemary, thyme and marjoram, which don’t require a strict watering routine.
Fix wires and trellis on any appropriate vertical surface to support wildlife-friendly climbing plants, such as honeysuckle, jasmine and wisteria. Ivy and Virginia creeper can gallop up a wall or fence unaided and provide an excellent habitat and food source for many creatures.
Stock beds and containers with a range of annuals and perennials that flower over as long a season as possible, avoiding double-flowered forms that often lack pollen, so provide no support to bees. Native plants suitable for small
spaces include foxglove (Digitalis), meadow cranesbill (Geranium pratense), primrose (Primula vulgaris), hemp agrimony (Eupatorium spp.), knapweeds (Centaurea spp.), teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) and red campion (Silene dioica), while winter-flowering hellebore, crocus, Eranthis hyemalis, Clematis cirrhosa and Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’ will see bees survive the winter into spring. Long-flowering plants, such as the perennial wallflower Erysimum ‘Bowles’s Mauve’, sedum, cosmos and scabious, will keep delivering nectar from early summer to late autumn. And don’t forget catering for after-dark insects. Heavenly scented plants, such as tobacco plant (Nicotiana), evening primrose (Oenothera) and dame’s violet (Hesperis matronalis) will provide night-time nectar for moths.
A wildlife garden should never be a tidy garden. Resist the urge to clear up spent blooms as autumn approaches, instead leaving them to stand. Stiffstemmed perennials with seed-rich heads, such as echinacea, phlomis, helenium, fennel, teasel and ornamental grasses, should be left alone, too. Birds will pluck away the seeds, while insects, spiders and their eggs and larvae will hibernate in the stems. Plus, you can admire the faded forms and dazzling biodiversity from your window, knowing you’ve done your best for the environment we all share.