THE GOOD WILDLIFE CAN DO FOR YOUR GARDEN
✿ Encouraging wildlife is helpful to us gardeners too, especially if you grow vegetables. Choosing flowers for their nectar and pollen will entice the bees and other pollinators that are needed to fertilise the flowers of vegetables such as beans and tomatoes.
✿ Plant colour ful flowers around the veg plot and you can bring in beneficial insects that will predate on pests. Ladybird lar vae love to munch on green and black fly or on red spider mite in the greenhouse. Lacewing and hoverfly larvae also eat aphids and other garden pests. ✿ There are lots of bright and cheerful flowers to grow that attract hoverflies but why not try marigolds (Calendulas) or the pretty, lowgrowing poached egg plant?
✿ Turn over a stone or log and you might find a shiny black ground beetle. These are the organic gardener’s friend as they love to eat slugs and snails.
✿ You can provide homes for these helpful creatures by leaving decaying logs in quiet areas under shrubs. Fallen leaves are good habitats for invertebrates which in turn provide food for birds. Or you can make a “fedge”, a dry hedge of branches woven between upright poles.
✿ Making a pond is probably the single best thing you can do to attract wildlife. ✿ Lots of studies have shown that green places relieve stress. Even short visits to parks or urban woodland have resulted in a reduction of the stress hormone cortisol. Just being in nature can improve your mood and bring feelings of wellbeing. The Japanese have for many years enjoyed “forest bathing”, knowing that it is beneficial for body and mind to be among trees. Now some doctors here are prescribing being in nature to help relieve anxiety and stress.
✿ If you grow trees or shrubs in your garden, you can have a great feeling of peace by sitting and looking up at leaves against the sky. You are also providing places for birds to nest or roost, and watching birds is equally relaxing. A carefully positioned bird feeder outside a window can bring hours of enjoyment, especially for someone who is elderly or unable to leave the house.
✿ Watching butterflies is a delight too. It’s useful to plant groups of nectar plants so that there’s enough of each flower to make a visible display. Planting in a sheltered, sunny spot will mean that scents are stronger to attract them, as well as giving you pleasure. So create a sun trap with flowers for butterflies, sit back and enjoy their beauty.