Hi there
I was just wondering if anyone else has designed their garden specifically for wildlife? What have they found works?
I have tried to plant as many native or insect loving plants as possible, have two ponds, let my privet hedges grow long (one cut a year in stags), have put up bug boxes and bird boxes and am attempting to grow a wildflower meadow.
Look forward to any replies
I'm not in the UK, so I don't have quite the same plants and animals, but the general principal would be the same.
I have many plants which were chosen for animal food (berries, nectar, etc.). The same plants were chosen with animal shelter in mind. I live on a hill, so my garden is terraced. The terracing is done with a dry wall, which allows snakes to live in the wall, and I've also found at least one Pacific giant salamander (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Giant_Salamander) in there as well. I have not put any chemicals on the garden in almost 20 years, so I have frogs living there, even though I don't have a pond (there's nowhere really suitable for a pond in the garden, as there's very little in the way of flat spots!). One of the neighbours has a pond, and his frogs come over and live in my garden
.
Kingfisher
A log pile is a good idea. Especially considering that Stag Beetles are becoming rare, due to loss of habitat.
I've had an accidental log pile for a while now but last weekend I made one specifically and placed it in a shady spot behind a bush. Hopefully I'll attract one of those stag beetles that I sometimes see zooming around in the summer.
We are still working on this & will be for a while as we hope to have a wildlife area at the back of the garden. It is however down a slope so we are hoping to terraced using some felled trees it & have a viewing platform on stilts,(if that makes sense) We are then going to put up all sorts of boxes for bats, bugs , bees etc. Form a wildlife pond at the bottom & plant hedges with native plants like hawthorn for the berries. Unfortunatey still in planning stages but for now we grow nasturtiums for the bees,buddleia for butterflies,rowan & a few other things. We do have a log pile also but that is only accidental & we are going to use some of that for a hedgehog house.If anyone has more suggestions on plants etc that would give me ideas then I would be very grateful
I have always found that buddleia's, wood piles and hedges are the best way of attracting wildlife into your garden. The Buddleias are especially good for the butterflies and other insects.
I have found loads of plants that attract wildlife. And most are cheap to grow. Lavender is really popular in my garden with the bees and butterflies. Also verbena bonar... something. Borage, lemonbalm, sweet peas, corncockle, poppies, sunflowers, purple loosestrife, gadillia (?) goblin, forget me nots, foxgloves, wallflowers, mullien, honeysuckle, privet flowers nasturtians, - all easy to grow.
Seeds are usually reduced at this time of year and still viable
As rowena pointed out if you want to attract a wide range of wildlife to your garden then try to have a wide range of plants and other areas where different sorts of wildlife can thrive.
A wildlife pond will always be good for attracting different types of wildlife, and often birds will use it for a drink if they can.
It has only taken just over a year to attract the wildlife in. Its a very satisfying feeling knowing that your garden may be their favourite place to live! I was so chuffed about the blue tits nesting in the box, and overwhelmed by the blackbirds right next to the house. I am only ever going to cut that hedge very occassionally unlike so many people round here who just put up fences or cut their hedges to death. I suppose it is all about 'keeping up appearances' but I find it much more interesting to look out and see a crowd of happy sparrows than a manicured hedge and garden!
I completely agree, I would rather see an active garden than a pristine sterile one! I'm not sure the neighbours would like it too much if the garden got
too out of hand though
Whenever I have been in a house which has a wildlife pond in it as Richard says there always seems to be more wildlife around. All living things need waeter to survive in one way or another so I guess that shouldn't be too surprising.
Today off we went for a quick lunch & garden centre on the border of Yorkshire. In the pub car park was 3 amazing buddleia's covered in peacock,small tortoishells & painted ladies. We have never seen this one before.
[
]
I took this with my mobile so excuse the quality of the pic but we were so impressed by this shrub that we looked for it at the garden centre to no avail. So home we came & ordered it off t'internet. It is Buddleia
Weyerana - Sungold. Just thought that we would share it we were so impressed by how many bees & butterflies it attracts, I think because it is yellow.
It looks beautiful, the flower and the butterfly! When you say you ordered it off the internet, is that seeds or a grown plant?
A plant Bill in a 3L pot. Obviously you have to watch the postage but we ordered ours from Binny's Plants in West-Lothian ready for despatch in September. We decided that the price of the plant & delivery added upto a price that we would be willing to pay for this shrub.I don't know about you but we see 'ordinary' buddleia's growing everywhere like weeds but have never seen this one before & it does look unusual. It was the insects & butterflies that swayed us, considering we saw them right up on the pennines.