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Wildlife-friendly A general guide

working today for nature tomorrow Wildlife-friendly gardening A general guide

Cottage . Paul Keene/Avico Ltd

Biodiversity is the amazing Britain is a nation of . We also love wildlife. Until richness and variety of wildlife quite recently though, we tended around us. English Nature to keep our two loves apart. We went to the country to see believes that everyone should wild animals and wild flowers be able to enjoy a greater and kept the garden for cultivated and lawns. But close-mown wealth of wildlife and pass on a lawns and carefully weeded rich and diverse natural borders of roses offer few opportunities for wildlife. Sadly, heritage to future generations. the same is now true of much of Everyone can do their bit for the farmed countryside, as advances in food production have biodiversity by gardening with usually been made at the expense wildlife in mind. of wildlife .

2 Getting started ¥ List what is currently in your garden. Is there a water course The kind of you can or a naturally damp hollow? create will depend on the size and aspect of your plot and on the soil, ¥ Are there shrubs or a portion whether peaty or lime-rich, of hedge, or a stone or brick free-draining or clayey. And, of wall? All these will form anchor course, on your own tastes and points when you consider where interests. If it’s a new garden, don’t to or dig. rush to blanket the surface with topsoil - many wild flowers prefer ¥ Note which parts catch the the less fertile subsoil. If it’s already sun, and when. Are there well-established, make a list or plan. places of permanent shade Better still, draw a diagram of or any natural sun-traps? existing features and consider how Mark them on your plan. they might be enhanced to benefit wildlife. Involve your children from ¥ Squat down and examine the the start. Their enthusiasm and surface. Is it entirely level or imagination will be valuable allies, are there rises and depressions? both now and later. Here are some Could these be raised into things to do and to look out for: banks or deepened into dells? Nature thrives on irregularity. Ox-eye daisies. Charron Pugsley-Hill/English Nature ¥ Consider what uses your garden will serve. You may want space for growing your own fruit and vegetables; children may need room to play. Many people grade their garden from a patio and bird table close to the house, through play space to a and a ‘wilderness’ at the back.

¥ Don’t be in too much of a hurry! Working with nature takes a little time. Make a timetable, and plan things over a year or more. You can always get more ambitious later on, as your expertise and enthusiasm grow.

Wildlife-friendly gardening 3 Small pond for wildlife. George Barker/English Nature You don’t have to let your garden try not to use , slug pellets ‘go wild’ to make it attractive to or sprays. In a well- wildlife. Beauty and wild gardening balanced garden, natural predators do are not at all incompatible and the much of your job for you - and for best nature are the product free. Your example may be one that of careful planning and... well, neighbours may follow and it will be thoughtful gardening. hugely beneficial to the wildlife living in and visiting your garden. The secret of gardening with nature is to relax: the solution to some and other wet bits problems may be to do nothing at all. Ask yourself whether you really If watching nature gives you have to mow all the lawn quite so pleasure, dig a pond. Garden ponds often. Why not let some plants go to have helped to conserve frogs, seed, instead of cutting them after dragonflies and many other water flowering, or allow the ivy to spread creatures, whose natural habitats further along the wall? Look for have disappeared or become polluted. beauty in small, modest flowers like It’s amazing how quickly some of speedwells and campions. Above all, these will discover a new home.

4 Before long, there is an entire bank or rockery. As you dig, make a self-contained ecosystem in gently sloping shelf. When you’ve your own backyard! finished, make the hole as smooth as you can, picking out any stones and There is no ideal size for a wildlife debris and using sand to fill any pond - just make it as large as you gaps. Use a piece of old carpet felt can and at least half a metre deep in or jute sacking to cushion the hole the middle. Even really small ponds and then spread out a heavy duty can be useful for wildlife and a butyl rubber sheet, tucking it into source of enjoyment for you. An the edges and bays. You can now ideal location for a pond is a natural buy specially-made underlays if hollow which catches the sun. An you need them and these can go irregular or kidney-shaped pond may both under and over the rubber liner. look better than a circle or rectangle, Liners are available from most good and there should be a shallow shelf garden centres. There is no need to on the sunny side at least. A pond add soil. Hose in the water. Finally, can be at the centre of the wild tuck the sheet under at the edges, garden, perhaps as part of a larger weighing it down with turfs or tones. garden, or tucked away in a Your pond awaits your pleasure! secluded corner - although here it may quickly fill with leaves. Make sure that you consider small children - water has a magnetic attraction for toddlers. Fencing or a hard grill may be required. First, peg out the chosen area and a zone for dumping earth and stones. This spoil can The “common” frog is now a rarity in some places but flourishes in gardens. be used for a Roy Harris/English Nature

Wildlife-friendly gardening 5 When choosing pond plants, go the suppliers if in doubt. mainly for native species. Many Garden centres provide a wide are very attractive and often range of pond plants, from those deliciously scented. Some plants of the water margin, like water should never be introduced to plantain, water mint and bog-bean, garden ponds, let alone the wild, to true aquatics like water crowfoot, as they are very invasive and starwort and water milfoil. Large out-compete those which are water lilies are suitable only for more desirable in wildlife ponds. large ponds, but floating plants Species to be avoided include like amphibious bistort and parrot’s feather, Canadian Potomogeton natans are ideal. pondweed and Australian stonecrop. For vivid colour, try flowering rush, Ask for advice from purple loosestrife or marigold.

The common darter is often found around garden ponds. Paul Lacey/English Nature

6 To give the ecosystem a boost, add a few bucketfuls of mud from a well-established local pond. If you want to attract frogs and newts, don’t stock the pond with fish. They may gobble up the tadpoles - and lots more besides. If you must have fish, think sticklebacks, rather than goldfish.

Periodic pond jobs will include scooping out leaves and much of the plant growth in the autumn, and topping up Cowslips. Charron Pugsley-Hill/English Nature in hot weather. Rainwater is best for this, either remedies, if allowed enough time. collected in a water butt or, ideally, Once established, a wildlife pond channelled directly from the gutters maintains itself reasonably well. If of the house. As the pond settles you are very short of space, try down, you may have an epidemic of sinking an old enamel or china bath blanketweed (green thread-like or kitchen sink (with the plug in!) algae). You can rake out the worst into a corner. Add a few stones at of it (it makes good ), but one end, so that frogs and toads can don’t panic - nature has its own crawl out as well as jump in.

Wildlife-friendly gardening 7 Purple loosestrife makes a magnificent spectacle in late summer. Dr Chris Gibson/English Nature

Do-it-yourself marshland Remember those summer meadows... A DIY marsh can be made in the same way as a pond, using butyl Few of us live close to a real flower sheets. In this case, dig a shallow meadow, worked for hay in the old saucer-shaped hole, spread the familiar way. But a pocket-sized sheeting and then fill it in again! version can be created, with a little You can extend your pond into a real effort, and once established will hum in this way, or use it as a with bees and dance with butterflies substitute for a pond if you have in summer. A gardening definition of small children. Many plants of pond a meadow might be ‘an overgrown margins will grow quite happily in lawn’. Unfortunately, most lawns - your artificial marsh, as long as it if left uncut - turn into dull, rank stays permanently wet. Maintaining fields with few wild flowers other water levels is important, to avoid than docks and thistles. For a nettles and docks taking over. beautiful meadow, whether a spring

8 one with bulbs and cowslips or a sowing, though, first make sure that summer one sprinkled with ox-eye the ground is free of ‘hard-case’ daisies, knapweed, scabious and a weeds like ground elder and couch- score of other flowers - some grass. The trick is to allow their preparation is needed. Flower buried seeds or root systems time to meadows thrive on poor soils where grow - and then to clobber them the flowers can compete with before they have a chance to set grasses. This is why fertiliser has seed. Choose your weapon: mower, turned the pretty meadows of the past hoe, flame gun or even (for once) into monotonous fields of ‘fertiliser non-persistent . green’. Unless you’re prepared to insert potted plants into the lawn - Making a wildflower meadow is not an expensive and time-consuming easy but when the effort succeeds, business - the topsoil has to go. If the rewards are huge, so keep trying! there is only an extremely thin layer, Constant attention is needed after much of the topsoil may come away sowing seeds to ensure that grasses with the turf. What is needed ideally and unwanted plants do not take is a well-drained and well-raked unfair advantage and spoil the effect subsoil to act as a seed bed. Before you are aiming to achieve.

The seeds of common poppies can remain viable for many years. Dr Chris Gibson/English Nature

Wildlife-friendly gardening 9 Don’t dig up wild plants for your Spring meadows should be cut at garden - it rarely succeeds, it’s least twice a year, in June and again illegal and it robs the countryside in early autumn, to allow room for of wild colour. Packets of wild the smaller, more delicate plants to flower seed mixed with grasses bloom. Bulbs like snowdrops, are widely available. But read snowflakes and fritillaries are best the labels carefully and look for planted on loamy ground which is a packet with a conservation moist in early spring but dries out mixture guaranteed to be of later. Summer meadows should be locally native species harvested cut only once, like a ‘real’ meadow, from British meadows. Follow preferably in August after most the instructions given, but flowers have ripened seed. Leave preferably also consult an expert some plants uncut at the edge of the or one of the many books available. meadow: some bugs may overwinter

Red admiral on bramble. Dr Chris Gibson/English Nature

10 in the seedheads. Always remove the ‘hay’ and clippings - otherwise they will form a mulch and encourage grasses at the expense of flowers. The clippings can be used on the compost heap.

In a leafy shade

In many ways, a garden shrubbery resembles the edge of a woodland ride or glade. At least, the wildlife seems to think Primroses. Dr Chris Gibson/English Nature so and this is why sheltered gardens at the back. To top it all, under-plant are so favoured by blackbirds, robins, the glade with hedgerow flowers like hedgehogs and bats. You can create primrose, violets, wild strawberry a glade in a corner of the garden by and stitchwort. By careful planning, the artful planting of shrubs or by you can compress what in a real modifying what’s there already. wood might need an acre or two into What is needed is sunny edge - as a room-sized mini-reserve by the much edge as possible. garden fence.

From the point of view of a bird Which species should you plant? or butterfly, a shrubby border, Aim at providing sources of food over meandering in and out of the sun, is a as long a season as possible. The core vertical extension of the ground, of the shrubbery should be native filled with good things: catkin pollen, species like hawthorn, privet and flower nectar, berries, nuts, grubs and guelder rose (wild, rather than exotic perches. By having planting zones, forms are better for wildlife), but you can increase the edge still there is no reason not to supplement further: try herbaceous perennials at them with non-native shrubs, like the front and then small flowering buddleia for butterflies, hebe for bees shrubs. Behind these might come and hoverflies or Pyracantha for larger shrubs and Ð if you have the birds. Don’t forget climbers, like space - perhaps a group of small trees honeysuckle and dog-rose.

Wildlife-friendly gardening 11 Angle shades moth. Dr Rob Wolton/English Nature

Most gardens are too small for forest if you do plant blackberry, try to find trees, but hazel, spindle, cherry-plum, a non-aggressive variety as some silver birch, alder and rowan are strains can be very invasive. more manageable, and are excellent Vigorous will keep it in for wildlife. check. Stinging nettles are the food plant of some beautiful butterflies Don’t trim the glade too often, and and moths, but there is no general preferably not at all in spring and shortage of nettles and they will be of summer (except for early-flowering little use to butterflies in the shade. species). Wildlife thrives on lack of If you decide to include some, make disturbance: cultivate a ‘shaggy’ look sure they are in full sunlight, rather than a well-clipped hedge and preferably with flowers nearby. go for a large bushy corner or Ð for more edge Ð medium-sized islands of Below the garden wall bushes separated by lawn. A crumbly stone or flint wall can Bramble patches can be marvellous be wonderful, but a brick one will for wildlife, providing flowers, fruit do. Your local wildlife will know and nesting opportunities. However, how to get the best out of an old

12 wall, but you can help. The more tortoiseshell butterflies are about. ivy, the better, as it is a very If you are looking for somewhere important nectar source, when most to pile loose stones or broken other flowers are over, as well as a bricks, here it is: a basking place late provider of berries. Ferns will for insects, a hunting ground for find crumbly niches for themselves, spiders, and, who knows, perhaps but you can plant ivy-leaved even a refuge for lizards. toadflax and other climbers if they do not grow nearby. Feeding our feathered friends Beneath the wall, where the sun falls for part of the day, is Where would a wild garden be the place for old-fashioned cottage without a bird table? But think flowers, so much richer in nectar carefully where you should place it. and scent than modern cultivars. Many people like to watch birds Plant foxglove, mullein, sweet while they do the washing up, or Williams, Verbena bonariensis and from the living-room window. But Michaelmas daisies. And in the make sure the table is away from hottest spot of all, see what a fences and cover, and out of reach of buddleia bush will do in late cats. The greater the choice of food summer when thirsty peacock and you offer, the more species you may see. Tits like fat and chains of Many more species of bird than ever now come to feeders in gardens. Paul Glendell/English Nature peanuts hung from the table; finches appreciate sunflower heads; and greenfinches, siskins and even nuthatches and woodpeckers have a passion for peanuts inside orange nylon bags (make sure the nuts have not been chemically treated).

Blackbirds prefer to feed on the ground and will appreciate a few apple halves or cores. If you have an apple tree, collect some windfalls and put them out in the open where the birds can feed more safely. Robins are fond of crumbled bits of hard cheese. All birds eat bread, but white bread is not particularly nutritious and stale bread is actually harmful. It is kinder, especially in hard weather, to offer nuts, fat and bird cake.

Wildlife-friendly gardening 13 Born in a box

Without boxes to nest in, there would be fewer great tits and blue tits to grace our gardens in summer, for their natural nesting habitats - cavities in mature trees - are scarce, outside old woodland. Like the bird table, a nest box should be positioned with care - out of the direct sun and the reach of furry predators, and preferably in a quiet corner of the garden. Various kinds are available. Those with small entrance holes are for tits, while open-sided boxes are used by robins, thrushes and A little effort brings great rewards. starlings. You can try to attract an Paul Glendell/English Nature owl with a ‘chimney’ box, or offer house martins an off-the-peg narrow gap at the back and a rough papier-mâché cup. You can also buy or a corrugated inner wall for the bats or make boxes for bats. These have a to cling to. The most likely bat to

White tailed bumble bee (queen). Roger Key/English Nature

14 Stones around a pond are good hiding places for newts. George Barker/English Nature accept your offer of accommodation logs is to burn them immediately or is the pipistrelle, but you may also not at all. Give a thought to mud. attract long-eared bats and other less Bare, sometimes ‘squishy’ patches common species. These boxes are are an excellent and, believe it or sometimes used by wrens, especially not, a declining wildlife . during cold weather. Other artificial Other bare ground in full sunlight is boxes are also available these days, equally valuable, as many minibeasts for ladybirds, lacewings and bees. need to warm their bodies before they can become fully active. Other wildlife ‘homes’ can be made very simply. A tree stump can simply Don’t forget compost. Compost be left alone, preferably with one heaps are habitats as well as the side in the sun and the other in the products of a greener way of shade. Or you can create a ‘habitat gardening; grass snakes love their pile’ of cut logs, valuable for insects inner heat and sometimes use and fungi. Remember, though, that if them to incubate their eggs. you later decide to burn the wood, And if you like reptiles, try leaving you will incinerate all its beetle a sheet of corrugated iron where it lodgers as well as the many will warm, but not bake, in the sun. interesting fungi which will have This is a tried and tested method of colonised it. The general rule with attracting snakes.

Wildlife-friendly gardening 15 If space is short ... pebbles from our rivers and beaches. The greater part of England’s peat ..there are still ways to attract has been destroyed since 1945 wildlife. A window box or even to provide peat compost for gardens. hanging baskets can be an Many beautiful limestone pavements answer. Try wild herbs and (rocky areas that have lots of cracks scented bedding plants, running through where many rare germinated from seed in pots. wild plants can grow) have been Using a little artistry, and not quarried away to produce ‘water- sowing too densely, an attractive worn stone’ for garden rockeries. arrangement of spreading, These increasingly rare habitats are cushion and upright wild flowers of international importance. can be achieved. Suitable species include thyme, marjoram, With so few wild bogs left, those basil thyme, salad burnet, lady’s who care about wildlife should use bedstraw, speedwell, stitchwort alternative ways of potting plants and ivy-leaved toadflax. Old and improving the flower-beds. Even chimney pots make excellent plant big organisations like the National containers, either as pot holders, or, Trust are now gardening without if there are holes in the sides, as using any peat, so it can be done! cylinders of sprouting greenery - Many gardeners say that old- perfect for a patio or around the fashioned compost makes a much barbecue. The area of a garden better mulch than peat Ð and it costs can also be increased by building nothing. For germinating seeds and upwards. Try making a rockery growing pot plants, various peat-free (good for frogs, toads and newts to are available. Ask your hide in) or a grassy bank or mound. garden supplier about them, and Here, if you are lucky, grass snakes experiment to find the best one for or lizards could lie in the sun. your purposes. You can often get good results from using recycled, Helping the environment biodegradable paper pots, which then decay or are eaten by worms. You can help to conserve wildlife by refusing to buy products that You can also help the environment are based on its harmful exploitation. by deciding not to use chemicals to Many gardening products cause harm control unwanted insects and to wildlife habitats. These include weeds. Nature has its own ways of tropical hardwoods for furniture, controlling ‘pests’, and by gardening south east Asian charcoal for with nature rather than against it you barbecues, peat from bogs, rock from soon find allies. Try the old trick of limestone pavements and even planting French or African marigolds

16 among green vegetables Ð the flowers seem to have their own chemical defences. Similarly, lavender near roses seems to help deter aphids. Rotate or change the after a season or two, as farmers used to do. It helps to avoid a build-up of pests, and gives the soil time to revitalise itself. You can also simply choose plants and crops which are less susceptible to damage by invertebrates.

When it comes to the wealth of wildlife in the garden, minibeasts - spiders, centipedes, snails and above all, insects - are what it’s all about. There may be easily a couple of thousand species living in a not overly-tidy garden and all but a tiny handful of greenfly and slugs are either harmless or beneficial. All of them are fascinating. To encourage these minibeasts, have plenty of open-structured nectar flowers, be careful with chemicals, keep a compost heap, don’t be too fastidious in tidying up dead leaves and leave some areas a bit overgrown to provide cover for roosting or hibernating creatures.

A wildlife-friendly garden will contain a much better balance of predator and prey than one which is manicured. In the long run, there should be less Like this ‘two-spot’, most species (or no) need for poison bottles of ladybird in England eat aphids. Dr Roger Key/English Nature and sprays.

Wildlife-friendly gardening 17 Some gardening hints cases they will not survive. These days, a wide range of ¥ Visit public gardens to see how wild flowers is available from some experts do it. In recent seed and pots. Such wild years, many large gardens have flowers are more important in set aside a nature area. Details the wild where they can be can be found in The Good enjoyed by others as well as Gardening Guide. serving their crucial role in our ecosystems. Ask friends and ¥ Get to know your local wildlife, neighbours with garden ponds whether in a nearby park, open for aquatic plants. space or nature reserve, or in your immediate surroundings if you ¥ Read about gardening with nature. live in the country. By knowing Many books and magazines give what’s likely to colonise your hints and tips on which species garden, you can plan accordingly. will suit your garden and how to raise plants from seed. ¥ Keep a nature diary of observations and first sightings. ¥ Pat yourself on the back! A Your garden could become an garden rich in wildlife can be outdoor laboratory and a great source of pride. Take photographic studio, or even a pleasure in watching the butterflies source of literary inspiration! and listening to birdsong, in the knowledge that you have ¥ Don’t dig up flowers from the contributed another corner to a wild. It’s illegal and in most greener and healthier country.

Our thanks go to the London Wildlife Trust for their assistance with this publication.

Other English Nature leaflets (available from the English Nature Enquiry Service: Tel. 01733 455101) include: Plants for wildlife friendly gardens; Amphibians in your garden; Reptiles in your garden; Minibeasts in your garden; Focus on Bats; Composting; Wildflower meadows - how to create them in your garden. In preparation: Garden ponds and wet areas; Small mammals in your garden; Dragonflies and damselflies in your garden.

English Nature also produces a CD, Gardening with wildlife in mind. This costs £9-99 plus postage and packing and is available from The Plant Press. Call John Stockdale on 01273 476151, e-mail [email protected] for a copy or ask

[email protected] for more information. Foxglove. Dr Chris Gibson/English Nature

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English Nature is the Government agency that champions the conservation of wildlife and geology throughout England.

This is one of a range of publications published by: External Relations Team English Nature Northminster House Peterborough PE1 1UA www.english-nature.org.uk © English Nature 2001(2)/2003/2004/2005 Printed on Evolution Satin, 75% recycled post-consumer waste paper, elemental chlorine free. ISBN 1 85716 567 5 Catalogue code IN16.7 Designed and printed by Front cover photograph: Status Design & Advertising, Herbaceous border. 10M, 20M, 10M, 10M, 20M. George Barker/English Nature