Our gardens are an important refuge for wildlife. But how do you make a garden wildlife friendly without it becoming plain wild?
Bird boxes and tables are a start, but it is the whole garden, and how it relates to its neighbours, that makes it attractive to wildlife. Animals need food, and safe places to feed, hide and breed. A wide range of mini habitats is vital - trees, shrubs, climbers, perennials, grass and water.
Nature thrives on diversity, so a range of plant life is desirable. What does this sound like? The typical British garden, with mixed borders of shrubs and perennials, a pond and a wide variety of plants that flower over a long season. Naturalists rate our gardens as vital habitats, more so than agricultural land, that support a surprisingly large proportion of our fauna and flora.
Trees, shrubs, hedges and climbers make nesting places for birds, so it makes sense not to prune or cut in the spring nesting season. Some shrubs and many perennials are a nectar source for insects, with late flowering perennials in the daisy family such as golden rod (solidago), asters and the pink flowered Eupatorium purpureuin 'Atropurpureum' attracting scores of butterflies.
Nearly all flowers are of interest to insects, although double ones are often less useful as a nectar source. But it is the role of plants as food sources for insects that is most important. Without a vast number of insects, most of which we are quite unaware of, there would be no food for many birds. A wide variety of plants support many insects. Some, it has to be said, will do some damage, but you can compensate by varied planting: insects tend to stick to one food source, so if caterpillars munch the columbines, the neighbouring roses will be untouched.
Some non native species - buddlejas for butterflies or amelanchier berries for birds - provide excellent food, but natives such as hawthorn or hazel support a wider range of wildlife. The oak (Quercus robur) is an eco-system in itself, with over 200 insect species. As food sources at times when native plants are not, the non natives are important, however: Viburnum tinus flowers in January; pyracanthas have berries for birds to eat after everything else is finished.
Growing plants close together, cottage garden style, imitates the way they grow in nature. Ground covering perennials, such as geranium or lamium, provide shelter for insects and small wildlife, birds to hop along, and shrews to scurry. Larger animals and birds thrive if neighbours have shrubs that touch, along the backs of gardens, creating mini-woodland corridors. Dense growing climbers, such as ivies, Clematis montana or honeysuckles add another dimension.
A wildlife friendly garden should not be too tidy. A small area of long grass, perhaps with a few wildflowers, is a better habitat than a uniformly short lawn. Small, ground level weeds, such as chickweed and pearl-wort, damage nothing but seedling annuals or vegetables. Leave them, pulling out only larger, aggressive weeds, such as willowherb, grasses and docks. Cutting down annuals and perennials as late as February provides decorative seedheads and a home for insect larvae. In winter, eryngium, teasel and ornamental grasses offer character, and food for birds.
Some of the best parts of the garden for wildlife are the nooks and crannies at the backs of borders, under shrubs, and at the end of the garden, where humans venture only to deal with the compost heap or mend the fence. Here small piles of decaying wood may be unattractive to us but are ideal hibernating spots for mammals like hedgehogs, and are home to many invertebrates; heaps of stones and plants at a pond's edge make cool resting places for newts and frogs. And a small, secret patch of nettles will provide the best butterfly larva food source of all.
Finally, minimal use of all chemicals, insecticides especially, is vital (they do us no good either). If there is a problem, most pests are highly selective, so grow something else. Above all, in your wildlife garden, make sure variety is truly the spice of life.
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