Alison Marsden, Gardening by Design
Spring/Summer 2004
Gardening
for Wildlife
(Encouraging
bio-diversity without discouraging the people)
There have been many books
and articles written about how to attract wildlife into your garden and
gardeners are getting more and more interested in supporting their local plant,
insect, bird and animal populations.
Less however has been written about the ability to be friendly to
wildlife at the same time as retaining a garden that is well-designed,
structured, ornamental, functional and (fairly) tidy. The
important point is that gardening for wildlife does not mean that you stop
gardening and start watching the weeds.
A wildlife
friendly garden is first and foremost a garden.
The primary objective of a
garden is to provide a place for the leisure or recreation of the people who
live there. This might include growing
flowers for cutting, vegetables for the kitchen or just having somewhere to sit
and play. None of this changes because
you want to make the garden friendly to wildlife too. But a little time taken to understand and
complement your local environment gives you the added joy of watching our
native insects, animals and birds living out their natural lives beside
you.
Wildlife
friendly does not mean ‘untended’ or ‘abandoned’
A wildlife garden is just as
deliberately managed and intensively planted as any other garden. Some wildlife gardens even look like ‘normal’
gardens! To attract a wide range of
creatures you will be packing in features and plants at a much greater density
than in the countryside and you will be just as officious in removing the
plants that you do not want. If you
simply stop gardening in the conventional sense you will not achieve a
Wildlife
gardens are not all the same
Your garden will look at its
best when it is designed to complement the style of your house and the
surrounding landscape. Most back
gardens include a somewhere to sit, some flower beds and a
herb patch but this does not result in them all looking the same. Likewise there are some common facilities
that you will want to provide for visiting and resident wildlife but what these
look like and where you put them is up to you.
It makes absolutely no difference to the wildlife what their home looks
like as long as there is good access and a bit of peace and quiet.
For example a pond is one of
the quickest and most valuable ways to attract wildlife to your garden. If you have a modern house then you might
have a geometric raised pond near to the house instead of trying to pretend
that it is a natural feature and that your garden is a remnant of once open
countryside. On the other hand if you
garden a 16th century cottage adjacent to still open countryside,
then a gently curved pond with grassy edges in a far corner would suit the
situation beautifully. Even an old
half-barrel filled with water is ample to plant a few water plants and attract
underwater insect life and maybe possibly hatch a family of tadpoles.
Wildlife
gardens can be formal and structured in design
The formal pond described
above is a good example of this. Another
is how you use wildflowers. Tall waving
wildflower meadows are popularly created over part of an ex-lawn by delaying
mowing and introducing native wildflowers to supplement what appears naturally
and these are very good food providers for insects and birds. However, if you need or want to keep a mown
lawn – for children to play or for equally justified aesthetic reasons – then
you can provide the wildlife value by planting up an ornamental border with a
well thought-out mix of wildflowers and cottage garden plants that may not all
be native but that do provide nectar or seeds right from spring through to
autumn.
A heap of different sized
stones and rocks is an ideal home for a multitude of insects, over-wintering
frogs and newts and maybe common lizards in a sunny spot. But a heap of rocks
does not appeal to every gardener. In
the more formal garden you could use a dry stone wall for the same purpose,
either as a retaining wall for terracing or a raised bed or as a standalone
sculptural feature. In the modern
garden, metal cages technically known as ‘gabions’ filled with a mix of rocks
could make a striking feature, form a strong, sharp edged wall or the support
for a seat.
You will
succeed if you have realistic expectations
The key to successful
wildlife gardening is to understand what you are likely to attract to your
garden. This means looking around your
neighbourhood and observing what creatures already inhabit it and what
facilities are already provided. Your
first efforts are best aimed at supporting the wildlife your environment
already contains: if there are hollow trees, churches, barns or caves nearby
then you have a good chance of seeing bats hawking over your garden if you lay
off pesticides and encourage insects. On
the other hand nothing that you do will bring red squirrels into a garden in
You will also get many more
creatures visiting for food than you will have living permanently in your garden
so do not be disappointed by this – just enjoy the animals you see and know
that you are still making a valuable contribution to wildlife.
Understand that that vast
majority of wildlife that you attract will go under the general heading of
‘creepy crawlies’ and that these are the bedrock of a healthy eco-system. Insects, beetles, worms, woodlice and all the
myriad of mini-beasts are the start of the food chain that leads up to the
bigger, more impressive mammals and birds.
Incidentally children take great delight in poking under logs and stones
for invertebrates and a move away from chemicals in the garden will ensure that
they are never disappointed
Finally
Whether you want to assess
how wildlife friendly your garden is now, start out on the wildlife gardening
path or design a whole contemporary wildlife & family garden from scratch,
Alison Marsden, Gardening by Design, can advise and provide ideas to help
you. Website www.gardeningbydesign.co.uk email to alison.marsden@gardeningbydesign.co.uk
Kent Wildlife Trust partners
with Local Authorities each year to run the Gardening for Wildlife Award
Scheme. If you are or want to be wildlife
friendly and however big or small your garden, find details on the KWT website
at www.kentwildlife.org.uk