Holidays, summer events and children to entertain may mean people do less gardening, in August and I would like to encourage you to continue this into the autumn and beyond. Now that is not as surprising as it might sound from someone who spends their time encouraging people to get gardening. Firstly I should say this is not a call for everyone to start ‘Wilding’ their garden. Wilding in its purist sense means leaving nature to take its course with the aim of creating a natural and sustainable eco-system.   It can work on a huge scale and even then needs management, but it is certainly not one for a domestic garden.

I am talking about what you might call Frayed Edges, the bits of your garden where you don’t always go, the areas you don’t see when looking out of windows or eating outside in the summer. Maybe behind a shed or a greenhouse, along the boundaries at the backs of a border.  And these are areas where you can support wildlife without sweeping changes to the garden that you enjoy, providing valuable habitats in the little nooks and crannies where you and I don’t look. That way you get the added benefit of seeing, enjoying and engaging with nature in your garden and doing your bit for the planet. Revaluate that pile of old upturned flowerpots that you never quite got around to clearing away behind the greenhouse. Well, that’s not laziness, that’s habitat – a dry, sheltered home for all sorts of invertebrates. Small piles of logs or cuttings from shrubs that you pile under a hedge at the back of a border or dried leaves from the winter gently decomposing around the base of shrubs and perennials, climbing plants on walls and fences providing cover and protection for all manner of invertebrates including over wintering butterflies.  If you have the space, then consider leaving an area of longer grass right through the summer and see what wildflowers appear. These are invaluable food plants for many garden butterflies. Over the last ten years, insects in particular have suffered a catastrophic decline, so helping those should be a priority. You do need to cut the grass down in September or October before everything is flattened by wind and rain. By then, any wildflower seeds will have dropped down into the grass to germinate next year and because you’re keeping it short over winter you can grow a different area each year or mow different paths through.

A wildlife friendly garden is just as managed as any other garden, it has to work for your family and has to be the garden that you want to look at.  If you try to Wild a garden by just leaving it to whatever grows, it is very unlikely that you will create a diverse plethora of native plants supporting wildlife in a space that starts out with ornamental plants, particularly in a town. A few dominant species will quickly overwhelm the rest and not necessarily worthwhile native plants.  A carefully managed garden can have a greater biodiversity than a nature reserve or a piece of countryside of the same size because you can make that happen. And this is important because across the UK gardens cover a greater area than designated nature reserves. Allowing wildlife to thrive in our gardens without compromising our own enjoyment, effectively doubles the area of nature reserves, provides corridors for creatures to spread and joins up populations. Why does this matter? Well after a century or so of drifting away from nature, society has rediscovered the reality that we are part of the ecosystem, that we need nature physiologically and for our mental health. So as you resume gardening, perhaps after a holiday, garden for yourself, garden for nature and allow a few edges to fray.

Happy Gardening from Alison