If you’re lucky enough to have your own patch of green you might be thinking about gardening for wildlife. How you can encourage everything that crawls, hops and flies and provide a habitat for them. Beasts, bugs and birds have always fascinated us here at Visit Fylde Coast, so we thought we’d share some of our own forays into the subject… We’re far from experts in the subject but it might give you some tips and encouragement! All of these photos are taken here in our garden.
I enjoy gardening – always have done from being young. And I’ve always loved wildlife – in fact animals of all kinds. Today in my garden I aim for a neat wilderness – if that makes sense! Blending the best of both worlds to create a colourful cottage garden style of planting – which is homes and habitats for wildlife. The best of both worlds!
How we started Gardening for Wildlife
We’ll be looking at how we’ve been gardening for wildlife in our own little plot here at Visit Fylde Coast. How gradually, with time and small changes, our garden has become a bit of a haven for those fascinating beasts, bugs and birds.
When we bought our house at Cleveleys, like so many others in the area, the front and back gardens were paved over. Not ideal because a) it was all broken with the dreaded (and difficult to remove) mares tail coming through the cracks. B) it all held loads of standing water and created flooding every time it rained (made worse by the underlying clay). And c) it was hard work continually sweeping up the sand and windblown litter!
I’ve always enjoyed gardening so one of the first things we did was remove the paving and lay a lawn with borders. Very traditional and certainly an improvement. But our lawn was religiously cut and kept short – and fed with chemical feed and weed. Two things that aren’t ideal.
Planting Hedge Plants
Not used to being overlooked by neighbours, next we planted a hedge and trees around the perimeter. Useful for creating privacy but so many other advantages to this now mature boundary of trees.
We wanted an instant tall hedge so we bought an assortment of tall hawthorn saplings. Between it we planted all kinds of everything. There’s fruit trees, bought as tiny saplings in plastic bags from supermarkets. Climbing roses and honeysuckle twist through the branches with their flowers and scent. We’ve got ornamental cherry trees, mountain ash and even an outdoor grapevine! Over the years they’ve been woven and trimmed, tied together with miles of string and pruned into shape.
Now reasonably dense with hardly any gaps, planting hedge plants all those years ago rewards us in spades. Practically it breaks the endless wind as it blows across the garden. And we’ve got a completely private garden, despite being surrounded by neighbours.
and Planting Border Plants
It might be easier to ask what we haven’t got in our garden! There’s a little bit of everything! Along with the backdrop and skeleton of trees there’s evergreen infill plants so that winter doesn’t look bare and desolate. Many of the now-huge plants were bought as tiny little things in plastic bags from local supermarkets. Like the vast bay tree that reaches (and passes) the gutter on the bottom of the bottom house wall. And each year it’s home to a variety of birds nests – helped by the bit of structure which keep it fastened to the wall!
There’s climbers, roses, honeysuckle and clematis – and even an outdoor grape vine. The firework flowers of alliums burst out of the borders – along with leeks grown for their flowers too. Plenty of herbs including the feathery form of fennel, borage, lavender and monarda, plus chives – even more from the onion family! And loads of simple flowers too – the daisy type – which bees love. Their simple form makes it easy to get to the nectar.
It’s also a fabulous habitat for wildlife which is endlessly interesting to watch. The birds love the shelter and cover, darting in and out of the leaves. They eat the aphids and caterpillars which breed in the thick growth – unchecked by pesticides and controlled only by the wildlife.
There’s a few pests about and one or two dense patches of blackfly. But by and large we don’t get the large scale infestations that you get with frequent pesticide use. If there is an explosion of bugs I either cut the affected bits of plant off or blast them with the hosepipe.
Overgrown Borders
If you came in my garden – especially during midsummer – you’d say that our borders are overgrown! And that’s just how we like them – both me and the wildlife!
A big, blousy style of planting has always appealed, with dense blocks of plants and colour. I’m not a big fan of regimented corporation planting – neat rows with hoed soil between. It’s personal choice, but it also comes with advantages. The plant cover reduces evaporation to conserve the rain water that falls – and it all creates shelter beneath it. It also supresses weed growth which can only be a good thing.
In my garden the borders have always been tidy from the front – I dead head, prune, snip and tie plants in just like any ‘normal’ gardener would do. Towards the back of the borders though, life pretty much looks after itself! Especially in winter. Fallen leaves stay in place, hiding food for birds and eventually rotting to feed the soil.
Wildlife Pond
If you want a wildlife garden, this is a gamechanger! Putting in a pond in is the single biggest thing you can do to boost biodiversity in your garden, according to the Wildlife Trusts. They estimate that half a million ponds have been lost in the UK in the last century – 90% of the total. And they warn that one in five of those that remain are in poor condition. If you look at old maps of Cleveleys they show pond after pond, all over the area. They’re all lost – drained and gone – mostly to housing. This is why they are so keen that more of us put ponds in our gardens.
My little wildlife pond has already made a big difference – even though it’s only been there a few years. Birds and mice use it to drink from (although my fussy flock prefer fresh, clean tap water!) We’ve even installed a landing pad/escape route in the form of a plank!
The biggest surprise was a whopping great big dragonfly nymph. Which kindly left it’s unwanted skin behind for us to marvel at. Our pond has all the minute water creatures and larvae, pond skaters and water boatmen. Pond plants grow in a tangle, creating a dense and protective habitat for anything which chooses to live or hide there. Frogs cool off on sunny days and their tadpoles make it home for several months.
Going Wilder…
In the autumn of 2023 I put hubby on a warning that we wouldn’t be buying any more ‘Weed, Feed & Mosskiller’. To be fair he’s successfully looked after the lawns well and his grassy domain always been immaculate. Even if he’s had little idea about the things that grow around the edges!
With a terraced back garden and relatively little lawn, mowing has always seemed like hard work. What would happen if we stopped mowing the back lawns and wilded them instead?
This experiment started with wilding the tiny little lawn at the side of the wildlife pond. With a central patch of turf stripped out I planted a mixture of ornamental, taller grasses and prairie style plants – rudbekia and achilleas – to create a loose, airy look. Over the months I’ve added all kinds of everything – or it’s appeared! Cornflowers and daisies, wildflower plugs and ‘weeds’ – they all blend together with flowers bobbing in the breeze.
It’s been one mass of bees and insects of all shapes and sizes. I didn’t expect miracles straight off and I’m not entirely sure I’ve got it entirely right. But I’ll keep making adjustments and changes until it feels like it should.
What to do with the other back garden lawn?
Down on the slightly bigger bottom lawn, initially we just left it to its own devices. It was interesting to see what happened – how it grew and whether a meadow appeared. Around the less-disturbed edges wild geranium appeared – where from I’ve no idea. Some of my plants sprawled out and seeded into the grass – poppies and campanula. A few daisies bloomed and some buttercups! But it’s not really big enough to turn into a meadow, largely because the central area gets a fair bit of traffic. So I’ve mowed the central bit and left the edges – now the lawn edging has disappeared under a fluff of flowers!
I’m not sure what to do with this space yet, I’m sure with trial and error something will emerge. But I do know that I like this loose and natural type of planting that you get when you’re gardening for wildlife. We’ve put a hotch-potch path down to the shed and have an idea for the sunny side. Like all gardens it’s a work in progress!
In my garden this year…
- No chemical pesticides
- Introduced a ‘meadow’ lawn
- Added wildflowers and weeds
- Fruit trees
- Scruffy corner
- Untouched borders
- x hawthorn trees planted as a hedge
- x trees
- lots of simple flowers – much loved by bees and insects
- Mullein moth caterpillars spotted for the first time
- Bees of all shapes and sizes
- Lots of resident ants
- Bird feeders
- Roosting pouches and places
- Insect hotels
- Bird boxes
- Clean drinking water
- Wild pond
- Frogs and tadpoles
- Dragonfly larva
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