Every May, the charity Plantlife encourages garden owners and green space managers to take part in “No Mow May”. By not mowing your grass, Plantlife says you will be “liberating your lawns and providing a space for nature”. And we think this is a fantastic idea and something we strongly encourage you to do. Here’s why!
Since the 1970s the UK has lost nearly 97% of its flower rich meadows. Not only is this a huge loss of plant life, but it’s a huge loss of food sources for pollinators too. As we all know, pollinators are essential for life on earth and so we should be helping them out where we can. And it can’t get much easier than not mowing your lawn, can it?!
Leaving your lawn for the month will allow wildflowers to grow and flower. These will provide vital food sources for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, as well as looking really rather beautiful too. Flowers such as clover and daisies, dandelions and buttercups will flower, but you may be surprised by what other wildflowers grow too.
As well as providing food sources for pollinators, allowing your lawn to go wild can also help to tackle pollution and can lock away atmospheric carbon below ground. It’s definitely something that could make a significant difference to the environment, especially as there are over 20 million gardens in the UK. Imagine the increase in wildflower areas if even just 10% of people joined in!
Once May is over, perhaps you would consider leaving your lawn to develop into a wildflower meadow. If converting the whole lawn won’t work for you, perhaps a section of it could be allowed to rewild? Not only would there be great benefits for pollinators and wildflower populations, but it would be a beautiful addition to your garden space too. Below you can see a photo of a meadow area that started life as a section of unmown lawn. We have developed this over several years to become a beautiful, species rich area, with lots of native and non-native flowering plants and wildflowers. If you’d like to rewild an area of your lawn, we’ve written more about how to do this here. We highly recommend it!
One of the great pleasures of having a garden is watching wildlife use it; be that butterflies, bees or birds. But all too often, new clients of ours say they aren’t getting much wildlife in their garden. Usually, the reason for this is that there isn’t enough there to attract these welcome visitors. The good news is that it’s really rather easy to change this – you just need to provide food or shelter, or both! There are lots of ways that you can do this – some big and some small. Here are six ideas to help get your started.
As well as providing beauty, shade and privacy to a garden, trees are brilliant for wildlife, and some more so than others.
Firstly, you can choose a tree that produces blossom and fruits. These will feed pollinators with the nectar and pollen from the flowers, and birds with the fruits. For example, a native hawthorn (there are two to choose from) is the food source for many caterpillars, produces nectar and pollen that feeds many pollinators including bees, and then the fruits produced are eaten by birds. The birds will visit the tree to eat the caterpillars and other insects that are in it. It’s a beautiful choice, as you can see in this photo of its blossom.
Birds also make use of the shelter and cover trees provide. They are elevated positions from which birds can safely observe the garden looking for water, food and for predators. Birds can retreat to the tree if a predator comes by, they need a rest or to shelter from bad weather.
Our tree of choice for all round value to wildlife is a native hawthorn, but there are lots of other trees which are of great benefit too. You can read more about other trees (and shrubs) for wildlife here.
Adding shrubs or hedging has a similar effect to trees. They provide food, shelter and habitats to pollinators, insects and birds.
If you are able, you can use hedging instead of fencing to enable wildlife to easily travel through it, including crawling under it, which is of great benefit if you are trying to encourage hedgehogs into your garden.
A mixed hedge will provide for a wider range of insects and pollinators as well as helping create a relaxed, natural feel in the garden. We love including hawthorn, blackthorn and euonymous europea (pictured here with its incredible autumn fruit) but there are lots of options to choose from.
If you prefer a more formal looking hedge with just one type of plant in it, you could opt for something that flowers and fruits so will provide food as well as shelter, but even if your choice doesn’t do that, a hedge will still provide shelter for insects and birds.
This is probably the easiest thing you can do to make a relatively easy and instant impact to your garden’s appearance alongside encouraging more wildlife. So many flowering plants are beneficial to insects. Encouraging more insects will in turn encourage more birds who will eat the insects helping to create a balanced and healthy ecosystem.
With flowers comes beauty and colour. Our very top choice would be Nepeta but really any nectar-rich plants are ideal. You can read in more detail about our favourite small plants for pollinators here.
When planning your planting, it’s worth considering successional flowering. Not only will this mean you can enjoy the beauty of your garden is in flower for a longer period of time, but food will be provided for longer too. This will keep the pollinators in your garden and with them birds.
Choosing plants that produce seed heads too will provide winter interest as well as food for bird in the Autumn and Winter. Verbena bonariensis produces seeds which are enjoyed by finches, and when in flower it is beloved by butterflies especially. Plants with hollow stems will provide good hibernating habitats for insects over winter too, buddleia for example are good for this. This brings us on to point 4 below…
It’s really important that insects not only have food provided, but places to live too. This will mean they aren’t just passing through, which will mean birds regularly visit your garden too. Insects don’t ask for much! Leaf piles, stick piles and old wood provide lots of nooks and crannies to live in. Half burring a log so that it starts to rot down will create a perfect habitat for stag beetle larvae that live underground feeding off of rotting wood for 3-7 years!
Creating a bug hotel is a great idea, and not only makes for a designated place within the garden for leaves to be stacked up, but is a great way to get children interested in insects and gardening too. You can make a bug hotel in lots of different ways but be sure to provide lots of different sized areas for different insects to make their homes in. You can create different layers or compartments and use fallen leaves or stacks of bark or twigs near the bottom to create spaces that can be crawled into for hibernation.
You can also buy kits from which to make bug hotels, or you can make them from scratch using materials you have available – for example, logs, offcuts of wood, stacks of roof tiles, layers of broken plant pots, twigs and sticks that have fallen from trees and bamboo canes all make for great habitats for wildlife.
You can also build specific bee houses. These are for solitary bees who nest in hollows as well as some who lay their eggs in tubes and seal them with leaves. Again, you can buy kits for these with lots of different sized holes to provide habitats for different species, or make your own. It’s important that the insides of the tubes are smooth so as not to damage the bee or the larvae.
These sorts of projects are wonderful ways to get children involved in the garden and perhaps a fun Easter holiday activity? Read more about creating habitats for beetles here.
As well as adding trees, shrubs and/or hedging you can help birds to build their nests by leaving twigs, long grass, leaves and even pet hair in the garden from which they can build their nests.
You can also install bird boxes. Different birds like different styles of boxes so if you have certain birds in your garden that you want to provide for, or certain ones you’d like to encourage, have a check of what sort of box they prefer. For example, robins like open fronted boxes, while a blue tit prefers a box with a small hole.
The site of the box needs to be safe, with natural cover and a clear flight path to the entrance. It should be north east facing so that it won’t overheat inside and tilted slightly forward to that rainwater runs clear of the entrance. It needs to be in a spot that predators such as domestic cats can’t easily reach.
It is said that the single best way to encourage wildlife to your garden is to add water. This acts as a place for wildlife to drink, eggs to be laid, food to be caught. It will encourage frogs who are hugely beneficial for keeping slug populations under control. Again, this can be a great project to help inspire children to get out into the garden more and engage with wildlife too. You can add a bird bath, a shallow dish of water filled with pebbles or go full on with a wildlife pond dug into the ground. Read in more detail about why you should add a wildlife pond to your garden here.
We hope you have found some inspiration here for how to encourage more wildlife into your garden. Lastly, it would be remiss not to say one of the most important things for wildlife – and that is to never, ever use chemical pesticides. They are harmful to not only the intended target, but to water systems, other plants and creatures, the soil, pollinators and to humans. There is no need to use them in our gardens. Establishing a balanced ecosystem in your garden will do much more for keeping pests and weeds at bay, as will careful, organic garden care.
You can read more of our wildlife tips here – and do drop us an email if you have any questions or would like some help making your garden as wildlife friendly as possible!
Whether it’s a small pool from which birds, insects and small mammals can drink or a full-on wildlife pond, it will bring huge benefits. The more natural your water, the better (ideally, no fish!), but any water is better than none.
We’ve written this article to try and convince you that your garden needs a pond. Not just for the wildlife, but for you too!
From amphibians such as frogs and newts to aquatic insects, garden birds, mammals and flying insects. They will become the most biodiverse part of your garden, and quickly, too. Usually, within a few weeks of creation, ponds will have visitors, drinking from them and building homes.
Many creatures, including bees, birds and hedgehogs, will use ponds to drink from, perching on lily pads, rocks, pebbles or other plants in the water. But the water isn’t just needed for drinking. Birds will bathe in the water, helping them to keep clean all year round and to regulate their temperature in the hotter months. Honey bees collect water to cool their hives in the summer and control the humidity. They also use it to create the food they feed young bees in the hives.
Encouraging newts, frogs and toads into your garden is an excellent idea… and they will undoubtedly be very encouraged by the presence of a pond! All three of these creatures will eat slugs and snails, helping to keep population sizes under control and prevent too much damage to your vegetable patch or flowers. These three creatures need water to reproduce, all laying their eggs/spawn in the water (newts lay their eggs on the leaves of water plants and then fold them over, whereas frogs and toads lay spawn).
Frogs will hibernate in ponds over winter, buried in mud at the bottom of ponds (they take in oxygen through their skin, so oxygenating plants in the pond are a must).
Ponds are full of life and bring so much wildlife and increased biodiversity to your garden, but they are not just good for nature. The benefits of being near water for us humans are proven, too. It is calming, lowers our blood pressure and improves our mental health.
Creating a spot to sit near your pond will allow you to observe all of the wildlife as it uses the water and to watch the reflections and ripples.
Children absolutely love exploring ponds – watching the wildlife come and go or peeking under rocks to see what they can find fuels their love of nature and appreciation of the outdoor world. The ultimate screen-free fun!
On top of this, ponds look beautiful too and can be a focal point if you want them to be, or work equally well as a discreet, secluded feature. There is a pond for every garden, and size doesn’t matter –any water is a huge bonus! If you have a petite plot, you could consider adding a container pond using a small barrel or bucket or even an old butler’s sink –all these options work brilliantly in paved gardens or courtyards, or they can be dug into the ground and lined if necessary.
If you have more space, consider creating a larger pond surrounded by beneficial plants and habitats for you and the wildlife to enjoy.
We hope we have convinced you of the enormous benefits of having a wildlife pond in your garden. We will also create articles on how to site and prepare your pond –keep an eye out for that and let us know if you have any particular questions, and we will try our best to cover them in another article.
Hot weather and drought aren’t only a danger to the plants in our garden, but to the wildlife too. Dehydration, overheating and lack of access to food are big issues for wildlife during hot weather. Here are six easy things you can do to help out.
This may sound a strange one to start our list with but for many pollinators and birds, keeping your beneficial plants alive is one of the top ways to help them during a heat wave. Stressed, dehydrated or dying plants won’t be producing good quantities of nectar and/or fruits so it is really important to keep flowering and fruiting plants as healthy as possible in order that they can produce food for our wildlife. This will most likely be achieved through watering well and with the imminent hosepipe ban you can choose which plants are the most important to water with your watering can.
Provide “rehydration stations” for birds, bees and other insects
If you don’t already have water stations in your garden, you can fill shallow dishes with water. Pop some pebbles in there too for small birds and insects to perch on to access the water. Be sure to keep these topped up and clean. Importantly, especially if you have cats in your garden, don’t tuck them into bushes where predators can wait hidden from them. They are better in the open in order that birds can spot any dangers coming their way.
With insects and worms harder to come by in the hard, dehydrated ground, birds are hungry. Provide food for them to eat and leave flowers with seed heads for them too.
Hedgehogs will also be struggling to find food in the ground. If you have hedgehogs in your garden or area, you can buy hedgehog food from many garden centres, pet shops or online to leave out for them. And you can leave water bowls too.
Bathing is very important for birds to keep clean and free from pests and diseases, and to help them regulate their temperature. Create a bird bath in a washing up tub or similar to help them keep clean and cool off.
Leave piles of leaves and logs, areas of long grass and bushy plants to provide shaded spots for wildlife to rest in. Don’t be too tidy!
Pond water levels will be lower at the moment If you don’t have a water butt to refill from (and many will be empty by now anyway), make sure that you create improved access to the new water level. You may need to add ramps or move plants about a bit to enable safe entry and exit.
To try and slow the evaporation and heating up of the water (especially if you have fish), you can also try to create some more shade over the pond. It’s a delicate balance though as you don’t want the whole pond to be shaded and for the plants to have plenty of light to enable them to grow. Check on the concentration of plants and weeds too under the water as with decreased water volume, space in which to swim and move through the water will be decreasing too. Remove as much as is necessary but leave anything taken out alongside the pond for a day or two to allow any creatures living in it to make their way back to the water.
If you can only do one or two of these things the wildlife and your garden will thank you for it. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed for some rain very soon!
There are over 4,000 species of beetle in Britain. Chances are you have some in your garden! Whilst some can be a pest – such as the bright red lily beetle – many beetles are really beneficial for the garden and as such, something you want to encourage.
The reason beetles are valuable garden inhabitants is because many are predatory. Often nocturnal, they feed on slugs, snails and other invertebrates, helping to keep populations under control and plant damage to a minimum. Ladybirds (a type of beetle) feast on aphids and are really the more ecologically sound way to control populations feasting on your plants.
You can encourage beetles in your garden by making sure you have suitable habitats for them to live in. Here are a few ideas :
We have all seen bug hotels which can provide multiple habitats for insects in the garden. Some of the shop bought ones can work well if sited in a good spot (generally this means hidden away and surrounded by vegetation!), but it is better to create your own by stacking up pallets or pieces of wood with bricks in between, and filling them full of decaying wood, logs, leaves, pine cones and so on. To ensure yours attracts beetles, make sure it has piles of leaves at the bottom for beetles to crawl into. Many beetles lay eggs in decaying leaf piles and they can overwinter in them too. You can also stack stones on the ground level in which beetles can hide and sleep during the day.
Log or stone piles are a great place for beetles to rest during the day. You can easily incorporate these within your borders, behind shrubs and trees, so they are relatively hidden and a subtle addition to the garden. Different beetles will hide in them and come out when it’s time to eat, whether that be at night to predate slugs and snails, or during the day to feast on aphids. If the wood is already decaying – even better!
Decaying wood is essential for many beetles including the stag beetle. Their larvae feed on the decaying wood under the ground and will reside in it for between three and seven years! To create a suitable habitat to support this, part bury logs in a shaded, relatively damp spot. You can plant around them to help integrate the wood piles into your garden.
If you collect fallen leaves into piles, or have an open sided compost heap, these make for excellent beetle habitats. The beetles can come and go as they please, larvae can feed on visiting slugs and snails and decaying matter, and it’s a safe place in which to hide or overwinter.
We hope this will give you some good ideas and you will find that attracting more beetles to your garden will help with slug and snail pests!
We often speak about “lower impact” garden design, but what do we mean by this?
We certainly don’t mean that the garden leaves less of an impression (!) but rather that its creation has as low an impact on the environment as possible. Clearly there is a balance between having a usable, inviting space to suit our clients’ needs and the garden’s environmental impact. But we make design choices with the environment and ongoing benefits of the garden firmly in our mind. Above you can see a concept design that was designed to be low impact, and as you can see, none of the aesthetics or practical uses have had to be compromised. We have just made considered design choices.
Here are ten ways we make our gardens lower impact:
When designing paths and patios, we try to keep hard surfaces permeable. This allows rainwater to return to the earth. Clay pavers, decking and gravel are all great choices. If you prefer the aesthetic of a stone patio or path, you can use gravel or grass between the slabs.
We also use reclaimed materials wherever possible. Whether this be reclaimed bricks for a pathway, or reclaimed wood for raised planters or furniture. Recycling and reusing is important so if there are materials in the garden that can be used in the redesign, we will take this into consideration. It can help with costs too, although reusing paving is not always as cost effective as we would like as it involves chipping off the old mortar before it can be re-laid.
Concrete is sometimes necessary to secure pavers and large structures that need to be strong (i.e. pergolas that have a swing on for example). However, not all structures need to be fitted with concrete. We have successfully used ground screws on a number of projects now including bases for summer houses, benches, screening and pergolas, including this one:
They don’t require the use of concrete or much digging as they screw into the ground, so this reduces disturbance of the soil and the creatures which live in it. Planting around them is also much easier as there is no concrete footing to contend with.
Another way of avoiding concrete use for retaining walls is to use gabions – wire cages filled with stone, rocks, or pebbles. These have the added bonus of being great habitats for insects to hide in, and even for plants to grow out from – think a sea cliff with plants growing out of rocks.
Including an intended area for wildflowers to grow not only creates a beautiful, whimsical, meadow feel to the space, but it is highly beneficial for pollinating insects. Allowing weeds – aka wildflowers – a spot in your garden will encourage insects which will in turn encourage birds too.
We also recommend having a section of meadow lawn/whole meadow lawn if you don’t want or need a traditional one! These are really beautiful additions to a garden and provide an ever changing, species rich blanket from Spring to Autumn. We have written a blog about creating a meadow lawn here.
A ratio of 20:80 hard:soft landscaping is a good aim, but really as much planting as you can fit in the better. This is obviously a decision to be made alongside the creation of usable seating/dining spaces. We like to include seats amongst flower beds, or suspend hammocks over planting to create restful spaces immersed in plants. In a smaller space this ratio might not be possible – but by adding vertical planting such as climbers on all fences and walls, up pergola posts and other structures, and considering a green wall system – we can really increase the planting volume and therefore the benefits for both the people and the wildlife using the garden.
If you have a tucked away area behind a garage or shed, or can create a screen with a climber or large shrub or tree, this would be an ideal spot for a compost heap. Most garden waste can be put here to break down turning garden waste into free compost! If it can’t be hidden away, you can also buy attractive looking bee-hive style compost bins – and could even paint them a pretty colour.
Water butts need to be situated near a downpipe, so along the side of a house or garden office or shed would be ideal. If you have lots of space you can even interconnect multiple water butts. If you don’t have space to tuck one out of sight, you can get more attractive water butts with space for planting on top so if you grew some trailing plants in them they would soon be able to blend into your garden planting scheme. Rainwater is better for watering with than tap water, and it’s free to collect!
Peatlands are important carbon stores and habitats. It is vital they are protected in the fight against climate change and so we don’t use any composts or soils containing peat. We also buy from trade nurseries that have now switched to peat free growing. There is still a long way to go here and the current alternatives are not perfect, but it is a good start.
We design our gardens to be spaces for wildlife to prosper and we try to use a variety of habitats which all make great points of interest for children and adults alike. Simple log piles are great places for insects, amphibians and small mammals to feed, shelter, and maybe spend the winter in – as is a compost heap. Solitary bee houses can easily be added amongst planting or wildflower areas. A pond is an absolutely brilliant habitat and supports so many species – see more on this below. Allowing holes/gaps in boundaries enables hedgehogs and other creatures to move between gardens and increases their patch to roam and feed, which gives them a better chance of survival and reproduction. You can also include specific hedgehog habitats and houses, or simply make a large log pile or dead hedge to provide somewhere for them to shelter. Don’t forget to be careful with your compost heap in the spring as you might be lucky enough to find one hibernating in there! You can add bird and bat boxes, and as we mentioned earlier gabion walls can also be a great habitat. In short, we design our gardens to be full of life and to work as well for wildlife as their human inhabitants.
We never use any chemical pesticides in our gardens. These are very damaging for wildlife and really unnecessary. The best way to reduce pests in your garden is to encourage predators such as beetles and birds. Pests such as greenfly, which can damage your plants, can be removed by hand and with the help of a gentle hose. Where pest populations really cannot be controlled, biological controls such as nematodes can be used as a last resort.
Even small gardens can have space for a pond. A pond is the very best way of encouraging more wildlife to your garden – as well as providing natural bird baths and drinking stations, they also provide a habitat for a multitude of species from pond skaters to dragonflies and damselflies, as well as the more obvious inhabitants such as frogs, toads and newts. Frogs and toads are of course excellent slug and snail predators! Creating a healthy ecosystem is what it is all about, and a pond is the best way to start this off or improve what you already have. They can be as small as just a little barrel with some potted plants, or a much larger, more natural looking pond.
Careful selection of plants is a great way to give back to the environment with your outdoor space. There are lots of things that this can mean including:
We hope this has been food for thought on how you can make your garden design as low impact as possible. If you would like to get in touch to see what we can do for you, please send us a message here.
Inspired by our love for wildlife friendly gardens and No Mow May we thought we’d write this month about how to create a wilder, meadow-style lawn in your garden.
So often gardens have a big expanse of lawn that is under utilised and have very little value for wildlife. Have you considered creating a wilder area of lawn – either the whole of it if you find you don’t use it much, or a section of it which can have a path mown through it? Meadow-style areas can be a really beautiful addition to your garden, not to mention excellent for wildlife. As we start using our gardens more and more as the weather improves, it’s a good time to start thinking about how you use, or rather want to use, your garden and planning changes for your lawn so you’re ready to hit the ground running when it’s time.
First off, and depending on the time of year, we suggest following No Mow May and leaving the lawn to grow throughout the month of May and seeing what comes up. You may just have grass to start with, especially if your lawn has been chemically treated in the past. But more likely than not you will start to see a selection of wildflowers pretty quickly – the problem can then become that the grass will out-compete these other species. So, come late Autumn you should cut the lawn very short, rake or scarify it and sow Rhianthus minor seeds, better known as Yellow Rattle. Yellow Rattle is semi-parasitic to grass so it will weaken its vigour which prepares the area for other wildflowers to grow well (more on the adding wildflowers later in this post). Without Yellow Rattle the grasses will always end up taking over so it is an essential part of developing your standard lawn into a wilder, more species rich one.
Before you sow your Yellow Rattle, you can also plant bulbs through the lawn. Scatter these on the ground so you get a natural look and layout. Our favourites to include are crocus, a succession of narcissus/daffodils to flower from February/March to April, fritillaria and camassia which will give you a flowering time of around February to end of May. We also love Leucojum – also know as ‘Summer snowflake’ – which despite their name actually flower in the Spring, and are a bit like a large snowdrop (more on snowdrops below!).
Crocus, which will flower first, are so cheerful and an important source of early nectar for pollinators. They are low growing, only around 10cm, but as they emerge at a time when the grass is still short they should be very visible. More is more with crocus (well with all bulbs in fact!), and we recommend starting with as many as you can, ideally a few hundred crocus as they are small and look really effective en-masse. Fortunately they are a pretty cost effective bulb!
A range of narcissus/daffodils and fritillaria will provide more nectar as well as colour. Narcissus pseudonarcissus is a native daffodil so a great one to include, although can take a while to establish – once happy it will spread. We like to add other Daffodils too for extra interest and to elongate the flowering time of the area. One of our favourites is Narcissus Geranium which smells beautiful and naturalises well.
Fritillaria meleagris (Snake’s head fritillary) are a really delicate addition pollinated by bees. They come in purple and white and their nodding heads are truly beautiful.
Last of the bulbs to plant in your meadow in the Autumn are camassias. These come in blue and white and in varying heights and they flower in May, providing nectar for several types of bee, hoverflies and some beetles so are a very wildlife friendly addition. We absolutely love them – one of our favourite bulbs!
It is perfectly possible to add tulips and/or alliums to the meadow lawns too. These too should be planted in the autumn. Many tulips are not perennial and so won’t return year on year. Even those labelled as perennial can be a little unreliable. If you’d like to try alliums, short varieties such as Allium amplectens Graceful Beauty, Allium Cowanii or Allium Roseum would be a lovely choice.
This may seem like a lot of bulbs to add – and as we said, more is more. So it might be an idea to start with one or two species, such as Daffodils and/or Crocus, and then add more bulbs in subsequent years.
This is all we recommend for the first year – getting the rattle sown and some bulbs added. Don’t mow the grass over the winter or spring. If you really wanted to you could mow after the bulbs have totally died back in late spring but we prefer to just pull the bulb foliage out by hand once it has gone completely brown and comes away very easily. Then just let the grass grow all spring and summer and see what emerges – you may be pleasantly surprised! Don’t worry if you don’t have much in that first year, especially if you have had the lawn treated in the past. If the rattle is doing it’s job and there are some slightly bare patches of grass, then wildflowers (aka weeds!) will gradually find those patches and start to emerge. It may take a few years so be patient – remembering that plants which naturally sow and establish themselves will almost certainly be happier than ones you choose to plant!
Once your rattle has established and is happily self sowing every year (perhaps with a little help from you, shaking the seedheads around in areas where you have less rattle) and you have seen what has emerged naturally, you can start to think about adding some more wildflowers. Perhaps repeat what has already emerged as these species successfully germinated in your garden conditions. Other great additions are Oxeye Daisy, Ragged Robin, Red or White Campion, Achillea……there are many to choose from and there are also several excellent, organic suppliers of wildflower seeds and plugs.
You can sow perennial wildflower seeds in Autumn (a year or two after you begin your meadow project) either as individual species or a perennial wildflower seed mix. Note this is very different to the many annual wildflower mixes available, which will flower one year and only come back the following year if they self sow or you re-sow them. It is perfectly possible to have an annual meadow area however it takes more work every year, whereas a perennial wildflower meadow should get better year on year with minimal intervention (but perhaps a little more work to start with!).
So, if you can, we suggest opting for perennial wildflowers, either buying seed of individual species to sow into trays, or a seed mix to sow directly. Another option is to buy perennial wildflower plugs. As mentioned above, it really isn’t a good idea to sow seeds directly into the lawn in the first year because until the Yellow Rattle establishes and weakens the vigour of the grass, they can easily get out competed. If you are really keen to get sowing, you could sow them in seed trays and grow them on until the rattle has taken hold – however this means keeping them alive for at least a year!
The wildflowers that will work well in your lawn will vary depending on your soil type – most of the wildflower websites allow you to filter to see which are good for different types of soil, e.g. clay, sandy etc. The majority do need to be sown in Autumn to have a period of cold before they germinate.
As mentioned, you can buy seed mixes as well as individual seed varieties. We recommend going for individual varieties if you are sowing into seed trays. If you are going to sow directly into the grass once the rattle has established, you could try a seed mix, but generally the plants will establish better when grown on into plugs before planting out. You should sow directly or into trays in the Autumn.
You can also sow the seed mixes onto bare soil (and this is often assumed on the seed instructions) so if you are just creating a wildflower area in a border, rather than changing a grassy lawn to a wild lawn, you can go ahead and sow directly. Or, you may decide to remove your existing lawn, prepare the soil and sow – however you will still need Yellow Rattle as any grass roots left in the soil will soon colonise, or nearby grassy areas will spread and sow.
An alternative to sowing your own seeds is to buy plug plants or small plants in the Spring. These in theory should establish more quickly and reliably. Please note they will need to be carefully looked after though and watered regularly once planted. When you are planting plugs, manually remove some of the grass from the immediate surrounding area to help them to establish. It is even possible to buy 9cm or 1-2 litre pots of some wildflower varieties and plant these out in a grass area. This uses more established plants so if you are looking for a quicker impact it could be a good option. Again we really recommend letting the yellow rattle become established first.
Finally, in the Spring you can add in Bluebells (make sure you go for our native variety) and Snowdrops which are best planted “in the green” i.e. not as a bare bulb but as a bulb with foliage attached which will be lifted and shipped to you just after flowering. These make for a lovely addition to a wilder lawn and are again a very pollinator friendly choice. They can take a few years to establish, but once they have done so they will naturalise and spread gradually.
If you are after a quicker way to an instant wildflower meadow, you can buy wildflower turf. For this option you would need to remove your existing turf using a turf cutter in Autumn, leave it for 4 weeks and remove any regrowth. Plant your chosen bulbs and then immediately lay a wildflower turf over the top of them. Be sure to pick one which is not grown on a plastic netting (try Harrowden Turf for meadow turfs which are a mix of grasses and wildflowers or Lindum turf if you’re just after a wildflower mix). These usually have a tried and tested mix of species which should work well together for many years to come – check they are suitable for your soil and site conditions first. This can have a really fast impact, but is a much more costly outlay to begin with.
Annuals and perennials are usually the first things to spring to mind when thinking about planting for pollinators… bright flowers in summer aflush with bees. But whilst these sorts of flowers are most certainly adored by pollinators, trees and shrubs actually provide 60% of nectar sugar for pollinators in our gardens. So, when choosing trees or shrubs, it really is worth considering whether they will benefit pollinators too. Trees and shrubs will also encourage birds to your garden – they provide shelter for nesting and perching as well as food from their fruits and the insects that will visit them too.
Here’s a list of some of our favourites…
A native small, rounded tree with beautiful large white blossoms with tinges of pink in the Spring and yellowy green or sometimes red tinted fruits in the autumn. Pollinators love the flowers and birds and small mammals the fruits. There are numerous different varieties which vary in size. Malus Evereste is one of our favourites. Be sure to pick a variety with single flowers, not double, so the pollinators can enjoy the nectar.
A stalwart of the British hedgerow but equally popular as a standard tree, Hawthorns are loved for their berries by birds and for their nectar rich blossoms by insects. There are two native to the UK, Crataegus monogyna and Crataegus laevigata, both of which work well as trees in small urban gardens. They like full sun to part shade and require little to no pruning, unless you are growing them as a hedge. Look out for Crataegus monogyna compacta, a dwarf variety which is also said to be thornless.
Amelanchiers are beautiful trees or shrubs with delicate white flowers in Spring and incredible Autumn colour. They are an excellent and increasingly popular choice for small gardens for exactly this reason. On top of this, their blossoms are great for bees and the berries will attract birds, especially robins and blackbirds.
There are several varieties to choose from but all have stunning blossoms and autumn colour. Amelanchier Canadensis Rainbow Pillar is a great choice if you are limited on space, it grows to approximately 4m high and 2.5 wide in 20 years so has a narrow shape but all the benefits. As ever, check each variety’s specific needs but generally Amelanchiers do best in full sun but are happy in part shade. You will certainly get the best Autumn colour by planting in a sunny spot.
Attractive to bees, butterflies, other beneficial insects and birds, Sorbus aucuparia – otherwise known as Mountain Ash or Rowan – is a great choice as a wildlife friendly tree. With blossoms in spring and berries in the autumn it provides much food for wildlife as well as seasonal interest for us. It has an upright habit and likes full sun to partial shade, and gives lovely leaf colour in Autumn. There are many varieties with different colour blossom and berries, just be sure to check the expected eventual size.
Shrubs can sometimes be a little undervalued but often provide the structure in a planting bed, evergreen colour, pretty blossom and a beautiful foil against which perennials and annuals can be set. We love the following not only for their appearance but for the fact that they are pollinator magnets too!
Mahonia provide a pop of yellow at a time when colour in the garden can be lacking, and they have the most beautiful scent. Flowering time varies from variety to variety but is generally sometime between November and March. Adored by bees, these early sources of nectar come in many varieties from low ground cover plants to large focal shrubs for architectural interest in a border. They are evergreen and have a deep green leaf with serrated edges and produce a blue/black berry in the autumn. One of our favourite smaller varieties is Mahonia eurybracteata ‘Soft Caress’ which has slender leaves and is happily grown in a container too. Plant it in part shade and it will reward you with it’s pretty foliage and sweet scented blooms.
Commonly known as sweetbox, Sarcococca is an evergreen shrub which produces tiny but highly fragranced white flowers in winter, followed by glossy black berries. Requiring full or partial shade, Sarcococca offers a great choice for sometimes trickier sites and when planted along a pathway or near an entrance, the scent can be enjoyed even when we are spending less time outside in winter. What’s more, honeybees especially enjoy the nectar in the winter when there is little else to forage from.
A multi stemmed deciduous shrub, Heptacodium miconioides is a fantastic specimen plant for full sun or partial shade. It can reach up to 6m tall and has creamy-white flowers in the late Summer that are fragranced and followed by pinkish-red calyxes. The leaves are rather exotic looking and the bark is decorative too and peels off in yellowish flakes. If you raise its canopy, Heptacodium can be made to look like a small tree too making it rather versatile in a planting bed.
Ceanothus are also known as Californian lilac and most commonly are evergreen with a profusion of blue flowers in April and May. They prefer a sunny sheltered site and their flowers are loved by bees and butterflies. After flowering, many varieties produce berries which are loved by birds. There are many varieties to choose from and many can be both free-standing shrubs or wall-trained. You can also look out for evergreen white and deciduous pale pink varieties.
An English Garden classic, roses are not only beautiful but can be a great source of nectar for pollinators if you choose the right varieties. You need to choose an open flower where the insects can access the nectar. Some of our favourites include Kew Gardens, Tottering-By-Gently and Scepter’d Isle and many of the Rosa Rugosa varieties. Roses that produce hips are also beneficial for wildlife with lots of birds including thrushes and blackbirds feeding on them over winter. Two of our favourites for hips are Tottering-By-Gently and most of the Rugosa varieties. If you spot aphids on your roses don’t worry too much! Whilst you don’t want them to overrun the plant, they are an important food source for birds and insects and will encourage them to your garden. If the birds are not getting them simple remove the aphids by hand.
This is another shrub where there are many varieties to choose from, coming in various sizes and growth habits, from ground cover, to large shrubs and small trees. Some are evergreen whilst others are deciduous. Most commonly the plants have white blossoms and red berries. We love Cotoneaster frigidus ‘Cornubia’ which has evergreen elongated leaves, pretty blossom loved by bees and gorgeous red berries in the winter. It is quite fast growing but responds well to pruning and can form a beautiful multistem or single stem shrub/small tree depending on how you train it.
Euonymus europaeus is a deciduous shrub that has yellow flowers in Spring and green leaves that turn yellow or red in autumn. What really sets this shrub aside though are its fruits… striking pink lobed fruits crack open to reveal orange seeds in autumn. They are just beautiful! Happiest in full sun or partial shade, Euonymus europaeus is best planted where it can be viewed from the house in autumn to really enjoy the autumn leaves and fruits. Birds love its seeds.
Rosemary is a versatile evergreen herb. It grows well in pots and provides a lovely scent when the sun shines on it. As well as using it in cooking, the small delicate lilac flowers are a good source of food for bees. It works well as an evergreen shrub in mixed borders, as well as in a herb garden. It requires full sun but little else to thrive, doing well on poor, dry soil. If you have heavy soil you can plant it in raised beds or pots as long as they have good drainage. There are various varieties to choose from ranging in sizes and habits, as well as the trailing/creeping variety Rosemarinus Prostratus which looks beautiful trailing over plant pot edges, a wall or as ground cover in Mediterranean or gravel gardens.
Lastly, we’re including some hydrangeas. This listing comes with a big caveat… not all hydrangeas are equal when it comes to benefitting pollinators. Hydrangeas are never going to be the very best plants for pollinators, but they are really beautiful and so if you are after a hydrangea, it is certainly worth considering whether you could choose one that pollinators will like too. Varieties such as Hydrangea paniculata “Confetti” which has green buds which open to white and mature to a pinker tone, and “Big Ben” whose flowers start out white, fade into green and then deep pink are good choices. Please note not all Hydrangea paniculata are visited by bees.
We hope this list has provided some inspiration for trees or shrubs to add to your garden. We always consider wildlife when designing new gardens and planting plans. If you would like to see what we can do for you, please get in touch.
Here at Gardens by Anna Butterfield we always design our gardens with wildlife in mind. This isn’t to say that they are all “wildlife gardens” as such, because that often conjures up images of messy, wild looking landscapes with a jumble of materials and plants – this is not what we do! Instead, we try to include habitats whenever possible (more on that in a later blog). And we ensure that many of the plants chosen will provide beauty and interest for our clients as well as food or shelter for wildlife. There’s no reason why the garden can’t be beneficial for both us and wildlife… What’s lovelier than enjoying the beauty of a plant that you know is doing something good for our struggling pollinators too?
We are all too aware that pollinators are in decline, and that they are absolutely essential for the production of many of the crops we rely on for food as well as the plants and flowers we enjoy seeing in our gardens. We can do a lot to help stem their decline and to support pollinators in all of our gardens, no matter how big or small.
A recent RHS study showed that 35.5% of nectar sugar in a garden is supplied by herbaceous plants (and 60% from trees and shrubs – which we’ll cover in a further blog). So, you can see the importance of including nectar-rich plants in the garden, and adding some small ones is an easy way to do this!
When thinking about planting for pollinating insects such as bees, hoverfly, butterflies, moths and beetles, it’s important to include variety. This is because different insects feed on different plants and because different plants will flower at different times: including a mix ensures food sources, as well as colour and interest in your garden, for a longer period of time.
With this in mind, now we are at the start of Spring, it’s a great time to plant new additions in your garden that will flower this summer. Added colour and beauty as well as food for the insects – win win win! We’ve compiled a list of ten of our favourite small plants for pollinators. They’re all beautiful but importantly they are all excellent food sources for pollinators too.
Nepeta (commonly known as catmint) is one of the very best perennials for pollinators. There are numerous species to choose from varying from the larger “Six Hills Giant” which can reach nearly a metre in height, to the 30cm “Kit Kat”. There’s one for every garden and we often use them in varying sizes for different positions within one border or garden.
Purple/lavender blue flowers that bloom from around May to September sit atop a fragrant grey/green foliage. The flowers are absolutely loved by bees, especially honeybees and short-tongued bumble bees. As an added bonus, you can make calming teas from the flowers and foliage (fresh or dried) of some species. Do be sure to check before trying!
This is a real favourite here at Gardens By Anna Butterfield and with many other gardeners and designers – with good reason! Verbena bonariensis has tall, slim, relatively bare upright stems with clusters of purple flowers at the top. It has a lovely, airy feel and looks wonderful planted on mass or dotted throughout the garden in clusters. It reaches heights of around 1.8m and often flowers from June-November.
After flowering, the seed heads should be left to self-seed and over winter they also provide food for small birds such as finches. It’s a delight to watch them balancing precariously on the long, bendy stems – sometimes I am sure they use them as a playground! As with most other perennials, this should be cut back to the ground in spring as new growth emerges – see more advice here. It’s a wonderful addition to any garden!
This ornamental thistle flowers from June to August. It has a beautiful deep purple thistle flower and some varieties can grow up to 1.5m tall. It works well amongst grasses and other naturalistic looking perennials, and will attract bees, butterflies, moths, other beneficial insects and birds to your garden. The flower heads can be left over winter to provide some structural interest in the garden as well as food for birds.
All alliums are loved by pollinators and they make striking additions to your borders. Tall leafless stems with a sphere of tiny flowers at the top that look wonderful planted as a group or woven through perennials. Most commonly they are shades of purple, but there are also white and blue varieties, as well as some small yellow, white and pale pink ones that work beautifully at the front of a border. They are usually, and most cost effectively, planted as bulbs between September and November but you might be able to get hold of some potted bulbs now. Each species has a slightly different flowering time but two of our favourites are Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’ which flowers in June, and Allium Sphaerocephalon which flowers in July. With many of the species, the flower heads can be left after flowering for winter interest in the garden or they look lovely when cut and popped in a vase indoors.
Chicory is part of the daisy family and has beautiful, delicate blue flowers that grow close to the stems. It looks gorgeous planted in borders amongst other grasses and perennials but can hold its own in a gravel garden too. It can reach up to 1.5m in height and the flowers open in sunlight and close when it’s wet. It is pollinated by several bee species so is a great addition to attract different bees to your garden.
Otherwise known as Greater Knapweed, this native perennial wildflower reaches 75cm in height on a long, leafless stem. It has wonderful purple flowers which are loved by many bees and butterflies. It will readily self-seed so is ideal for meadow or wildlife areas and flowers from July to September. It’s often available to buy as plug plants from wildflower meadow suppliers.
Our classic English Lavender is beloved by bees and will be covered in them during the flowering season. With different species growing to different heights and having different sprawling habits, if you have a sunny garden, chances are there’s one for you! Lavender needs a sunny spot and free-draining soil is essential. It will do well in poor, low nutrient and stony soil too. If you are on heavy clay, try it in a raised bed or container with a mix of soil, peat-free compost and horticultural grit.
The varieties we are all most familiar with have purple/blue flowers, but there are pale pink and white choices too, although they are sometimes harder to get hold of. It’s important to keep lavender pruned so that it doesn’t become too leggy and woody, but this is a very sweet-smelling job! Lavender should be pruned every year after flowering around October time, or in early Spring. Be sure not to cut too far into the woody stems. The cuttings can be enjoyed as dried flowers in the house, or used for soaps, baking or lavender bags. Its scent is said to aid sleep and even help with pain relief after childbirth.
If you’re looking for a small evergreen shrub that not only adds structure and year-round greenery to your garden but gorgeous pollinator-friendly flowers too, a hebe is a fantastic choice. There are about 90 species to choose from that range in size and flower colour (whites, pinks and purples). Bees and butterflies will be attracted to the flowers which have a long season with many species flowering through summer and autumn.
Some favourites of ours are Mette which has a compact (around 50cm) and relatively round form and bright pink flowers; Rakaiensis (a little larger to around 90-120cm) with beautiful white flowers; Blue Gem which can grow to around 1.3m with purple flowers; Margret, another small rounded variety (also growing to about 50cm) with lilac flowers; and Hebe Parviflora which has slightly limey-green leaves, white flowers and can be shaped/clipped to very architectural forms.
Hebes can suffer from frost damage in extended periods of frost and snow (mine really did last year) but they respond very well to hard pruning so this shouldn’t put you off.
A British native wildflower, commonly known as Yarrow, this is just as at home in an area of long grass or meadow as in a mixed border. If you leave areas of your lawn unmown, you may well spot it popping up there! The native form is usually white/pale pink, but cultivated forms of Achillea are also available in a wide range of colours including pinks, purples, yellows and oranges. Most reach around 75cm so suit the middle of a border very well. You can usually get hold of the native Achillea Millefolium as plug plants from wildflower meadow suppliers.
They have flat flowerheads made up from lots and lots of tiny flowers, which are perfect for butterflies, hoverflies, bees, other beneficial insects as the open flat shape of the flower head make it very easy for them to access the nectar. They also produce seeds which attract birds, and they make a lovely cut flower to dry in the vase and enjoy all year round.
Last but not least on our list are sunflowers. They are easy to grow from seed, and add a happy splash of colour and often height to the garden from around July/August to October, depending on the species. Once they have finished flowering, the flower heads can be left for the birds to eat the seeds from. Bees especially adore sunflowers. What’s more, you don’t only have the big bright yellow faces to choose from. You can find burnt oranges, pale yellows, browns, dusky pinks and two-toned varieties as well. Seeds are available from garden centres as well as online and should be sown in early Spring undercover or directly in April/early May. We recommend choosing organic seeds whenever possible and always using peat free compost. Sowing seeds is a lovely activity to do with children and sunflowers are a great choice as they grow to be such a striking flower.
So, there you have it! Ten fantastic choices for your garden that are beautiful as well as great for pollinators. By planting some (or all!) of these you will be sure to welcome more bees, butterflies, hoverflies and many more beneficial insects to your garden.
Always check what conditions plants need before buying for your garden, and try to buy from a peat-free supplier if possible – this can be hard as many growers still use peat, but several of the wildflower meadow suppliers grow peat-free and some ship without plastic packaging too – search for peat-free growers and ask questions about packaging before you buy.
Happy planting!
Here are our top 5 tips for encouraging and supporting more wildlife in your own garden:
1. MAKE A POND – of any size, anything from a hand dug 3x2m (or larger if you fancy!) pond to a small bucket or old sink/bath dug into the ground. Providing water (without fish) and including suitable plants for shelter is the single best thing you can do to help wildlife, plus it’s a joy to observe the coming and goings – you could set up a wildlife camera to see what visits your pond!
2. GO NATURAL – don’t use chemicals of any kind – no weedkillers, fertilisers or pesticides.
3. GET COMPOSTING – it’s so easy to do, and you won’t ever have to buy compost in plastic bags again! (if you are buying, always go for Peat-free options). We will be writing a separate post all about composting so tweet us or post a message on our Facebook page if you have any specific questions!
4. ALLOW WEEDS – ‘weeds’ are often just our native wildflowers, or a plant someone once decided they didn’t like, in the wrong place. Many of them are highly beneficial to our native wildlife, and also very pretty! So give over a corner or as much as you can of your garden and allow them to flourish. You can always manage them gently, removing the flowers just as they finish, before they set seed, to stop them spreading too much if you don’t want them to.
Did you know that stinging nettles are an essential source of food for many species including Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell butterfly caterpillars? They attract aphids and other small insects too, which will in turn be eaten by ladybirds, hedgehogs and a host of other wildlife. They are also highly nutritious for us and can be used in soups and stews or to make tea!
5. SAY NO TO MOW – cutting your lawn short and into stripes may look neat and tidy but it has absolutely no value at all for wildlife. Allowing it to grow longer in between cuts will enable low-growing plants such as daisies and clover to establish and flower, supporting bees and other pollinators. You could also leave one area (or the whole lawn!) to grow all spring/summer, mowing a path through it to reach the shed or anywhere else you need access to. It’s exciting to see what will pop up, you never know you may have lots of wild beauties just waiting to emerge!
These are just our top 5 suggestions, there are many more, however if you only picked one of these that would make a big difference to local wildlife!
If you would like some help in turning your garden into a wildlife haven – whether the whole space or just a section of it – please get in touch, we would love to help you with this!
If you would like to receive further advice on wildlife gardening as well as general gardening and grow your own tips, you can sign up to our newsletters below – we promise not to clog your mailbox up too often!
Gardens by Anna Butterfield offer professional garden and planting design across London and the South East.
Our expert, organic garden care service is available across South East London as well as parts of Kent and Surrey.
