Wildlife friendly ideas

Have been reading a really handy little book:  "Gardener's World Magazine: 101 ideas for a wildlife friendly garden" bearing in mind that the It's Your Neighbourhood scheme looks for care for the environment in our planting and gardens.

Some of the best ideas are below.

You can also get lots of information from the RHS website, such as this brilliant list of "plants for pollinators"  Plants for Pollinators

WILDLIFE FRIENDLY GARDENING

Make fluff balls for nesting birds to collect nest material from.  Use natural materials in neutral colours.  Fluff, wool, thin strips of fabric, hair, down, feathers, shredded paper etc.  Make into a loose ball and hang in the garden from late winter onwards.

Solitary bees need nest sites.  Fill an open fronted untreated wooden box with short lengths of cane 7-9mm across with the holes facing outwards.  Place in a sheltered sunny spot angled slightly downwards.

Put a lacewing hibernation box in the garden to encourage this pest-eating insect.  They are available from garden centres.  Put fresh straw inside in mid-June.  In very cold snaps, bring into a cool shed and put out by March.  They like a warm sunny sheltered spot away from trees and buildings, facing away from the prevailing wind.  On top of a post or fence is ideal, near plenty of vegetation.  You can buy an attractant chemical to help them find the box.

Butterfly friendly plants: petunias, trailing lobelias, white alyssum, million bells, bur marigold, verbena x hybrid, zonal pelargoniums, twinspur.

Give butterflies a drink.  They like a shallow saucer of muddy water in a sunny spot, with flat dark stones nearby for warming in the sun.  Adding sugar or a very small amount of animal manure to the water adds extra nutrition.

Make a wood pile for bugs.  Use fresh logs still with the bark.  Dig a trench so that some of the logs are buried.  Allow to rot naturally and add new logs on top as necessary.

To keep ponds clear of algae naturally, use barley straw.  Use 50g of fresh barley straw per sqm of pond surface.  Net loosely into a ball and float on the pond surface.  Start in early spring before algae takes hold.  Once working (6 weeks) the effect should last several months).

WILDLIFE FRIENDLY PLANTS (FOR HOT DRY SITES)

Hebes

Lavenders

Wallflowers

Honesty

Sunflowers

Heliotropes

Calendula (pot marigold)

Aliums

Scabious

Bergamot

Sea holly (Erygnium)

Black-eyed Susan – rudbeckia fulgida

Michaelmas daisies