The Flourishing Garden

Gardening for Wildlife

3/1/2025

Think wildlife-friendly garden and you might well think overgrown wilderness. Unmown lawns and borders abandoned to nettles and brambles.

But a garden can be both beautiful and beneficial to wildlife at the same time. In many ways it can even be easier to look after.

It’s all down to making conscious decisions about the plants you put in and the ways you garden.

Circle-of-life gardening

If all goes well, a nature-friendly garden should be self-policing. Songbirds will eat pesky snails, hedgehogs and frogs will take care of larger slugs, beetles the smaller ones.

Draw in the ladybirds, the lacewings and hoverflies and they will eat those troublesome aphids for you - no chemicals needed. Many birds will also eat bugs, as well as caterpillars.

So how do you harness nature’s pest control army?

Number one is water.

Even a saucer will provide an essential drink for anything visiting your garden; if you can stretch to a small pond you can provide habitat too.

Trees give birds a place to perch, to nest and can provide food to eat, depending on what you plant.

Heroic hedges

The benefits of hedges cannot be over-emphasised.

Vital to hedgehogs, they give a home to birds, pollinators and other wildlife.

Most have flowers followed by berries, providing food one way or another for months on end.

They slow the wind, which helps the butterflies and of course makes your garden more pleasant for you and your plants.

And in winter storms hedges are much less likely to get blown over than fences.

Just as thorny hedges can keep out unwelcome intruders from your garden, they can similarly protect nesting birds from predators.

Options include holly, hawthorn and blackthorn - aka sloe, as in the gin!

Perfect for pollinators

Bee-friendly flowers are a must for wildlife-friendly gardens and it is all about smart choices, particularly if you don’t have a lot of room.

Modern varieties of many perennials have been bred to have lengthy flowering periods, far longer than native plants do. You get to enjoy months of flowers from the same plant, and the pollinators get a longer period of nectar and pollen to feed from.

Salvias are a prime example of this, many flowering virtually non-stop from May to December.

Help all year long

Planting for 12 months of interest is a win-win for you and for the likes of bumblebees, which are active almost year-round, so don’t just have summer flowers in your garden.

Bulbs can give you a succession of pollen-rich blooms for the first half of the year, from Snowdrops now, through Crocus, Scilla, Chionodoxa, Muscari, Hyacinths and Alliums.

Low-cost plants like Cyclamen, Violas, Heathers and Wallflowers will also help to cheer up those gloomy days.

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Make it a true garden!

2/1/2025

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Trees can completely transform a garden, their size and longevity giving the garden a sense of permanence and timelessness.

There are numerous small trees suitable for growing in gardens, from spring-flowering cherry blossom to evergreen varieties.

Many crab apples grow to just 10-15ft and have a long period of interest, summer flowers being followed by autumn and winter fruits.

Rowan trees (Sorbus) grow taller but have relatively narrow crowns, which can make a bigger difference to the space than the height.

These days the majority of fruit trees are grown on rootstocks that limit their size. For apple trees the MM106 rootstock keeps them to 10-13ft, M26 even smaller – check labels at the nursery.

If you live in a remote area you might need two trees for cross-pollination to produce fruit but in most towns and villages it is highly likely there will be others growing close enough in the neighbourhood.

When choosing your planting position make sure you consider how much space the tree will need when full grown – you are not going to be able to move it a few years down the line!

Dig out a hole much larger than the rootball and mix in some manure or soil improver with the existing soil when you backfill.

Give the tree a full watering can’s worth and repeat this every few days for the next fortnight. You can gradually reduce the frequency of waterings over the next year but always make sure you are putting a decent amount down. Good soakings will encourage deep roots that will properly anchor the plant and make it more resilient.

• Shop online for trees, with free local delivery, at www.katiegarden.co.uk/shopfront

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Winter in the Garden

1/1/2025

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It is hard to resist the temptation to add more pretty blooms to the garden in the height of summer but the importance of planting in the cooler months shouldn’t be forgotten.

If you want to add structure and substance to your garden - such as with trees, hedges, roses and large shrubs, winter is the time to do it, just as long as the soil isn’t frozen or waterlogged.

Most plants are dormant now – meaning they are not growing new shoots, leaves, flowers or berries – and so find it much less stressful to settle their root systems into new surroundings than if you attempted to plant in summer when they have a lot more on their plates!

This is the only time of year you will find ‘bareroot’ or ‘rootballed’ plants available – these have been grown in fields, dug out and presented for direct sale without being grown in a pot.

The advantage of them is they are better value and usually more vigorous, giving you quicker results.

But that is not to say that you can’t get instant gratification by planting in winter.

Follow your nose when out shopping at the nursery as many winter flowers have the added bonus of fragrance, among them Mahonia, Sarcococca, Daphne and Viburnum x bodnantense.

Plant by doorways and paths where you can enjoy their scent whenever you pass by!

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Big Garden Birdwatch

1/1/2025

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The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch takes place later this month.

You can turn your garden into a birds’ paradise with your choice of plants.

Give them trees and hedges for habitat. Choose shrubs with berries and perennials with edible seedheads - and make sure you don’t cut back till spring!

You can find lots of suggestions at www.katiesgarden.co.uk/advice

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Gardening for Wildlife

Circle-of-life gardening

Heroic hedges

Perfect for pollinators

Help all year long

Make it a true garden!

Winter in the Garden

Big Garden Birdwatch

The Flourishing Garden

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