Nature Friendly Gardening

Whatever the size of your outdoor space, you can help nature by making some additions to your garden or changing the way you look after your space. 17 percent of Horsforth is made up of private gardens, so we can all make positive changes to improve things for the wildlife around us.

Food for Wildlife

  • Grow lots of different flowering plants including trees if you have the space.
  • In borders or pots, grow flowering plants and herbs with flowers for us to enjoy and for invertebrates to source nectar whilst pollinating the plants.
  • Trees such as a crab apple, flower in Spring and fruit in Autumn and are of real support for a wide range of wildlife. At a smaller scale, shrubs such as the guelder rose do the same. Climbing plants have a small garden ‘footprint’ and can be supported by trees, trellis or buildings. Honeysuckles offer nectar to pollinators such as moths and later berries to birds and mammals. Ivy provides a late nectar source as well as habitat.
  • Plants may be local (native) or from further afield (exotic) which extends the flowering season in Spring and Autumn. Simple, open plant forms are the most valuable to pollinators. Local wild plants can be beneficial to the larval stages of insects and this is why it is often suggested that if you have the space for a wilder patch, grow some nettles. Nettles are the food source for caterpillars of many butterflies and moths.
  • Allowing other wild plants such as daisies and dandelions in your lawn to flower provides a really important source of nectar early in the season. Going a stage further, an area managed as wildflower ‘meadow’ with long grasses and perennial meadow-like wild flowers provides food and habitat for all manner of wildlife.
  • If we grow vegetables and fruit for ourselves, the wildlife you have attracted by the ideas above will help pollinate them, and also predate on any pests.
  • Feeding wildlife directly is a commitment rewarded by observing all the visitors. Different feeders attract different birds, so you might want a mix of tube feeders, suet feeders, and platform feeders. If you have hedgehogs in your area then supplementary feeding during cold or dry spells can be helpful. There is useful information on what to feed them on the Hedgehog Street Website. Remember to clean all feeders regularly to prevent disease.

Shelter

 Animals need places to live and shelter.

  • Existing trees and shrubs can provide shelter. (e.g. evergreen shrubs are quite often popular with House Sparrows.)
  • The arrangement of trees and shrubs helps provide sun traps, beneficial for pollinators like bees and hoverflies.
  • We can introduce bird or bat boxes, a hedgehog house or bug hotels to an outdoor space. A hibernaculum is a constructed hole in the ground which supports hibernating amphibians over the winter months.
  • We can be very creative in thinking about habitats, providing log piles for amphibians and invertebrates, or upright tree stumps for beetles and decomposers, or piles of sand or bare earth for mining bees.

The care of plants is important to maximise the shelter they offer. For example:

  • Cut hedges when nesting season has finished.
  • Let leaves fall onto borders and delay the end of year tidy up until early spring for all those invertebrates needing shelter over the cold months. 

 

Water

Introducing water in the garden is one thing that will immediately increase the visiting wildlife, whether it’s a pond, or just a shallow dish.

  • A wildlife pond will attract wildlife as a source of water to drink, but it is also habitat for many invertebrates, amphibians and potentially fish. Careful consideration should be given to introducing fish but most other wildlife will find the pond themselves.
  • Chose local, native plants in and around the pond to support nature.
  • A small birdbath or a shallow dish can provide vital drinking and bathing spots for birds and insects. Change the water regularly to keep it clean and use pebbles to ensure wildlife can climb out.

There are many websites where advice is available to construct a pond. Some exaples include:

The Wildlife Trust – How to build a pond

Gardeners World – How to build a wildlife pond

Bog gardens are areas of the garden, often adjacent to a pond where the soil is persistently wet. This is the preferred habitat of most amphibians for most of the year.

Rain gardens aim to use all the water that falls on a property, so reducing flooding and providing water for the garden. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust has a guide on it’s website on How to make a Rain Garden

Natural Gardening

  • A compost heap will boost the biodiversity in any garden. Worms and invertebrates are found in large numbers in a healthy compost heap, as well as microorganisms and fungi, the main decomposers. Find out more about our Community Composting Collective project.
  • A wormery can provide small amounts of very fine compost in a smaller space, as well as ‘worm tea’, a great plant food.
  • Leaf Mould. Collected piles of leaves will gradually break down over a couple of years by the action of fungi. The resulting ‘leaf mould’ is a very precious resource to a gardener as a soil improver or compost for growing seedlings.
  • Water Butts. Collected water benefits plants (rain water is preferable to tap water when watering established plants), saves energy (drinking water is costly to produce) and saves money for the homeowner.
  • No Mow May is a well known practice of allowing the lawn to grow. This benefits pollinators particularly. If this can be extended further into June or July or even mowing less frequently throughout the year it will promote a further increase in biodiversity.
  • Embracing Untidiness. The ritual of tidying the garden or ‘putting it to bed’ for the winter months is an outdated concept. Upright stems left over winter offer valuable habitat to a range of invertebrates. Piecemeal removal of dead vegetation over the winter-spring period is less back breaking and allows us to enjoy the structure of plants through the winter months.
  • Peat Free Composts. Conversion to peat-free composts is a must for all gardeners. Peat extraction damages the landscape irreparably, releasing vast quantities of stored carbon dioxide which has been locked up for thousands of years. The growth of peat bogs, particularly in the uplands, contributes significantly to flood control. Nowadays there are many peat-free products available.
  • Chemicals in the Garden. We should never use pesticides, herbicides, slug pellets – even the so-called ‘wildlife friendly’ ones, and chemical fertilisers because of the un-intended consequences to living organisms and potentially ourselves. Do a little research and use the alternatives.
  • Shop Local. When buying new plants support local nurseries as much as possible. Owners are experts and can offer advice on which plants work best for your specific garden conditions. Buying imported plants brings the risk of importing pests into the UK, as well as your garden (e.g. Australian and New Zealand flatworms, which can predate earthworms). Some garden centres will accept plant pots for recycling.

Connections beyond the garden

  • In a suburban garden, fences often form the boundaries. Hedgehogs can travel over a mile every night and small gaps beneath a fence or deliberately constructed holes 13cm x13cm create essential ‘hedgehog highways’.
  • Better still, a deciduous hedge made up of mixed local species is the ideal boundary feature that favours hedgehogs and performs many other functions supporting a wide range of wildlife. It is less vulnerable to wind damage than a solid fence.
  • A tree on the boundary connects gardens at an elevated level for birds, squirrels and invertebrates.

Engage with your neighbours, explain what you are doing and why, to encourage like-minded gardening beyond your own space.

By incorporating some of these elements into your garden, youre not just crafting a lovely space for yourself, youre actively contributing to the local ecosystem.

Transforming your garden into a wildlife haven is a rewarding journey that benefits both nature and your well-being. By gardening with wildlife in mind you are making an immediate and real difference. Start small, enjoy the process, and watch as your garden becomes a bustling hub of activity.

If you’re interested in learning more or getting involved with local nature projects? Sign up for our Horsforth Climate Action newsletter for updates on community activities and tips on living more sustainably.

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