Wildlife Gardening

[AnimalToyForum]

I post the following article on behalf of my friend, Alan O'Connor, who gave me permission to share it here. I hope it is of interest. Alan's approach has changed my perspective on how best to manage a garden for the benefit of wildlife. Alan is a Green Party Councillor for Cork Co., Ireland, and you can follow him on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CllrAlanOConnor) and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AlanOC_Green).

Wildlife gardening

Introduction
I had been preparing the following piece prior to the recent escalation of the coronavirus threat and the ensuing lock-down.

While the way in which we tend gardens shrinks in importance beside the immediacy of the current crisis, those of us fortunate to have access to a garden at this time will be aware now, more than ever, of their value as places of respite and joy.

Furthermore, although we face an imminent global threat from coronavirus, we shouldn't forget that a global environmental crisis is also ongoing and worsening. A change of approach to gardening provides one way in which one might assist in that crisis, as well as retaining and multiplying a garden's potential to enrich our lives. I will discuss this change of approach in this short essay.

The garden and nature
With the onset of spring, those of us fortunate enough to have a piece of the Earth's green surface to call our own may turn our thoughts towards gardening.
Gardens are places for people, but they can also be viewed as habitats – places where animals live or forage for food. As such, our management of the garden space, be it a few square metres or a half-acre or more, influences whether that habitat is relatively rich or impoverished in terms of its potential for supporting life.

In many gardens, the prevailing model is that of a green space divided between a grass lawn on one hand, and areas of shrubbery on the other, with trees where space permits. Management of this garden is intensive, through frequent mowing and cutting, as well as the removal of proliferating 'weeds,' particularly during these months of rapid growth.

While animals may be present in 'kept' gardens, this is often more by chance than design. In a 'wild' garden, by creating a suitable habitat to attract them, the cultivation of animals becomes at least as importance as the cultivation of plants. One could go further and say that the type of plants in a wild garden, and their arrangement, are determined by the desire to create a habitat for animals.

If your garden is of this type, then you might consider an alternative management regimen. This alternative style of management I will refer to as the 'wild garden' – so called because the less intensive management approach confers a more naturalistic appearance, and is more generally beneficial to wildlife.
I fill first explore the 'why' in a little more detail, before explaining, briefly, the 'how.'

Why go wild?
Maintaining a more conventional 'kept garden' can involve a lot of work (although I understand that immersion in the work, and the act of creation provides enjoyment to some). Conversely, in a wild garden, aside from the irregular mowing and edge-tidying, nature will by and large do the work for you after the initial set-up.
That's not to say there is no scope for work in a wild garden. There is a huge opportunity, through further study, to learn more about nature and refine the simple model I've described. Indeed, part of the enjoyment of wild gardening is a chance to learn more about natural history – the variety and life-cycles of our plants and animals, and how they interact with one another. One might learn how to attract hedgehogs, thrushes, frogs, etc. Within reason, if you build it – the correct habitat – they will come. One may begin to add features such as dead wood (to attract wood-boring insects and fungi), or a corner of nettles (a key foodplant of many of our most attractive butterflies). We live in a time of extinction, and a wild garden will be more likely to provide safe-havens for our wildlife, making their populations more resilient.

Another good reason for going down the wild garden route is the mental health benefit which come with interaction with nature (sometimes given the name 'ecotherapy'). A 'kept' garden can provide this kind of therapeutic effect, but it would also seem that psychological wellbeing increases with greater biodiversity (see, for example, https://royalsocietypublishing.org/.../full/10.../rsbl.2007.0149).

The wild approach can be applied to public space as well as private. More detailed information on managing for wildlife can be found at https://pollinators.ie/. Natural history books, describing our native animals and their habitats, may also act as an inspiration.

How to
To cover the range of possibilities for wild gardening adequately would require book-length treatment. Depending on the desired outcomes, there is wide scope for variation. Here I will outline the basic model in two ways: Firstly, in the way space is arranged; secondly in the type of plants cultivated.

Arranging the space
In a simple wild garden, much of the area of lawn is allowed to grow out during the growing season under a much-reduced mowing regimen. Depending on the desired outcome, one may mow this area once a month, or once a year. In my own patch, the grass is mown and removed once, every September, as was done in traditional lowland hay meadows. Mowing is timed to take place when many species have completed their life cycles.

Just as every painting needs a frame, the secret to retaining an aesthetically pleasing vista is to continue to maintain a regularly-mown border of lawn around the wild space. One may add to the allure of the space by mowing paths where space permits. You need not transfer the entire garden into a wild garden management regime. A mixture of wild and kept garden can be complementary.

Plant types
As grass grows it takes nutrients from the soil. With repeated removal of grass clippings after cutting, the soil becomes nutrient poor. Because grasses thrive on nutrient-rich soil, the cumulative removal of nutrients is relatively advantageous to wildflowers, which are better suited to nutrient-poor soil. Removing the grass cuttings over several years will cause the garden to gradually transition towards being more wildflower-dominated than grass-dominated, without the need to sow wildflower seed.

You may be surprised at the huge variety of beautiful and colourful flowers, flourishing at different times of the year, which spring up in the lawn once given the opportunity. Take the time to appreciate the virtues of plants which you might previously have labelled 'weeds.' Dandelions provide a fantastic nectar source for pollinating insects, whilst the majestic thistle is a seed-larder for goldfinches. More or less subtle and attractive plants may appear, such as germander speedwell, wild angelica, bird-foot trefoil, clover, etc.

An abundance of flowers may not immediately arise if the lawn has a history of being intensively managed through the aggressive removal of all plants but grass. In that case, one can speed up the process by sowing, but be careful to source the seeds of native wildflowers.

In a wild garden, the cultivation of native plants is preferred because these will, as a general rule, be far more likely to attract native animals. Native species of herbs, shrubs, and trees have long evolutionary relationships with our native animals. Native insects, for example, are far more likely to find native plants palatable, and non-natives inedible.

Finally, although wildflowers are understandably popular due to their colour and value for pollinators, grasses also have their value. Depending on the history of the lawn, there may be several varieties present, each with their own characteristics. Grass itself is ecologically valuable as, for example, a food-plant for particular butterflies. Aesthetically too, a dense growth of long grass can give beautiful three-dimensional texture to the garden.


Pic.1 (June 2019): Just as every painting needs a frame, the secret to retaining an aesthetically pleasing vista is to continue maintaining a regularly-mown border of lawn around the wild space.


Pic.2: (June 2019): A dense growth of long grass can provide an aesthetically beautiful three-dimensional texture to the garden.


Pic.3 (June 2019): There is usually no need to actively sow wildflower seeds in your meadow. There is likely to be a seed-bank of native flowers in the soil already, as these meadow buttercups demonstrate.


Pic.4 (April this year): A riot of yellow: celandine, daffodil, dandelion (and a specimen of Canus lupus familiaris)

[Lanthanotus]

Nice to see those informations shared here.

I want to support this with some advertisement if I may .....

Since we bought a house on 400sqm land in small town of 13.000 inhabitants we have access and "authority" for a small garden which was negelected and almost unused for years or even decades. No trees grew there on their own, but a variety of native and introduced flowers, dominted by the red poppy (very poor soil here, mostly sand). A leaking pond was there which we removed to make three new ones.

My wife wanted a bit of lawn, though she`s fine with lawn as mowed meadow as seen one of the photos above. A part of the garden is used as fruit and vegetable garden with apple trees and other and raised beds. Here we just mow a path to get access to the used plants, the rest may grow as it wants. We planted a lot of native bushes to support bird life and installed nine nesting boxes for different bird species. 1/4 of the garden behind the house is left unmowed until early spring, so grass and flowers are left over winter for the birds to feed on seeds and as weather protection for insects. Three ponds are in our garden aswell as several piles of rubble and dead wood. Nesting support for insects ("bug hotel") are also installed. So as a result we have a great variety of fauna in the garden, including as the most obvious a hedgehog, nesting great tits, grass frogs, water frogs, alpine newts, smooth newts, rose chafer, grass snake and common wall lizard. For me or us, this is what a garden should be, a place of human use, but also a place to explore native fauna and flora.

So, the tl,dr version is here .....

Hedgy in its nest.


Where`s the prey....


Sniffing it out (with no luck )


Bee Fly, like a tiny colibri.


Look what hopped in the picture when I prepared a model for anotehr review.


Wall Lizard male on disused oaken railroad sleepers (got them from the neighbors, they are great for lizards)


Star of Bethlehem (in German this is called "Milchstern", milk star).


Smooth newts, horny male chasing the elusive female.


Alpine newt courtship.


Busy to feed the kids.



Rose Chafer

[AnimalToyForum]

You've cultivated a wonderful nature preserve on your doorstep @Lanthanotus, the animals clearly appreciate it. Congratulations!

In our new home we have a medium-sized well-established garden, about 250 m², so we are developing that for the benefit of both wildlife and ourselves. We're letting half of the lawn grow into a small meadow, but mowing the other half (for now, anyway) so we can use it. I've pulled up several large paving slabs and a patio area to make more space for plants and a vegetable patch. We have an apple tree and blackberries that bear tasty fruit.

I'm getting to grips with the flora and birdlife, and once I have a handle on that I'll look at the inverts. I'm generating a photographic record of the flora, which I'm posting on my Facebook page, but I can also share it on the forum if anyone is interested. I'm feeling grateful to have an outdoor space to enjoy, especially during the current lockdown.

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks, @animaltoyforum, I for one would be interested, in the development of your garden flora (got no FB and would
appreciate to keep it that way). Got a flowering plant guide last year to be able to identify all the greens in the garden.
I may know more plants than the average German citizen, but far less than that tome names.


Here`s some casual images of our backyard, in front of the house there`s a small patch too, but as of yet total waste
land due to construction requirements.

Herb Spiral, raised beds and orchard (two apple trees, pears, peach, cherry, plum), small shaded pond (ca. 300L) right
hand of the spiral. Grass/plants between the fruit trees and fence are not mowed, piles of dead wood and some smaller
piles of rubble are hidden here.



Meadow with three bigger piles of rubble, railroad sleepers and two sunny ponds (1500L and 300L).
Not mowed until early spring. Nesting boxes, bug hotel and bird bath (because of possible cat intruders).


"Tree House" with nesting boxes and bug hotel


Chicken House (just finished, not populated yet).

[AnimalToyForum]

Thanks for sharing, looking good! I'll share some photos of my garden soon. This could well become the 'share your garden' thread, which is actually a good idea for a topic! 

[Advicot]

WOW! Your garden is unbelievably marvellous. That is hopefully how I am going to transform the grounds of my farm to make it more wildlife friendly

[Ciara]

I love all of these photos! So much nature in everyones' gardens, I'm hoping to transform my own, attract more bees and birds!

For anyone who enjoys bird watching in the garden, or if you have kids! I came across this whilst trying to find some child-friendly, interactive, activity to help kids appreciate the wildlife in their garden! Perfect free activity for an afternoon outdoors!

https://www.twinkl.ie/resource/t-t-17663-garden-bird-sitings-bar-chart

Or have a go at making a bird feeder! I forgot to take a photo of mine when I tried it but it attracted lots of blue tits and robins!

https://www.twinkl.ie/resource/simple-bird-feeder-craft-instructions-t-tp-7309

[Lanthanotus]

A year has passe and summer`s blooming, though this year is somewhat exceptional. While a lot of locations experience excessive heat this year, we as of now have vastly been spared, but had in fact such a wet year for now, that a lot of garden crops fell to putrescence. The plants themselves though grow like mad and I have to mow the lawn twice a week as it grows so fast. Those planted trees that did not fell for the cockchafer larvae grow fine and I hope for my first pears this year. The unmown areas attract a lot of wildlife, also some "culprit" that feeds on the frogs and just leaves bits of bitten of legs - I hope its not a racoon (not native here, but it can`t be helped anymore).

Hatchling of Lacerta agilis


Anyone able to identify (guess with this colors it should not be too tricky?)










But yes, we also have a part where we can play badminton or place some seats... looks like fine English Lawn, but
in fact includes clover, forgt me not, moss and others.

[bmathison1972]

Beautiful, @Lanthanotus - I assume the butterfly is Papilio machaon, but I don't remember the full extent of European species (I never studied Lepidoptera, even here LOL).

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks @bmathison1972 , looks as if you are right.... now, that is kind of a mircale, those are very rare here and if seen , it`s usually as far as it goes from human settlements.

[Beetle guy]

Nice topic! It is indeed Papilio machaon. The population in my country (Netherlands) is growing because it is getting warmer. I know a few spots to find them. If you plant Foeniculum vulgare you have a good base ;-).We moved a lot of dead tree branches and trunks in and there is a pond without fish that creates more possibilities for insects and amphibians! Some wildlife in our garden!