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Growing wiser wildlife gardening

Wildlife Gardening involves a return to basics; it is a natural approach to an age-old past time. The golden rule to remember is that everything in nature is recycled and nothing is left to waste. Fallen leaves and flowers become decomposed matter which enriches the soil for future plants. These plants provide food for herbivores like caterpillars which, in turn, provide food for larger animals like birds and foxes. The animals themselves are an essential part of this chain as their manure acts as a natural fertiliser and when they die they, too, return to the earth.

Because this recycling chain functions so perfectly without outside interference, the employment of artificial fertilisers and pesticides can often be detrimental to your garden environment and therefore totally ineffectual. Wildlife Gardening requires the minimum amount of maintenance so instead of being a slave to your garden, you are letting your garden work for you.

Wildlife is an invaluable addition to all gardens. By encouraging insects and small animals to establish their homes in your garden, you are creating a habitat wherein you are living harmoniously with nature. Once this natural habitat has been established problems such as pest control, which often necessitated man-made solutions, will now be solved by nature.

To embark on the path of Wildlife Gardening, you need to:

• decide if you would like to include a water feature e.g. a pond or fountain
• decide which animals you would like to have share your garden with you
• find out which insects and plants will attract particular animals
• survey your garden and draw up a plan of where everything will be located
• a separate leaflet entitled How to build a Garden Pond is available free of charge from the Irish Peatland Conservation Council (address below)

The following should act as a guide. It explains the types of creatures which frequent your garden, how you can encourage them to take up residence, what they eat and the pests they will help to control:

INSECTS

Ladybirds

• active from late Spring to mid-Summer
• feed mainly on greenfly, scale mites, mealy bugs and small caterpillars
• to encourage them, cultivate a nettle patch for early aphids. Don't tidy. your garden during Autumn as dry plant debris , loose bark and hollow stems provide hibernation sites. Avoid pesticides.

Hoverflies

• active from late Spring onwards
• hoverfly larvae feed on aphids, fruit-tree spider mites and small caterpillars
• to encourage them, grow flowers which provide nectar and pollen for adults. Avoid pesticides.

Lacewings

• active from late Spring to mid-Summer
• feed on aphids, larvae, mites, leaf hoppers, scale insects and caterpillars.
• to encourage them, grow flowers and avoid pesticides.

Ground & Rove Beetles

• all year round
• feed on adult slugs and their eggs. They also eat the larvae of cabbage and carrot root flies and lettuce-root aphids
• they thrive in moist, shady areas. To encourage them, leave soil, stones and logs undisturbed. Avoid pesticides.

Centipedes

• all year round
• feed on slugs, snails and insects
• live in healthy soil and under stones and logs

Earwigs

• all year round
• although they damage flowers, they feed on caterpillars, aphids, insects and moth eggs
• can be found resting during the day in narrow crevices.
• to keep them away from Dahlias and Chrysanthemums, place an up- turned, straw-filled flowerpot in your flowerbed. The earwigs can be released in the morning.

MAMMALS

Hedgehogs

• seen from mid-Spring to mid-Autumn
• feed on slugs, millipedes, cockchafers, earthworms and caterpillars
• they hide in long grass and hedges during the day and hibernate during the Winter months
• to encourage them to enter or live in your garden, leave one area slightly overgrown or, alternatively, provide a winter box in an old, abandoned compost heap for hibernation.

Bats

• roost in warm, dry hollows in trees and in crevices in buildings. They hibernate during Winter
• feed on midges, craneflies, moths and aphids
• to encourage them, you need to bring insects into your garden. Insects are attracted by meadows and brightly-coloured flowers. Another idea is to erect a bat box. This should be located in a sheltered position which gets the morning sun and afternoon shade.

Foxes

• seen all year round. Unlikely to actually live in your garden but may frequent it
• the best encouragement is to leave out food overnight. Scraps and tinned pet foods are perfect.

AMPHIBIANS

Frogs & Newts

• spawn in Spring and can be seen all year round
• frogs feed on slugs and insects
• newts feed on slugs, snails, worms and insects
• to encourage them to breed, a pond is necessary. Once full grown, they move onto and live off the land. They often overwinter in damp, hidden places e.g. under stones and logs.

BIRDS

The birds which are regular visitors to our gardens are usually woodland birds. Among the most commonly seen birds are: Starling, Sparrow, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Bluetit, Magpie, Robin, Thrush, Greenfinch and Wren. Birds naturally build their nests in trees (e.g. birches and conifers), bushes (e.g. hawthorn), and climbers (e.g. ivy or honeysuckle). You can encourage birds to nest in your garden by putting up bird boxes. These should be placed in sheltered areas i.e. in trees, or on walls or fences. A high window left open in your garden shed will encourage birds to enter and, possibly, set up home. Do remember, though, to keep the shed door closed at all times to keep out curious cats.

The benefits of having birds visit your garden are many and varied. Not only will you wake up to their dawn chorus, but they also help to rid your garden of the many destructive insects which abound. All birds eat insects, spiders and caterpillars. Ground feeders like finches and blackbirds eat fallen seeds and berries. On an open grassy lawn, you will see starlings hunting leatherjackets, finches picking at dandelions and blackbirds seeking out worms. Robins are particularly attracted to compost heaps.

It is important to remember that if you would like to encourage birds to nest in your garden, it is essential that they have both adequate shelter and a plentiful food supply. Possibly the most successful way of encouraging birds into your garden is to leave food out for them. Not only will birds eat all types of nuts but they also eat household scraps. Do not leave out whole peanuts during the nestling season (from mid-May to June) as young birds may choke on them.

If you start to feed your birds in late Autumn, it is extremely important that you continue to do so right through the Winter as they will come to rely on this food supply. Bird boxes, bird tables and a water feature like a garden pond would ensure that you have birds all year round. Before mass urbanisation, woodland birds would collect wild animal fur with which to line their nests. So if you are a dog owner, you could collect up any moulted dog fur and place it in a hanging basket. The birds could then gather this fur to use as nest insulation.

PLANTS

The plants which attract the greatest variety of species are those which are native to Ireland, e.g. - Heather, Foxglove, Campion, Thistles, Cranesbill, Poppy, fumitory, Wild Pansy. An unusual fact to note is that weeds are often more beneficial to wildlife than cultivated plants. Thistle seeds, for example, are eaten by linnets and gold finches and the aphids which live on nettles provide a food source early in the year for a variety of insects. It is important for wildlife that your garden provides a constant food supply, particularly during early Spring (berries and insects) and late Autumn (fallen fruit and seeds). The most varied diet is, of course, found in Summer when pollen, nectar, berries etc, are in plentiful supply.

For an attractive and interesting garden, it is a good idea to grow both wild and cultivated plants, either in the same flower bed or in two separate beds. Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules about which types of plants can live together harmoniously. Often trial and error is the best policy to adopt. The following lists should help when choosing plants for your garden. Good Luck with your gardening and if you would like any further information about organic and wildlife gardening, the Enviro Shop stock a range of books and videos for both the amateur and professional "green" gardener. The Enviro Shop is located at: 1st floor, 119 Capel Street, Dublin 1.

10 TREES AND SHRUBS WHICH PROVIDE FRUIT AND BERRIES

• Chaenomeles (Japanese Quince)
• Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster)
• Crataegus monogyna (Hawthorn)
• Ilex aquifolium (Holly)
• Pyracantha
• Rosa rugosa (Species Rose)
• Sambucus nigra (Elder)
• Symphoricarpos (Snowberry)
• Viburnum davidii (Viburnum)
• Viburnum opulus (Guelder Rose)

10 FLOWERS WHICH PROVIDE NECTAR & POLLEN FOR BENEFICIAL INSECTS

• Achillea millefolium (Yarrow)
• Antheum graveolans (Dill)
• Aster
• Calendula officianalis (Pot Marigold)
• Eschscholzia (Californian Poppy)
• Helianthus annus (Sunflower)
• Levisticum officinale (Lovage)
• Nemophila menziesii (Baby Blue Eyes)
• Salix (Willow)
• Thymus (Thyme)

10 FLOWERS PROVIDING SEEDS FOR BIRDS

• Antirrhinum (Snapdragon)
• Cosmos astrosanguineus (Cosmos)
• Echinops ritro (Globe Thistle)
• Helianthus annus (Sunflower)
• Lavandula (Lavender)
• Lunaria biennis (Honesty)
• Lychnis coronaria (Roe Campion)
• Myosotis (Forget-me-Not)
• Oenthera (Evening Primrose)
• Solidago virgaurea (Golden Rod)