Planting with Nature (a guide to sustainable gardening)

Planting with Nature is a beautiful book on how we can support local wildlife and tackle the climate crisis, through gardening. The book includes tips on planting nectar-rich borders, native hedgerows, trees and wildflower meadows, plus rain gardens, green roofs and ponds.

Read more on no-dig gardening and humane slug/snail deterrents. If you live with animal friends, read up on pet-friendly gardens. 

Together with providing homes for birds, mammals, amphibians, bees and insects, you’ll find new ways to grow food, and make your own compost.

Birds and native wildlife have lost so much of their natural homes – hedgerows to wildflower meadows. By growing new natural replacements, this is the best help we can give to native wildlife, including endangered species like hedgehogs, dormice and bats.

Tips for Wildlife-Friendly Gardens

• Ditch Chemicals and Fertilisers. Bin empty containers and take half-empty ones to the tip, In organic gardens, ladybirds can eat up aphids, birds and frogs will take care of slugs and snails.
• Let Part of Your Lawn Grow Wild. Cutting grass less often lets wildflowers pop up, to feed insects and pollinators. Leave a section of lawn un-mowed in spring and summer.
• Swap Exotic Plants for Native Species. Local plants support wildlife. They offer food and shelter for birds, insects and mammals.
• Add Log Piles and Stone Stacks. These create perfect hideouts, especially in sunny weather or for hibernation. Over time, these piles become homes for beetles, worms, frogs, and slow worms. Leaving fallen leaves and dead branches provide shelter, and enrich soil.
• Create Wildflower Patches or Meadows. These not only add colour, but attract bees, butterflies, and moths. Surprisingly, they need poor soil, so don’t add compost (encourages grass to compete).
• Hedges Instead of Fences. If possible, swap wooden fences for living hedges, these give safe nesting places and act as corridors for hedgehogs to roam at night between gardens.
• Wildlife-friendly ponds are loved by amphibians, birds and insects (ensure they have sloping sides, and avoid netting). Large shallow stones create safe landing spaces for bees and butterflies.
• Safe Havens for Garden Birds. Keep cats indoors at dusk/dawn (avoid wooden posts that claws can climb) and also avoid coloured/tin bird houses (these over-heat and attract predators). Turn off lights when not in use (and avoid facing indoor plants to gardens, to stop birds flying into windows).