7 Tips for a Wildlife Friendly Garden
There are certain phrases that you can Google with full knowledge that you’re not going to enjoy the results. For instance I can tell you from personal experience that searching for ‘Botfly removal videos’ or ‘lanced skin infection photos’ is generally a bad decision. Especially if you’re about to go out for dinner.
An even worse thing to search for is ‘rates of insect decline Australia’.
According to an article from the CSIRO in 2019 ‘40 per cent of insect species are likely to be in catastrophic decline within a century.’ A bit further down the google search results page an article from the ABC writes that ”The rate of extinction in insects is about eight times higher than the rate of extinction of vertebrates". Down further still, a peer reviewed article entitled Insect decline in the Anthropocene: Death by a thousand cuts begins with the ominous introduction ‘Nature is under siege’.
Told you it’s worse than botflies and buboes.
If you haven’t heard of the Anthropocene, it’s a name that has been suggested to re-define the epoch we are currently living through. Officially we are still living in the Holocene (derived from the Greek word "holos", meaning ‘whole’, and “cene” meaning new - basically ‘a whole new world’).
But the world is not new anymore. We have landscaped it and burned it, chopped it and sprayed it and mined and bombed it and many people now argue that this era deserves a new name. The Anthropocene - the age of man. A name to give a planet that has been so changed and warped by a single species that evidence of our impact will be writ large on the fossil record for millennia to come.
Because of our actions, the populations of many wild animals are plummeting. Insects, birds, fish, reptiles - you name it, they’re most likely in trouble. In the face of this silent, creeping cataclysm, people tend to do two things. Either they don’t know it’s happening in the first place (our hermetically sealed homes make it pretty easy to forget wild animals even exist at all), or they find the whole thing way too scary and depressing and so they switch off and opt out, deciding that there’s nothing they can do about it anyway.
But if you have a backyard there is always something you can do.
We don’t need to feel helpless or like nothing we do matters. I can say this with certainty because I have watched the change that occurred in my own backyard over the last 7 years. What began as a sterile patch of grass occupied by flies and hot winds is now cooler, green, filled with flowers and - most importantly - insects, birds and lizards. As long as you have a backyard, a balcony or - really - anywhere you can start to grow plants, you can help to provide food, safety and security for our endangered wildlife. Here’s how.
1. Don’t use pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. EVER
To some people this might sound extreme. After all, what else are you supposed to do when your roses are covered in aphids or when snails invade your broccoli patch!? The thing is, if you want a garden that is welcoming to wildlife, you need to accept ALL wildlife. Wildlife that pollinates your tomatoes and wildlife that eats your baby broccoli.
The distinctions we draw between ‘pests’ and ‘beneficial insects’ are human constructs and they’re entirely arbitrary. Unless we’re talking about introduced species, every animal big and small plays an important role in your garden and often the animals we class as ‘pests’ are important sources of food for animals further up the food chain.
When gardeners use insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, they run the risk of eradicating whole groups of animals, plants or fungi. At best, the poisoned insects/plants will simply die (removing a potentially important food source from the food chain). At worst, other animals will eat the poisoned plants and insects, and become sick themselves.
The good news is that as you allow your garden to grow ever wilder and more diverse, a lot of the problems caused by so called ‘pests’ will tend to resolve themselves. Predatory insects, birds, lizards and frogs flock to wildlife friendly gardens and help create a balance by eating many of the smaller critters that live there. Ladybirds devour aphids, birds munch on caterpillars, frogs eat snails and slugs. By allowing the ‘bad guys’ to populate your garden, you create an attractive banquet for the ‘good guys’ to feast on whenever they visit. As a result, you wind up with a garden that plays host to ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ in equal measure. And when they are existing in a balance, you’ll find the bad guys aren’t actually so bad after all.
Aphids attract ladybirds to the garden
The ladybirds reproduce and their larvae eat the aphids
2. Grow a dense and diverse garden that provides many sources of food
Monty Don said it himself - the biggest enemy to the wildlife friendly garden is a monoculture of plants. To support a diverse variety of insects and other animals we need to plant gardens that are filled with a diverse range of plants. Different plants contribute different things to the animals in your garden. Some give shade or shelter, some provide food. To encourage as much wildlife to you garden as possible, aim to grow a range of plants that cover all bases. For instance:
Plants that provide pollen:
Pollen-rich plant are fantastic for bees and other pollen-eating bugs (aka palynivores), like ladybirds, minute pirate bugs and lacewings, as well as some wasps, flies, ants, butterflies and wasps. Some of the best plants to grow for palynivores are Umbellifers. Umbellifers are a family of plants including fennel, dill, parsley, carrot, celery, and parsnip. They’re called Umbellifers because their flowers form in a mass of blossoms on top of sturdy stems that look a bit like umbrella spines. Pollinators love umbellifers, so if you are growing an plants in this family it’s a great idea to let some of them flower and set seed rather than simply pulling them all out to eat (their flowers are gorgeous too, so it’s a win-win for you and the bees if you leave them in!). You don’t just have to limit yourself to umbellifers, though. There are so many wonderful plants you can grow to feed pollinators and the more you can grow, the better. Try: alyssum, borage, calendula, cosmos, daisies (great for winter colour), poppies and salvias. Herbs are also fantastic for pollinators (as long as you let them flower - try lavender, rosemary, mint, parsley and basil) as are the flowers from brassicas (broccoli, cauliflowers, mustard greens, turnips, rocket and radishes), artichokes and lettuces. Letting some of your brassicas, artichokes and lettuces flower in springtime is a wonderful way to fill your garden with beautiful yellow and purple flowers - and very happy pollinators.
Hoverflies covering lettuce flowers
Bees in a poppy flower
Bees on an artichoke flower
Bees and hoverflies on broccoli flowers
plants that provide nectar:
It’s important to also provide nectar-rich plants for birds such as New Holland Honeyeaters, Wattlebirds and Silvereyes (there are plenty of others, but those species visit my own garden a lot). Many insects that eat pollen will also consume nectar at some point in their lifecycle, among them butterflies, bees, moths, hoverflies and beetles.
To attract these animals to your garden, grow plants that produce nectar-rich flowers. For instance natives such as Grevilleas, Geraldton Wax, Banksias, Bottlebrush and Kangaroo Paw (see more varieties here), trees like apples, pears and elderflowers (all of which produce nectar-rich blossoms before they bear fruit), climbers like wisteria and moonflower, and smaller flowering plants like tropical milkweed and Verbena bonariensis (monarch butterflies love both plants!), as well as Russian sage and Salvia.
plants that provide seeds or fruit:
If you want to attract even more birds to your garden, grow plants that produce seeds and fruit. Take a look at this website to get an idea of which birds might be looking for seeds or fruit in your garden (this website also gives a great round up of birds that are common in Perth). In my garden, the birds’ favourite tree is the native mulberry (Pipturus argenteus), which provides food for honeyeaters, silvereyes and wattle birds, and has a beautiful cascading growing habit.
plants for native bees:
And don’t forget about the native bees (like Blue Banded Bees, Teddy Bear Bees, Leafcutter Bees, Reed Bees and Carpenter Bees)! There are particular plants you can grow in your garden to attract and feed native bees, and it’s more important than ever that we look after these beautiful little pollinators. Try growing: Buddleja, Callistemon, Abelia, Everlasting Daisies, Gum trees, Grevilleas, Tea Trees, Westringea and Sweet Alyssum (find more recommendations for native-bee-friendly plants here, and take a look at this website if you’d like to learn how to build homes for native bees into your garden).
False Queen Anne’s Lace setting seed behind flowering parsley and artichokes
3. Let plants go through their entire life cycle
We have a tendency to view plants only in terms of one specific point in their life cycle - usually the point at which they are most useful to us. So we hear ‘broccoli’ and our mind jumps to the edible florets (which are essentially flower buds that are waiting to bloom), we hear ‘fennel’ and we think of the edible bulb (and not the amazingly beautiful, pollen rich flowers that burst from the top of the plant in spring, or the deliciously aniseedy seeds that follow). Similarly carrots (a close relation of the much-loved Queen Anne’s Lace flower) are grown for their roots and seldom allowed to flower, and lettuces are deemed ‘finished’ and pulled from the earth weeks before they’re allowed to burst into beautiful yellow blooms.
Well, this is all just a terrible waste!!
Next time you grow something in your garden - anything at all - I challenge you to wait and see it through its entire lifecycle. From a tiny seed to a sprawling, dried and crackling plant at the end of its life. There are so many beautiful moments that we often miss because we stop looking once a plant has served its ‘purpose’. It turns out that lettuce flowers are fantastic for attracting hoverflies (they’re really lovely too), parsley flowers are wonderful for wasps and bees (and you can use them in cooking as well). And, if you can spare a few carrots towards the beginning of spring, leave them in the ground and they will reward you with the most beautiful white, lacy flowers you’ve ever seen.
Leaving vegetables and herbs in the soil long enough for them to produce flowers is one of the best ways of building a more diverse insect population in your garden. It also looks lovely, and if you grow heirloom vegetables you can collect the seeds to sow the following year as well!
4. Plant trees
There are SO many good reasons to plant trees in your garden (their roots help to aerate the soil, they can create microclimates within your garden, shielding sections of garden from the sun’s harsh rays, their roots help to direct water into the soil, to name a few). But if your goal is to create a wildlife friendly garden trees and large shrubs really are a must!
Aside from providing food in the form of nectar-rich flowers, seeds, fruit or nuts, trees create a garden that is sheltered and safe and so much more likely to attract smaller, more vulnerable birds. In my garden, an elderflower tree rubs shoulders with the native mulberry. Silvereyes and Honeyeaters flit between the branches of both trees, enjoying the shrubby, densely packed branches in the elderflower and the tiny, white and slightly sweet fruits from the mulberry.
If you have the space, aim to grow some bigger trees (these offer places for larger birds to nest and enjoy a good vantage point - there is an old pecan tree in our garden which the Carnaby's black cockatoos love) as well as smaller trees and shrubs (which offer shelter, food and protection for smaller birds). If your garden is smaller, opt for small trees and shrubs, and - where possible - look for trees that flower or bear fruits that attract native birds.
5. Provide water
Adding bird baths and a pond had a massive impact on the wildlife in our garden. The fact is, a garden that has no readily available source of water is just not going to be as appealing to the local wildlife. This is especially true during summer, where many animals can struggle to find water in hot and arid sections of suburbia. We need to make our gardens havens for these creatures!!! How beautiful would it be to know your garden is the social hub for nesting birds, thirsty lizards, frogs who need a quick dip and bees and wasps who are exhausted from a day of pollinating. Pretty DAMN beautiful I can tell you. And all it really takes is a few litres of water!
When adding some water to your garden, bear a few things in mind. Many animals will need a shallow entrance to whatever water body you’re building. Bees, wasps and dragonflies need rocks to perch on, otherwise they risk falling in and drowning. Likewise frogs, lizards and other small animals can benefit from a ‘beach’ on the side of your pond - basically a shallow rocky area that slopes gently down to the water’s edge. Frogs also prefer still ponds, so if there is a pump creating a lot of water flow they may not be so keen to lay eggs or set up house. Aim to provide a few options - some deep, cool bodies of water (like a pond, old bath or trough), some that are shallow (little bowls filled with marbles and topped up with water work well), and some in between (like a good old bird bath). Then you’ll know you’re keeping everyone happy.
6. Aim to grow a garden that flowers all year round
Often our gardens get a little bare in winter. It’s legitimately hard to achieve consistent, year-round flowering, and it takes conscious thought to make sure there’s anything in flower during the colder months (but it can be done!). The thing is, there are still pollinators around even in winter and they still need food, so it’s important to try to grow flowers through winter as well as in spring, summer and autumn. Fortunately I have made you a helpful little blog post already, filled with recommendations for winter flowering plants you can grow!
7. Grow a wildly beautiful garden
Fifty years ago, to be a ‘good gardener’ meant neatly trimmed hedges, close cropped lawns, well-pruned roses and a generally clean, pristine backyard. The more we learn about cultivating wildlife-friendly gardens, the more that image has to change. Nature isn’t pristine. But in my opinion that is what makes it infinitely more beautiful than anything humans create. Bringing a little bit of that wilderness into our gardens not only makes them much more interesting spaces to enjoy, it also makes them much more appealing habitats for the local wildlife.
Leave some of your garden clippings - twigs, branches or leaves - in a corner of the garden to slowly rot down. They’ll attract slaters, beetles, skinks, spiders and a wide range of other animals. For the insects, leave a patch of lawn un-mown to grow long and wild (you could even scatter some native wildflower seeds amongst it or plant flowering bulbs beneath it to burst through the mass of green in spring).
Pile up a pyramid of salvaged stones as a resting place for lizards to sun themselves on sunny days. Find a few logs and lie them horizontally underneath shrubs, making a home for millipedes and molecrickets. Let plants grow a little reckless and wild; accept them tumbling over edges or overflowing from your planter boxes. If a pumpkin seed randomly germinates in a patch of garden where you spread last year’s compost, let it grow. Watch where it takes itself. It will be the most wonderfully exciting and beautifully unplanned thing. Then, when it’s done and withering, bundle up its spiky leaves and toss them into a corner of the garden to be feasted on by slugs and slaters. A little wilderness goes a long way when creating a garden for the local wildlife.
Don’t aim for some kind of pristine perfection - there’s no such thing. In a world where human expansion has taken so many natural habitats from so many animals, simply aim for a garden that is a welcoming home to as many lifeforms as possible. I can’t think of anything more perfect than that anyway.
