space for nature

Going wild.

A part of your garden, a balconey or a few plant pots, can make a big difference for nature. This video was taken in the wild area within the garden and shows how it is becoming a part of the native local wildlife. Their lifecycles are completed within it.

Stills from the video above naming content are shown below. 

If you want to link the butterfly to its caterpillar food plant, click here

You can attract them with flowers but you need to have their plant species to have them stay

1: Jack-by-the-hedge, dandelion and various grasses. 

2: Bee fly on wood forget-me-not.  

3: Oxeye Daisy, Hedge Parsley and Ground Elder. 

 

4: Humingbird Hawk Moth on wild Sweet William. 

5: Peacock Butterfly

6: Holly Blue Butterfly.

7: Brimstone Butterfly. 

8: Orange Tip Butterfly.  

9: Small Tortoishell Butterfly. 

10: Common Frog. 

11: Blue Tit  

 12: Buff-Tailed Bumblebee on wild Violet. 

13: Common Wasp on Apple trunk. 

14: Common Frog on Lily Pad.

  15: Holly Blue Butterfly. on Oregano. 

16: Small Skipper  Butterfly on Lavendar 

17: Mating Orange Tip Butterflies on 

Jack-by-the-hedge. 

These are some of plants that support the native animals and insects. An important one is an area of Nettles as this is the food plant for caterpillars of some of the most colourful garden butterflies. 

If you have the essential food plants 

they will come to you

butterfly food plants

 

Keeping butterflies around.

If you want to enable butterflies to live in your garden you will need to have food for their caterpillars. Leaving an area to nature will enable them to arrive. To nudge nature along you should add some seeds and plants that garden butterflies need to survive.

All of these butterflies will lay there eggs on stinging nettles. Nettles in a sunny corner would be perfect for attracting them to breed and lay eggs. 

From the top: Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma underside, Comma with wings open and lastly the Painted Lady

Orange Tip Butterflies on its caterpillar food plant, Jack-by-the-hedge in the garden

Holly Blue Butterflies need Holly, Cinnabar moths need Ragwort and for the Brimstone it is Buckthorn

For those shown below its the grasses, Meadow, Cock's-foot, Yorkshire Fog, Red Fescue, Creeping Soft, Downy Oat and Tor-grass

From top: Small Skipper, Marbled White, Gate Keeper, Ringlet, Large Skipper, Small Copper, Speckled Wood, Common Blue and Meadow Brown

gardens and green spaces are the answer

  

Gardening for nature.

Any space you can share with nature will be benificial. Making space on balconies, patios or gardens can become corridors of green for our wildlife. In the uk we have more than 20 million gardens that between them contain more than four times the area of our nature reserves. If you leave room for wildlife they will find it. 

All the photos and videos on this page were taken in the garden since introducing wilding. A small pond, wild areas of grass, nettles alongside areas of shade and shelter. 

 

Since leaving the bottom part of my garden wild the garden has been visited by birds, insects and animals that were not here before. Many complete their lifecycle in the garden every year. Butterflies like the Red Admirals, Orange Tips, Comma’s and Peacocks lay their eggs and hatch as a butterflies within it. 

If you allow native plants to grow the butterflies will follow.

 

 

it's not a weed

 

Leave a wild space and they will come.

We can each make a difference in our own small way. Whatever space if you are able to leave something for nature it will make a difference. By designing with nature there are several ways you are making a positive change. 

1 By providing a foothold for the natural world 

2 Encouraging native insects and animals that will keep pests under control 

3 Improving soil by working with nature 

4 Creating a space for you to enjoy

The difference between a flower and a weed is your mindset!

Instead of using chemicals and sprays to stop your plants being eaten, start with a change to your mindset. Native flora and fauna can be seen as welcome additions to your green space. Indigenous plants will work with you, attracting pollinators and beneficial insects, improving pollination, and deterring pests. Frogs, birds, ants, ladybirds, there are so many different species that can keep slugs, snails, caterpillars and green fly under control. 

Birds and butterflies can be attracted to your garden by providing flowers and feeders but to keep them there you need the food plants growing nearby. By enhancing biodiversity you will be contributing to a more sustainable garden, while also reducing the need for chemical interventions Take action to help restore a relationship with land and nature. 

Clover, dandelion and nettles have their place with the nursery plants and vegetables in our garden. Together they have created a vibrant and rewarding space for all of us

Photo's and video taken in the garden