How to encourage wildlife to your garden

 Growing British Flowers to Help Biodiversity

This week I’ve been enjoying my time at the plot even more than usual. It’s July and a busy time for our outdoor seasonal cut flowers, and there’s pinks, yellows and blues from the phlox, achillea, eryngium, golden rod and agapanthus.

I usually head to the plot early in the morning to pick flowers before the sun gets on them, but spending time here in the middle of the day is when it really comes alive. There’s ants, spiders, bees, bumblebees, ladybirds, hummingbird hawk moths, red admirals, painted ladies, speckled woods and peacock butterflies - newly crowned Britain’s favourite butterfly by Butterfly Conservation. Here’s a peacock I spotted sipping nectar on the sweet williams this week. What a stunner!

Mum and I have been growing British flowers on this site since 2018  it’s already an idyllic rural spot next to the River Abo  on flat, fertile soil and we see pheasants and partridges on the lane, small birds in the hedgerows, waterfowl by the river, hear the cuckoo and watch the buzzards high overhead. 

The soil and growing conditions are great, and we have gradually learnt to grow the things that grow best without intervention in this location. We don’t use pesticides or artificial fertilisers, and each winter we put down carloads of manure, wood chip and leaf mould. We’re a fan of “no dig” - there’s no need to turn the soil over, and it’s surprising how quickly the additional material is pulled down into the soil by the worms. We have long grass, nettle patches, compost heaps, dead wood, providing lots of habitat options for birds, mammals and invertebrates.

With all our activity and planting, our plot is now a thriving little habitat in its own right, and it makes us proud to see what is possible, growning sustainably without pesticides.

Your garden can do this too

If you have a garden, a patch of soil, pots or a window box, you can choose to grow things that you like to and that encourage wildlife too. We’ve found two of the absolute favourite flowers for bees and other pollinators to be marjoram and lavender. 

These are both pretty easy to grow and don’t need much watering. Marjoram is a herb like oregano and is great with tomato dishes, and dried lavender in a cloth bag under a pillow can help with a calming sleep. And if you’re more about veggies, beans or strawberries are great for picking and are also a flurry of flowers the bees love.

A good tip if you’re looking to stock up on new interest in the garden is to head to your favourite garden centre at different times of the year. This way you can find plants that flower at different times of the year to provide year round food for pollinators.

Want to help?
Butterflies need our help.This summer’s Big Butterfly Count runs from 17 July to 9 August. Download the ID chart, get the kids involved, pick a sunny spot and count what you see. It’s a lovely way to help conservationists build a clearer picture of how our butterflies are doing.

We grow our flowers in the seasonal, low-impact way, working with nature rather than against it and we rely on a network of established large and small British flower growers for our posies. If you’d like to find out what’s in our posies through the year, sign up to our weekly newsletter and follow along.