Table Of ContentCreate a sanctuary for nature
THE BUTTERFLY BROTHERS
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W I L D
YOUR GARDEN
Create a sanctuary for nature
THE BUTTERFLY BROTHERS
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CONTENTS
6 Foreword
10 ASSESS YOUR SPACE 58 WILDLIFE PONDS
12 Introduction 60 Introduction
14 Know your garden’s aspect 62 A natural pond
16 Work with existing features 72 A formal pond
18 Plan for new features 80 A bog garden
24 Plant for nature 86 A container pond
26 Plan your garden design
92 NECTAR BORDERS
28 TREES AND SHRUBS
94 Introduction
30 Introduction 96 A nectar border
32 A native hedgerow 104 A limestone bank
40 A coppice belt
46 A wild fence
52 Choose shrubs for wildlife
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58 WILDLIFE PONDS 112 WILDFLOWER MEADOWS
174 A dry stone wall
60 Introduction 114 Introduction 178 A log wall
62 A natural pond 116 A perennial wildflower meadow
72 A formal pond 126 A cornfield annual meadow 182 Plant lists
80 A bog garden 134 A flowering lawn 186 Bird boxes
86 A container pond 142 A woodland glade 187 Index
191 Acknowledgments
92 NECTAR BORDERS 148 WELCOME MORE WILDLIFE 192 About the authors
94 Introduction 150 Introduction
96 A nectar border 152 Habitat heaps
104 A limestone bank 156 A reptile-friendly compost bin
160 Bird boxes and feeders
166 Insect hotels
170 Bat boxes
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WILD YOUR GARDEN 6
FOREWORD
We grew up in the nineties, completely immersed in the natural world. We
spent our first years of childhood growing up in a wonderful,
semi-detached Victorian house on a busy street in a small town. Looking
out of the front bay window, we could see an average-sized gravel
driveway, then the pavement and then the road. A large privet hedge
housed the resident dunnocks, along with a mock orange, forsythia, and a
flowering currant bush.
The back garden told a different story. The plot was relatively narrow
but very, very long. We used to walk out into the garden, up the paved
path along the edge of the lawn, past an old apple tree (Dad built us a
fantastic treehouse there), and on to the bottom of the garden. There stood
a big old shed that was completely engulfed by a huge climbing rose,
while the area beside it contained a fantastic mixture of brambles, nettles,
old sheets of plywood to pinch for den-building, and a compost bin full of
creepy crawlies – including the largest house spider imaginable!
The front privet hedge wrapped around the side of the house and ran
the full length of one side of the plot, providing a welcome retreat for the
colony of house sparrows that lived there, a plentiful species back then. We
would make occasional gaps in the hedge in order to carry out regular
apple scrumping raids into neighbouring gardens at the end of summer.
On the opposite side of the garden was Mum’s pride and joy – a
wonderful border that she grew all sorts of great plants in. There, depending
on the season, we’d enjoy irises, geraniums, snowdrops, sunflowers,
gooseberry bushes, violets, and bluebells. Mum’s interest in gardening,
combined with Dad’s passion for fishing and a childhood spent searching
for birds’ nests, was bound to shape us into enthusiastic naturalists.
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FOREWORD 7
Growing up, the two of us would spend hours knelt
beside the wildlife pond in our back garden.
Later, we moved to the other side of town, into a small bungalow
surrounded by conifers. One day, Dad proudly brought home the battered
old shell of a fibreglass pond. As he placed it down on the ground, he
miscalculated the position of one of the conifer stumps, which smashed
straight through its middle! The shell was soon repaired, and after much
digging the pond was finished. On the 4th August 1996, we officially sat
beside our first ever wildlife pond. It’s safe to say this was the most
influential moment of our childhoods.
We spent countless hours knelt beside the water’s edge, spotting water
boatmen, turning over stones looking for frogs, and stealing old maggots
from Dad’s bait box and tying them to fishing line to catch greedy smooth
newts from holes in the weed. We would often ask to stay up past our
bedtime to watch bats hunting insects over the pond.
The “feral” childhood we had back then is now a very rare thing indeed.
The ever-growing demand for new housing estates has resulted in a huge
loss of wild places, such as derelict brownfield sites and waste ground,
where children and wildlife could happily coexist.
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WILD YOUR GARDEN 8
By reimagining how we use our gardens, we can all do our
bit to support local wildlife and tackle the climate crisis.
And as for our own gardens, how many of us can honestly say we live in an
area rich in birdsong, hedgehogs, bats, and dragonflies? A peek into a
neighbour’s garden may reveal nothing but mown grass and paving, or –
worse still – artificial grass and plastic plants. How many fences nowadays
have holes or gaps for hedgehogs to use as they roam the neighbourhood?
How many ponds are there in the other gardens on the street for the local
frogs and newts? How can birds and bats access roof spaces now that
builders use tightly fitting plastic soffits and fascia boards?
Even the green space we do have is often effectively sterile. Flower
beds and ornamental shrubs are more often than not tainted by slug
pellets and chemical insecticides. Then there’s our choice of plants: exotics
may look stunning, but they don’t support our invertebrate species nearly
as well as natives do.
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FOREWORD 9
We only need to think back to primary school lessons about the food
chain to realize what a problem this is. Vegetation is eaten by insects,
which in turn are preyed upon by birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles,
and so on. If the insects are dying off due to chemicals and non-native
plants, what does that mean for the rest of our native wildlife?
Throughout the world, natural habitats are under threat. In Europe, for
instance, more than 50 per cent of grasslands are endangered or vulnerable,
while the UK is estimated to have lost more than 97 per cent of its meadows
and at least a quarter of a million miles of hedgerow since WW2. Now, more
than ever before, our wildlife is in trouble. Many species, from wildflowers to
great crested newts, grasshoppers to house sparrows, are in desperate
need of our help (and that’s without even mentioning the climate crisis).
But, in spite of all the doom and gloom, there is hope – and it starts
on our own doorsteps.
Imagine what would happen if we transformed our outdoor spaces – the
rural gardens, the urban balconies, and everything in between – and turned
them into spaces for nature; if everyone with the means to do so planted
a tree, put up a bird box, dug a pond, and let the grass grow long; if
we reclaimed the wilder, richer, more birdsong-filled gardens of our
childhoods. All it would take is for a few people on each street to work
together, and before long we would create a nationwide network of
habitats. By taking positive steps in our own gardens, no matter how small,
together we can really make a difference.
Jim and Joel Ashton
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