href="#litres_trial_promo">see here).
GARDEN PROJECT – PLANTING A HEDGE FOR WILDLIFE
A hedge is best planted in the winter, and all the plants should be pruned to no more than about 30cm (12in) in height after planting them to encourage the growth of interlocking shoots. Don’t be too eager with your secateurs after that. A hedge does need to be trimmed from time to time, but if you want a really good wildlife hedge then you should do this only once every two years.
By doing this, you will always have some one-year-old wood on which many of the shrubs carry their flowers. It is a good plan to trim half the hedge one winter and the other half the next. Try to keep your hedge narrower at the top than at the bottom; otherwise the ground flora may become shaded out and some of the lower branches may die back and leave gaps.
Although, as a home for wildlife, a hedge beats a wall every time, there is still a place for a wall in a wildlife garden. This is particularly true on sloping ground, where small walls, no more than a metre (three feet) or so high, can be used to create a very attractive terraced effect.
You don’t need to be an expert bricklayer; in fact, you don’t really need bricks at all. You can try building a dry stone wall, using one of the many traditional styles that are found in upland Britain. Always use local stone if possible, as this fits into the landscape so much better than alien material. You may be able to buy large stones from a local quarry or a nearby garden centre. Failing this, get hold of The Natural Stone Directory (see here) which will tell you where you can buy almost every kind of stone.
CONSERVATION TIP
Never be tempted to buy water-worn limestone, often sold as Westmorland stone. It should not be for sale anyway, as it comes from one of our rarest habitats – the much-damaged limestone pavements of northern Britain – which are now protected by law.
Michael Chinery
This section of a dry stone wall shows the large through stones which are used to tie the two faces of the wall together. The central cavity can be filled with soil or small stones.
A wildlife refuge
Because there is no mortar between the stones, except perhaps at the ends of the wall, the dry stone wall offers homes to a huge variety of animals: lizards bask and hunt on the wall by day, while toads hide in the cool recesses along with numerous spiders and beetles.
Bumblebees will also take up residence, and in the warmer parts of Europe they may be joined by the harmless little scorpion Euscorpius flavicaudis.
Michael Chinery
Red valerian is an attractive, although rather invasive, inhabitant of old walls. It attracts lots of butterflies and moths.
Michael Chinery
The scorpion Euscorpius flavicaudis inhabits old walls in southern Europe. You may see the pincers sticking out of a crevice.
Michael Chinery
The black redstart, uncommon in Britain but a common garden bird on the continent of Europe, regularly breeds in holes and crevices in old walls. Its nest is an untidy and none-too-secure pile of grass, which is lined with hair and feathers.
Wrens, black redstarts, great tits and pied wagtails are among the many birds that may find your wall to their liking.
The hedgehog is sure to find a snug retreat among the lower stones. And don’t forget yourself either: it is not difficult to incorporate a smooth stone slab in the wall so that you can sit comfortably and watch your garden guests.
Water your wall with a slurry of cow or horse dung after building it to encourage invasion by mosses and lichens, which then act as nurseries for ferns and other plants. It will soon become a home for wildlife.
GARDEN PROJECT – BUILDING A DRY STONE WALL
If your garden is flat, you can use low stone walls simply as decorative features or to create raised beds. Such beds are ideal for alpines and many other plants and, once built, they make gardening much easier as well! Old bricks can be used instead of stone, but you still do not need mortar. Dig out the wall base to a depth of one brick, making sure that it is fairly level and compacted down.
To retain a bed, the wall should be double thickness and no higher than four courses. Set each course of bricks on a mixture of sand and peat-free compost. Leave a few gaps between the bricks for lizards and other small creatures to get in, but otherwise the bricks in each course need to be in contact with each other.
You will not have to wait long for ferns and other plants to spring up naturally in the sand/compost mixture and bind the bricks firmly together, but you can speed things up by planting some yourself. You’ll find that houseleeks and stonecrops do very well on these walls. Remember that this wall is not for walking or climbing on!
Rolando Ugolini
This very simple low wall is made of old bricks which are laid double thickness and across each other to bind and strengthen the wall. Leave some small gaps in between.
If you have room to create only one semi-natural habitat in your garden, then I think it should be a garden pond. This is one of the richest of all habitats in terms of wildlife. As well as providing homes for frogs, newts, dragonflies and many other exciting creatures, it provides food, drink and bathing facilities for birds and assorted mammals. And all will give you, the gardener, a great deal of fun.
If you are really lucky your garden might already have a stream that you can dam to make a small pond. Local rocks can be used to form the dam, or you can utilize a tree trunk. Oak and elm are good for this as both timbers survive well under water. A height of about 50cm (20in) is fine for the dam. Be sure to consult the appropriate authorities if you want to create a larger pool because anything more than a small dam could interfere with water supplies further downstream.
Most of us have to create our ponds from scratch, but this is not difficult if there are strong people to do the digging.
