Promoting sustainable living within the local community

Downton Green Network

Grow a variety of flowers to attract bees and butterflies - early and late flowering plants provide nectar for insects at critical times. Single petal varieties, especially annuals, will be more useful to insects seeking pollen & nectar than multi petal hybrids. Leave tidying of borders and shrubs until late winter/early spring to maintain cover and retain seeds and fruit for birds and small mammals throughout winter. Create homes for a variety of invertebrates by making a log pile, or build a ‘bug hotel’ using old pallets or cast off untreated timber, bamboo canes, old bricks etc. Solitary bees will find a home in a bundle of canes hung in a sheltered spot. More simply, a plant pot filled with dead leaves and turned upside down, or flat stones placed around the garden will give mini beasts places to hide!

Wildlife Friendly Gardening

Any garden, big or small, can be home to a variety of wildlife. In general, the key is to provide as many habitats as possible, with plenty of shelter, foraging opportunities, and if you can, some water. Lawns are good for Blackbirds and Starlings that search for leatherjackets in short grass; if you avoid use of weedkiller & artificial fertiliser you will allow clover and other flowering species to provide foraging for bees, and seeds for finches.

Hoverflies are very important insects  - they are second only to bees as our main pollinators, so are to be encouraged!  Unlike bees they have no sting and only one pair of wings.  The plants that these insects like best are the types that have open flowers where the nectar and pollen is easy to reach, like marigolds, asters,  rudbeckia,  dandelions and buttercups.  There are over 200 varieties found in England and they live and breed in many places in gardens.  Some like best to lay their eggs in stagnant water; and for these you could make a ‘Hoverfly Lagoon’.  Use  a medium size flower pot or similar  container but with no holes.  Add a layer of soil, then some grass cuttings and a few leaves, followed by some straw or courser grass.  Lastly, stick 2or 3 twigs down the sides of the pot that just poke over the edge, so that the grubs can climb out, when they hatch .  Now fill with water and hide the pot amongst the flowers, sinking  it a little way into the ground, so it doesn’t fall over.

A patch of long grass will offer habitat for beetles and overwintering caterpillars. If you can host a nettle patch, you are providing a larval food plant for Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock butterflies. Create shelter by growing climbers against walls (ivy is great) so that birds may find roosting and breeding sites; berry bearing shrubs will also provide food. If you have room, a native mixed hedge will sustain many different species.