Michael Chinery - Garden Wildlife

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First published in Great Britain in 2006 by Collins

Michael Chinery, 20O6

Michael Chinery asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Created by: SP Creative Design

Editor: Heather Thomas

Designer: Rolando Ugolini

The publishers would like to thank CJ Wild bird Foods for their kind assistance in providing many of the photographs of their bird and animal products. For further information go to: www.birdfood.co.uk

Source ISBN: 9780007209903
Ebook Edition SEPTEMBER 2013 ISBN: 9780007555253
Version: 2013-12-02

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Title Page

Todays gardens are our most important nature reserves. In some areas, they are undoubtedly more important for wildlife than the surrounding countryside, with its pesticide-drenched monocultures. This is true even where the gardener does nothing in particular to encourage visitors: the wide range of plants grown in a typical garden is itself enough to attract lots of insects, and the insects bring in the birds. By being more laid-back and a little less tidy, you can have a garden buzzing with wildlife and filled with tasty crops and fine flowers. Your guests will actually do much of the pest control for you free of charge!

Wildlife gardens aim to increase the number of native species visiting and residing in a garden without any loss of productivity.

Although we may refer to the garden as a single habitat, on a par with a woodland or a meadow, most gardens are complex mixtures of habitats, supporting their own rich assemblage of plant and animal life.

The flower border, a major feature of most gardens, contains a wide range of plants that flower at different times and attract insects and other small creatures for much of the year. Caterpillars chew the leaves, bugs suck the sap, bees and butterflies feast on the nectar, and many other insects attack the fruits and seeds. Hidden from view, the roots provide sustenance for wireworms, leatherjackets, slugs and millipedes. Earthworms derive most of their nourishment from the decaying plant matter in the soil. All these creatures provide food for birds and small mammals, so even a simple flower border is a mixture of several micro-habitats.

Even the smallest of backyards in an urban area can still be a riot of colour, packed with flowers that act as filling stations for butterflies and many other insects.

A single climbing rose can feed a huge number of insects, which, in turn, can provide food for numerous spiders and birds. The birds may also nest there, well protected from predators by the roses prickly stems.

Tiny mosses, seen here covered with pear-shaped spore capsules, erupt from the smallest cracks in walls and paths.

The vegetable plot has a similar diversity to that of the flower border, although it does not have much in the way of nectar sources and, being subject to more disturbance as crops are planted and harvested, it tends to support a smaller variety of animal life.

These lend welcome shade and shelter to other parts of the garden and are micro-habitats in their own right, providing homes and hunting grounds for insects, spiders, birds and many other creatures.

These provide yet more living space for both flora and fauna, a fact that is easily appreciated when you look at the number of spider webs that adorn the fences in the autumn. Even ordinary concrete paths can support wildlife tiny mosses wedge themselves into cracks in the concrete, while ants often nest underneath the paths and benefit from the heat absorbed by the concrete on sunny days. You might not even know that they are there until they fly off on their marriage flights in the summer.

A pond is one of the richest of all wildlife habitats, and garden ponds, happily, are now becoming increasingly popular. Pond-watching can be great fun, and the garden pond can literally be a life-saver for frogs, toads and dragonflies, all of which are now suffering from the disappearance of so many farm ponds and other watery sites in the countryside.

Having been hit by the disappearance of so many farm and village ponds, many frogs now find refuge in our garden ponds and mop up the slugs in return for the hospitality.

Not all of the visitors to your garden will be welcome guests, of course, but they will all add to the richness of the garden, and the great majority will do no harm. They are just using your garden as a home. The more habitats that you can create in your garden, the more guests you are likely to get, and the more diversity of wildlife. This can only be good for the wildlife population as a whole. If you find a strange creature in your garden, dont assume it is harmful. Find out what it is and does. You will probably find that it is harmless or even useful.

Wildlife gardening involves creating an approximation to one or more natural habitats that will be acceptable to birds and other wild creatures. However, it does not mean giving the whole garden over to nature. You can continue to grow all your favourite flowers and vegetables in a wildlife garden.