Contents
Foreword
When it comes to gardening for wildlife, its up to you: you can do a little or you can do a lot. But whats important is to realise that everyone can do something for the wildlife that shares our gardens. And if everyone does their bit to help it really can make a difference.
Much of the UKs wildlife is having a tough time in the so-called countryside. While conservationists work tirelessly to address conflicts and concerns, you can support their endeavours by trying to improve your own space for as many other species as possible.
So many of us in Britain are lucky enough to have access to a garden and these spaces already represent an incredibly valuable refuge, where many plants and animals have successfully adapted to prosper alongside us. It seems only right if we all try to enhance the space we have, to make sure it adds to the health of our world rather than detracting from it.
Adrians book takes a very realistic, pragmatic and contemporary outlook on gardening for wildlife. This is a modern book for the modern naturalist and gardener, and it is a rich treasury of the information required to succeed in modest or ambitious plans. It provides the biological knowledge you need and sows plenty of original and imaginative ideas.
The calendar will keep you on your toes, the myth busting is fabulously reassuring, and the plans for small-scale habitat creation are very tempting and practically simple. Who wouldnt want to make their very own mini-cornfield?
Things might seem rosy in your garden already, but the wild world is a tough place to be, so please use this exciting new book to help conserve as much life as possible, and then you, your friends or family can all enjoy a healthier, wealthier community.
Chris Packham
P.S. Gardening for wildlife requires a bit of tolerance too, because it takes all sorts to make the world go round. Snails, slugs, wasps, flies, ants they are all there to do their jobs and without them your garden would be a poorer place. Try to avoid the P word if you can; often its humans who are the real pests!
GARDENING FOR WILDLIFE
Its eight years since I began writing the first edition of Gardening for Wildlife and with hand on heart I can say that my passion for the subject has grown even more. I cannot tell you how much enjoyment I have had, what wonderful encounters with wildlife, all within a few feet of my back door.
Gardening is all about nurturing life; gardening for wildlife allows you to extend that to the creatures that share this planet with us.
In recent years, I have seen gardening for wildlife spread and blossom, and it is now central to the RSPB and its mission. All of us at the RSPB recognise that, if people are to care for our wildlife and try to save it, they need opportunities to get close to nature and to enjoy it as often as they can, and where better to start than in their own gardens.
At the same time, nature as a whole continues to struggle. As with wildlife in many other habitats, once familiar garden wildlife, such as Hedgehogs and Starlings, continue to decline and they need our concerted action if we are to turn the situation around. When you do things to make your gardens wildlife-friendly, you can feel proud that you are part of the solution.
So in this book well look at how to encourage many of the different species you can find in a garden. Well go step by step through the creation of all sorts of mini habitats. And Ive compiled a catalogue of more than 500 different garden plants that I know are not only great for wildlife, but look stunning in the garden too.
This new edition, with 48 new pages and a complete overhaul of the text and images, takes into account the extensive new research that has emerged in recent years, such as the RHSs Plants for Bugs study. Ive also been lucky enough to work closely with the Wildlife Gardening Forum, of which the RSPB is a partner, which has allowed me to draw on the expertise of all sorts of experts in all manner of fields.
Since that first book, Ive also had the privilege of visiting many more inspirational gardens around the UK, from Scilly to Shetland, where Ive learnt a huge amount first-hand from other peoples experiences. And I moved from my little garden where I had enjoyed 15 glorious, transformative years to one of an acre. It is the beloved former garden of two elderly sisters. It had become rather too much for them to cope with and I pledged to do my best to tend it back to its former glory and deliver a home for the wildlife they so adored there.
Use the book as you wish, but I would recommend that you read through the next section. In it well go back to basics, weeding out some of the wildlife-gardening myths that have sprung up and establishing exactly what gardening for wildlife is all about. Like all good gardening, preparing the ground well reaps rewards, and I think it might bring a few liberating surprises too.
Gardens are at last being seen as the brilliant and valuable wildlife habitat they are or at least can be, with a bit of effort and encouragement. You can bring about profound improvement really quickly, so be bold, and enjoy all the benefits that giving nature a home brings.
Gardening for wildlife can be great fun, offering you all sorts of little wild adventures without even leaving home! Yes, this is me. In my garden pond!
Why We Should All Garden for Wildlife
The fact youve picked up this book probably means you have a good idea why you want to garden for wildlife or indeed why you already do. But it is still worth reminding ourselves why it is such a good thing to do.
For some, it is about the sheer, simple joy of watching living things connecting with nature, if you like right on your doorstep. The lightning-speed precision of a Hummingbird Hawkmoth zipping from flower to flower; a House Martin constructing a dome from mud and saliva while hanging off the side of a house; watching a butterfly as it emerges from its pupa there are endless jaw-dropping moments to be had with wildlife in a garden.
For other people, its about the challenge of learning and perfecting the skills needed to be a good host to our feathered and furry (and sometimes shiny and hairy) friends. How can I encourage the Robins in my garden to breed? Why has my frogspawn gone cloudy? How can I entice more bumblebees? These and a million other questions are there to be asked and answered. Gardening for wildlife is an art and a science mixed with a healthy dose of old-fashioned nurture.
