Most of us now live in towns and cities
where gardens are often quite small and
we're surrounded by buildings.
Now well as the built environment poses certain
challenges busy roads for hedgehogs to
cross for example, urban gardens are
actually hot spots for wildlife.
Today I'm going to show you how you don't have
to live in the country or even have a
large garden to do your bit, with just a
little thought even the tiniest of urban
plots can welcome wildlife and be a
rewarding place for us to.
Don't worry about not having acres of lawn even a
patch of grass the size of a postage
stamp is enough to make yourself a mini
meadow, just mow a path through the
middle or keep the edges short, green
wood peckers will love to hunt for ants
in those parts, while leaving the rest to grow tall.
Support your pollinating
insects by letting some of the long
weeds flower or if you prefer you can
plant in some wildflower plug plants
instead if the grasses in your lawn are
a bit too vigorous and are not letting
the wild flowers come through there's a
simple fix for that, a lovely little
flower called yellow rattle can be sewn
into the lawn and this is semi-parasitic on the grass and so will help
to suppress its vigour.
Shade is really common in small gardens
especially along boundaries and hedge lines, dense
conifer hedges like this slow growing
Yew harbour all sorts of spiders and
invertebrates and also makes a great
nesting site for blackbirds.
cleanser boundaries rather than fences
or walls means that it's easy access for
hedgehogs and other animals which can
freely come and go.
It's also a handy spot to discreetly place a log pile.
When it comes to water in the garden we need
to think small too you don't need a big
pond instead opt for a small bird bath
light of a stone one we've got down here
or make a little mini water feature
out of an old belfast sink or a trug
All i'm going to do is just get a couple of
bricks pop those into the bottom of the trug
I've got a couple of moisture
loving plants here, this lovely
Purple Loosetrife (Lythrum salicaria) this will bring in the bees
straight away and then alongside it I've
got some water mint in not very long
time this is going to come into flower
and lure in the butterflies and the moths
so all we're going to do is just stand these
they'll sit on the bricks so they will be
raised up a little bit in the water that
looks good there and I think if we pop
this one over here and I probably got a
little bit of space so a third one these
will all fill out so don't worry too
much if it looks a little sparse to
begin with, that's quite nice now ideally
fill your trug with rainwater in
preference to tap water and remember to
allow frogs some sort of access so they
can get in and out I've just got a
little old piece of wood here so I'm
just going to slip this in, there we go
and the only thing that's left to do is top up with water.
Urban gardens are
often warmer more sheltered places than
larger exposed rural gardens, meaning
that we can get away with a wider range
of more tender plants and that wildlife
is active for longer. There's loads of
potential in an urban garden we just need to maximise it.
If you have lots of hard surfaces
see if you can use gravel as a
pathway and plant through with grant
cover plants like time and a return
plant at quartz window boxes and baskets
with pollinator friendly plants such as
Snapdragon fairy talk facts and single
flower marigold this red tender duranium
probably won't attract much for the
insects we don't worry it's a superb
splash of color or summer long and so
this week's container gives us the best
of both worlds think about vertical
clamping with narrow borders create
wigwams with climbers on this increases
the habitat potential a porch lends
itself to get more climbers and it's
also a great place for hanging bird
feeders and if you haven't space for a
tree how about going for an espaliered apple
bees enjoy it at blossom time and
we get to enjoy the fruit.
whatever the aspect house and shed walls are great
places for putting up all sorts of nest
boxes, house sparrows and starlings will
quite often find their own space up
under the eaves or under the tiles in
the roof space, but there's boxes for all
sorts of birds including one that's just
tucked out of sight round the corner here
When placing bee hotels, choose a sunny
wall but find a shady wall instead
for bat boxes, bat's when they're
roosting prefer cooler conditions and of
course thats and their prey such as moss
become disorientated with artificial
lighting, help them out by using low
intensity light such as this
solar-powered garden light.
Urban gardeners can be more adventurous with
their planting safe in the knowledge that
many tender plants are going to make it
safely through the winter he bees
salvias Illyria's fuchsias and dahlias
are all great choices look out
for these single flowered dahlias, one's
such as 'Bishop of Llandaff' and a happy
single series, by flowering right up to
the first frost these exotic plants
provide for bees and butterflies and
work hard in a small space for gardeners.
Small gardens are a wonderful place to
get really close to garden wildlife, so
take a fresh look at your plot and see
if you two can make it hot spot for
wildlife in your town or city.