It’s the circle of life…in your garden!

Tuesday 28 May 2024

Heathland Heroes

https://www.facebook.com/worcestershirewildlifetrust

We are creating the county's largest block of heathland and connecting 600 acres of habitat. Our Saving Worcestershire's Heathland's Project Officer, Beccy Somers, brings you the latest news and information from this amazing project.

Buff-tailed bumblebee by Wendy Carter

Beccy explains how you can attract wild visitors to your garden...

It’s been a while since I have had the opportunity to write a blog and I’m back with some fantastic news! Some of you may remember my bloomin' marvellous community blog from November last year, where we celebrated the winners of the Neighbourhood in Bloom competition. This competition was for the local community and included several categories; I got the honour of judging the wildlife garden category. The good news is that it’s back again - Neighbourhood in Bloom 2024 has just launched and this time it’s for everyone in the Wyre Forest area.

There are three categories, best garden, best hanging pot display and best wildlife or sustainable garden and I’m back again to judge the wildlife garden category. I thought it might be helpful for those of you interested in entering to write a little guide on how to go about creating a wildlife garden and what kind of things I might be looking for in your garden that would help to make it stand out. If you don’t live in the Wyre Forest and are reading this blog then, of course, you can make these changes to your garden too.

It's all connected!

We often think of adding certain features to our garden for certain wildlife e.g. wildflower meadow for bees or native hedging for birds. However, the reality is that there are some key features of a garden that can support a multitude of different wildlife. By adding a log pile, wildflower meadow, wildlife pond and native hedging, you would be supporting the complete life cycle of several species all at once. It can be helpful to plan your garden by thinking about the needs and lifecycles of the wildlife you want to attract.

Smooth newt on a path by Rosemary Winnall — Smooth newt by Rosemary Winnall

Newts

Newts breed in ponds in the spring, where the females lay their eggs on the underside of a leaf. The eggs will hatch into larvae that feed on aquatic invertebrates until they have legs and lungs that allow them to breathe and live on land. At this point they will leave the pond to hunt for insects, worms and slugs, spending most of the summer hidden in warm damp spaces such as underneath logs and rocks or hibernacula and then from October they will brumate (like hibernate but they forage on warmer days) in these spaces until the following spring.

Broad-bodied chaser resting on a stem by Mike Averill — Broad-bodied chaser by Mike Averill

Dragonflies

Similarly, dragonflies lay their eggs in water. Dragonfly nymphs are often one of the easiest to spot when pond dipping, due to their size. When they are ready to, they crawl out of the pond onto tall upright leaves, shed their skin, pump up and dry off their new wings and then off they go to feed on flying insects. I recently built a pond in my garden and had the magical experience of seeing a dragonfly dipping its tail in the water to lay its eggs.

Creating habitats beyond the pond

If we think about both dragonflies and newts, creating a wildlife space means thinking about the habitats you’re creating both in water and on land. If we take each of these animals and think about what they might need - our newts need leaves on the surface of the pond to lay their eggs and the juvenile newts need a biodiverse pond with lots of food to feed on along with hiding spots at the bottom of the pond. Once they emerge, they need some dark damp places to escape to and brumate in over winter such as a log pile or a hibernaculum.

Our dragonfly larvae need submerged plants to cling on to and as a source of oxygen. Logs and stones on a sunny open bank around the pond will also provide a perch for adult dragonflies. Floating plants in the pond are the perfect site for laying eggs and vegetation around the pond will provide shelter. When the nymphs are ready, they need long leaves coming out of the pond to climb up and emerge and then lots of flying insects to feed on that might be found amongst the long grass and flowers of a wildflower meadow.

However, a pond isn’t just for breeding. It also provides a source of water for many animals to have a much-needed drink. Since setting up a pond in my garden I have started to see hedgehogs go into my feeding station to snack on the kitten kibble and then out they pop straight to the pond to have a drink. It’s also lovely watching the birds come to have a wash on the drier summer days. If we consider the needs of hedgehogs and our garden birds, they need a nice shallow area in a pond to be able to access the pond safely for drinking and bathing.

When those hedgehogs and garden birds are not at the pond, they also need cover so that they can move safely without being spotted by predators. Providing areas of long grass and native hedging can create corridors for hedgehogs and provide safety for birds as a vantage point to look for predators. This shelter also provides areas for hedgehogs and birds to nest and rear their young. Birds will feed on the seeds and insects from your wildflower meadow, as well as the berries in the native hedging, and hedgehogs will feed on the invertebrates like beetles and worms in your log piles.

So, it’s not just adding one feature for one species, it’s about creating the circle of life in your very own backyard! Now imagine, if it wasn't just you doing this but all your neighbours did this too, you would be creating a mini-nature reserve and wildlife corridor on your street – you can read more about this in my 'creating networks for wildlife' blog.

Now I have (hopefully) provided a suitable level of inspiration, how do you go about creating this wildlife paradise? Well, luckily there is lots of guidance out there to help you, such as our wildlife gardening webpages and our 'Wild About Gardens' guides.

A final note is that each garden is different and everyone has different resources with space and time. Part of the joy of judging last year was to see the different ways people had used their space to make it wildlife-friendly and to see people on all stages of their journey. So whatever you’ve done in your garden for wildlife, I would love to see it in this year’s Neighbourhood in Bloom competition. I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve all been up to!