A journey around the world in a wildlife-packed garden

In this week's blog, we return to Keith Wiley's garden called Wildside in Devon to get inspiration from some of the late summer plants he grows that pull in the wildlife crowds.

Now what Keith does is effectively create tapestries of plant communities - growing the right plants together in the right places. But I'm going to pick out some of the individual plants - you can't create a community without knowing the various members.

So, in places, there are South African plants aplenty, but I'm going to pick out one of the African queens, agapanthus (below), which is pretty good for bumblebees.

Some agapanthus are decidous, their leaves dying back for winter, and are hardy throughout the UK. The evergreen types retain their lovely strap-shaped leaves all year but will need some winter protection in colder areas. All are brilliant for growing in pots, needing very little care and allowing themselves to get quite pot-bound without ill effect.

Next, let's go into a semi-shady area, with a plant from Turkey and the Caucasus, Milky Bellflower Campanula lactifllora. (At this point, I should say that the plants at Wildside aren't labelled, and Keith is likely to grow all sorts of unusual cultivars and varieties. But if I haven't identified any of the plants exactly, no worries because the plant names I'm giving you are widely available from garden centres.)

Milky Bellflower may need a bit of staking if it grows a bit leggy, but it is another great plant for pollinators.

Now for a shrub whose name you may associate with the blue and pink blousy pompons in front gardens everywhere that sadly have very little to offer wildlife. We're talking hydrangeas. But this one is brilliant. This is Hydrangea aspera from India and China, which is one of the most pollinator-packed shrubs you can get, including for butterflies.

The large white flowers are sterile bracts - the actual flowers are the pinky-lilac massed clumps in the middle.

Ok, let's come much closer to home, with a simply fabulous plant, Wild Angelica. It is found growing wild in damp woods and meadows across much of the UK, but this (below) is the garden form called Vicar's Mead - same species, but just a pinky version with purple stems. And what a hit for hoverflies it is.

The hoverfly above is one of the group called the drone-flies, whose larvae don't eat aphids but instead live in ponds. They are Honeybee mimics, but the first thing to check if you are unsure are the antennae - Honeybees (lilke all bees) have two rod-like antennae sticking out of their foreheads, well separated, whereas hoverflies have stubbier, shorter antennae coming out of the middle of their forehead. The two triangular orange patches at the base of its abdomen are very typical of this group of hoverflies.

There were hoverflies everywhere at Wildside, but also this rather funky fly (below). It only has a scientific ame, Graphomya maculata, but it is so widespread and distinctive that it deserves an English name, so let's call it the Polka-dot Fly, because the abdomen (here a little hidden by the wings) is beautifully dotted grey and black (wordsmith's corner: the maculata in its name means dotted, hence the word immaculate meaning 'without spots').

However, only the female is grey and black - the male (below) has orangey-brown shapes on his abdomen, and if you were to look at him from directly behind, you'd see two white spots with black centres right on the end of his abdomen that look just like cartoon eyes staring at you!

There are so many more plants that were rocking it for wildlife at Wildside - I could have talked about the Lysimachia clethroides...

...or the Doellingeria umbellata, related to the Asters but it doesn't get mildew like so many of them do...

...or the Rusty Foxglove Digitalis ferruginea. Spot the Carder Bumblebee! (Clue: It's upside down, and almost completely buried in one of the flowers, where it was supping leisurely).

Careful plant choice is so important for helping wildlife in your outside spaces, and there are hundreds of brilliant ones you can grow, some from the UK but many others from around the world. Choose well and the wildlife will come flocking in, and you'll have a wonderful looking garden to boot.