Inspiration for the wildlife-friendly garden: The seaside

I was lucky enough to spend a week in May enjoying sights such as this:

I was in Pembrokeshire in west Wales where Choughs seem to call from every clifftop and Gannets plunge dive offshore, and I took the Puffin photo above on the incredible island of Skomer, where some 30,000 breed.

While there’s nothing you can do to make your garden perfect for Puffins, I’m always on the look-out for lessons I can bring back to the garden, and I do believe there are things we can glean from our wonderful coasts. Apart from the stunning views, perhaps the thing that strikes you most as you wander the cliff footpaths is the amount of wildflowers, and with them the numbers of insects to be seen once the sun is out.

Right now, with spring at its peak, the cliffs and banks where I was staying are becoming painted with the pink of Thrift...

and the white of Sea Campion...

Later in the season around our coasts (so the following photos are from my archivbes rather than last week!), sandy beaches and dunes might host Sea-holly...

...while Yellow-horned Poppies grow on seaside shingle.

You may live a long way from the sea, but all of the plants above are garden worthy, and all are good for pollinators no matter where you live, so they are a great way of bringing a flavour of the seaside to your garden.

And the other lesson I brought back from holiday was that one of the things that makes the coast good for wildlife is that it provides lots of steep, sunny banks where insects can burrow. No wonder you see so many mining bees and other such insects there.

So, if you have a flat garden, why not introduce some contours. All it takes is a low, sandy, south-facing bank and many burrowing insects will love you for it.

And then you can sit back in your deckchair and dream of Puffins (which is my excuse for sneaking in another photo of one...)