Advice on what to do

Hi Andrew,

We haven't spoken before so I presume you are new to the forum? If this is the case a big welcome from me.

It looks as if you have a great project there and it's great that you want to attract bees and other pollinators.

Form the wildflowers that you have already tried you have started with the right idea and Scabious is one of my favorite wildflowers. However you can get some great cultivated scabious which are also great for pollinators.

I would be thinking about adding some herbaceous perennials and if you plan them well you can have something in flower all summer long.

One tip and probably one of the most important in my opinion is to be really careful to select plants that are full of pollen and therefore attractive to pollinators. This is especially important if planting only a few plants. The best way to do this is to allow time when you go to the garden centre to buy them and just stand and watch to see which plants the bees and butterflies land on but more importantly spend time feeding on and keep returning to, this demonstrates that they are live plants and not overbred and sterile.

As far as plant species go there are loads to choose from and my own personal choices to give some longevity and plenty of bee interest are...

Early Summer: Astrantia, Sweet William, FoxGlove and I like some of the Alliums that are bulbs and pop up through the other plants.

Mid Summer: Verbena Bonineriasis, Verbena Hostata, Helenium and Rudbeckia and I nearly forgot my best bee plant Veronicastrum!

Late Summer Autumn is when the Asters come into their own and mix with your Rudbeckia and Helenium which have good long flowering periods.

My perennial borders with the above plants look like this...

You can obviously choose which plants suit your space.

The other thing with perennial plants worth doing is leaving the seed heads on over winter as they will feed the birds!

If you don't feel like you have the space for several large perennials like this try mixing just a few with wildflowers, which again prove a magnet to pollinators. One of my favorite mixes is Helenium with Knapweed which works really well and gets covered in bees....

That is just a quick list but for further ideas and plants lists feel free to visit my blog, which is all about wildlife gardening and might help with ideas. higgysgardenproject.blogspot.com

If you are stuck on actual ideas or putting them into practice sketch them onto a piece of paper so that you get a sense of what it will look like. you can also show others and get feedback and make changes as required. It's the planning and construction process that I really enjoy!

As an example I sketched out my plans for a new garden project and ended up with the picture below which really helps visaulise what it will look like, your plans can be as elaborate or simple as you want...

EXAMPLE OF SKETCH PLAN

I hope the above info helps a little although it's not specific to your plot? Please do ask questions on here as there are lots of very knowledgeable people on here and who are happy to help. If you find anything on my blog or in general that you want more info feel free to send me a personal message or post back on here.

The most important bit of advice is to make sure whatever you do you enjoy it!

Best

Higgy

Many thanks for the welcome Higgy. I have posted a couple of times elsewhere around the site but this is my first dip into the garden bit.

I have had a little look at your work beforehand and I have to say I am very impressed with what you have done. Many thanks for your ideas on plants to look at.I am also going to draw up a plan of the garden as a whole as suggested.

The bed near the fence will be my main focus but I hope to utilise some pots to increase the cover of flowers. I already have a couple with a range of Penstemons growing nicely so will look for something to compliment them as well.

I have got a picture of the corner that I would like to sort out first. It's a bit messy with quite a bit of concrete in place holding the washing pole. I would like to grow something with the limited amount of earth there, to cover up the pole a bit and to make the area look a bit tidier. Any suggestions of a shrub\bush that I could grow would be appreciated. I would ideally like something that produces berries to help with the birds over winter. Also, please ignore the hole as that was from a fox digging under the fence and it's yet to be filled back in.

[IMG]www.rspb.org.uk/.../WP_5F00_20140106_5F00_002.jpg[/IMG]

Hi Andrew,

When you have a difficult area like this, sometimes it's easy to try and think of what will grow there when actually another way could be considered and might give you better options.

When I looked at the picture of your garden showing the size and area that you have to work with, I immediately seen an opportunity to plant different plants and to add interest by varying the levels a bit.

Now I'm not talking of digging out parts of the garden but in areas like you have highlighted you could actually create perfect planting conditions by adding the extra soil/compost as required. If you were to introduce a raised bed in this area and then a series of different size raised beds around the rest of the garden you could increase your choice of plants?

You have already built one raised bed from sleepers which looks really good and I could see this being replicated around the edge of the garden maybe?

I wouldn't usually put features purely around the edges but in this case I think it would work with the space and shape that you have.

Rubbish sketch but this is what's in my mind...

So from this you can see raised beds around the fence and I would plant them with a mixture of grasses and perennial pollinating plants. Around the existing deck I would plant taller grasses but include perennials such as Verbena Bonineriasis which will screen it but move about in the breeze. As they are butterfly and bee magnets you can sit and enjoy watching them at close quarters! I would also plant some scented plants by the deck such as Lavender which will fill the garden with scent but again be a magnet to bees.

Staggering the raised beds will make people change direction and lead visitors around the garden

To demonstrate what I mean about varying the heights of the beds here's another quick sketch...

Sorry I'm no artist as you can see but I hope it demonstrates what I'm thinking?

If you go for raised beds then you now have deeper planting conditions in your  difficult corner and I may go for something like a Weigelia there which will grow into a good size shrub and fill the corner, the bees also like it.

One of the most important considerations in a garden this size is the planting of climbers along the fence. I would put trellis on the fences and grow honeysuckle up it as this will give cover for the birds and berries in the winter but will also again add a lovely scent on summers evenings. Another idea for the corner could be planting something like a pyracantha which will give thorny protection to birds and again berries in the winter. If you don't want something thorny try cotoneaster?

The central raised bed nearest to your patio and I presume house could be used to grow herbs for cooking with maybe? Again many of these have lovely scents and attract pollinators.

Just a few thoughts having seen your pictures and probably completely different to what you have in mind but it's how the space hit me when I viewed your photographs.

Best

Higgy

Higgy, many thanks for your response and apologies in the delay in replying. The plan you put up has given me some new ideas but the only problem is I don't have the whole garden to use. My wife is going to be planting veg in the raised bed and the bed at the back of the garden. I have attached a picture of the completed garden on a rare sunny day.

From this the only areas that I have is the bed in front of the fence with the nest box on and the bed to the right. I will also look at putting something on the decking that I am stood on for the picture as this area gets a lot of sun and looks pretty bare. So far I have decided on the following for now.

Main bed - plant climbers (Honeysuckle) up the fence so need to get some trellis put up. Will then look to build this bed up slowly with various plants that you have given along with others I have found. I also have a potted heather from my mum that is growing too big. Need to find a way of fitting this into the bed somehow.

Herb bed - Already have chives, rosemary, sage and thyme growing here which the bees love. Also have a camomile which doesn't look too great so this may make room for the heather. Otherwise a lavender could go in here.

Decking - Looking at getting some pots along here with Verbena Bonineriasis growing here. May look at some climbers along this fence as well but they will have to grow from pots.

onedrive.live.com/redir

Hi Andrew.

I decided to plant in pots after I hurt my back at work. It works really well and I have a quite a few pots with herbaceous plants as well as some with bulbs, shrubs or annuals. I have two small trees and some large shrubs in the ground but decided to use pots in the borders to increase the variety of plants and flowers. And on the patios near the benches. Grouping the pots is important and very large pots are better standing alone.

I needed to consider the microclimate in my garden. I quickly found large plants in pots were blown over - it's windy on this hill in Scotland. But I can weed and feed more easily. I rotate pots so that herbaceous plants get tucked away at the back during the winter. I try to have flowers all year round.

I haven't made a list but here are a few of my choices for pots. Dwarf iris do well in pots - "Katherine Hodgkins" is in bloom now and about to go on display near my front door! I have blueberries in pots - there are dwarf ones which do well in small spaces and the insects love the flowers.

Hoverflies love lilies so I have some every summer. I have a dwarf Spirea japonica near my rock plants which I'm hoping to propagate to use in a pot this year - the flowers are umbrels which bees love. The dwarf buddlejas are three years old now and have bloomed well.

It's good to think about evergreen shrubs which may need potting on but add structure during the winter. I've successfully grown a dwarf hebe and the flowers attract lots of bees.

This post is rambling but it's worth giving some thought to how your garden will look during the different seasons to give pleasure to yourselves as well as providing food for the bees and other insects.

Hi Andrew,

Your ideas sound good and from the picture the garden is starting to look good. It is amazing how the planting will start tying it all together.

Grandmamac has also come up with some good suggestions so hopefully know that the weather is getting a bit better you will start planting up.

Best

Higgy

Popped to a nearby garden centre after a tip off from Higgy. Managed to pick up a few Pulmonarias and a couple of Astrantias. Planted these up along with a Cotoneaster I picked up a while back. Going to let these get settled in for a bit and see where to go next.

Also got a couple of Verbena Bonariensis "Lollipop" to pot up as the bed I have to work with doesn't get a lot of sun.

Going from the left in this picture I have the cotoneaster just before planting up, Angelica archangelica, teasel, two pulmonarias with hidden Astilbes just behind, another teasel, astrantia, two more pulmonarias, field scabious just behind and then finally some campanulas along the front which I hope will spread nicely.

That's certainly a good start Andrew.

As I said in my PM, I will be able to offer you a few plants to add into the border later on.

I have found that mixing bee friendly perennials with wildflowers works well so it will be interesting to see how yours work out come summer when they are all fully grown and in flower.

Best

Higgy

While I still have plenty to do I am going to start turning to look at the front garden. Most of the area is paved which I have the long term plan to take up. For now though I am going to plant it up as best I can. One area I want to sort out is that round the edge. I meant to take a picture of it when I got home to give an idea but I forgot. I have attached an old one with the family included. 

I am not sure what is under the gravel but I am sure it will eventually lead down to earth. I would like to plant something in the gravel on the left alongside the wall that will grow up into some form of hedge. I would also like this hedge to be beneficial for wildlife while also being able to grow in less than ideal conditions. Would be great to get some ideas on what to look at.

Hi Andrew,

Having seen you front garden now I think that you should maybe go with some smaller cultivated shrubs as a low hedge rather than full on native wildlife hedging plants?

I would possibly look at Ceanothus which is a lovely evergreen shrub with most electric blue flowers that honeybees just can't resist...

Ceanothus

I would then maybe plant a Winter Winter Honeysuckle Plant - Lonicera fragrantissima

And a Wigelia...

This has to be the 'Bristol Ruby' variety!!

I don't have a picture but here's a link....

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=5574 (apologies the link button isn't working so you will have to copy and paste into your browser!)

I reckon this little combination would give you a nice informal hedge that could be lightly pruned that would give great colour whilst providing a lot of interest to earlier Pollinators.

The Honeysuckle plant would flower in Feb/March followed by Ceanothus in March/April followed by the Wigelia....

That's just my thoughts having seen your garden and it's location within your street and neighbouring houses.

I would then add extra colour with tubs and pots as you have suggested and this could be pots of wildflowers maybe?

Hope that helps?

Best

Higgy