There’s nothing like a blank canvas when it comes to creating the ideal home for wildlife. Friends of mine have a new house and a good plot of land in its infancy as a garden that happens to be about 300 metres from two nationally-important heathland nature reserves. Dropping in the fact they can hear nightjars churring from their bedroom window turned me rather green with envy!
I was glad to make myself useful while they were being excellent hosts and soon racked up a large list of bumblebees, solitary bees, social wasps and solitary wasps using their garden and suggested a few ideas for making what is a fabulous garden even better for wildlife. I even found some rare species which weren't even known from the area, including the lovely green-eyed flower bee buzzing around lavenders.
How to create your own insect haven this summer
1) Take some time to look for the wildlife in the wider area and record what's within, say, a couple of hundred metres of your garden. If something is already nearby, you have a much bigger chance of attracting it to your garden by providing it with what it needs.
2) Don’t assume that everything that flies, or buzzes is a fly, or a honeybee. In about an hour’s watching time I found at least 25 species of bee, wasp and hoverfly, including this handsome pair of bog hoverflies (Sericomyia silentis) doing their bit to increase their numbers in a nearby oak tree. I only managed a quick snapshot before they were away, but thanks to their whining buzz, I was led straight to them.
There are around 280 species of hoverfly in the UK, including the bog hoverfly. Many visit gardens (image cMark Ward)
3) Leave patches of bare soil within and around the edges of lawns and paths. On hot days, stand and watch and you will be amazed at how many insects are actually living in the soil.
4) Increase diversity where you can. The soil is very light and sandy where I was, but is clay where I am in Cambridgeshire. You can’t change the soil, but I am going to use two large bags of sand I found in a corner of my garden to create a copy of the more sandy soil that insects love.
5) Discover what plants different species of insect like – and when they fly. I noticed a straggly honeysuckle on one fence and felt a little smug the next day after telling them to keep an eye out for elephant hawkmoths nectaring at the sweet-smelling flowers (that really come into their own at night) at dusk and getting a text the next morning saying they’d seen one that very night once they’d looked!
6) Think about the features to retain, as well as those to change or lose. It can take a while to establish new features, so repurpose and retain where you can to ensure you see the benefits from day one.
7) Dead wood is great – this smart median wasp was munching away at an old shed door. Fences and fence posts are good as well as standing stumps of trees.
Impress your friends by telling them there are hundreds of species of wasp in the UK. There are only a few social wasps though and the median wasp is an easy one to ID (image cMark Ward)
More garden inspirationKeep an eye on Nature’s Home magazine, and our monthly Notes on Nature email for Adrian Thomas’ expert blogs and features on his latest garden visit. You can also find out about some of the successes from my own garden in my book Wildlife on Your Doorstep which is full of more of my tips for making a great garden for insects - and everything else too!