Thread by @_joelashton

In order for #nature to thrive, we need to create a mosaic of habitats nationwide and adopt this principal in our own #gardens. From woodland to scrub, #meadows to short grass and #ponds to wetlands. A variety of habitats is best for species diversity. 🧵

Even in a 50sqm garden, we can have most of the above mentioned habitats but on a smaller scale. Small trees such as Rowan, Crab Apple and Elder can work really well in small areas without getting too big or casting too much shade.

Moving down from this, we can add shrubs such as Hazel, Alder Buckthorn, Guelder Rose, Dog rose, Wild Privet and Holly which will provide so many flowers for insects and nesting potential for birds in the spring. As well as larval food plants for moths and butterflies.

To hide fences and the sides of buildings we can add climbers for nesting birds such as Song Thrush, Robin, Blackbird, Dunnock and Wood Pigeon. These climbers can also be larval food plants for caterpillars such as Hop for the Comma butterfly, which is also great in shade.

Add a focal point such as a #wildlifepond and it will transform the amount of creatures that will visit your #garden. Everything from bats feeding on the insects overhead, birds bathing in the margins, frogs, toads, newts & dragonflies will carry out their life cycle within it.

Around these features we can add #wildflowers that are managed as a mosaic themselves. Some areas can be mown shorter and will still allow species such as pollinating insects to find nectar and pollen, along with Starlings searching for grubs and Green Woodpeckers for ants . . .

Some areas can be let to grow as a #wildflowermeadow , which will provide larval food plants for butterflies and moths, nectar and pollen for many #bees and other important pollinators, as well as cover for voles, mice, spiders and beetles.

The margins of this meadow can be left long to provide year-round cover for grasshoppers, frogs, newts and toads & hunting grounds for Barn Owls and Kestrels in larger areas. It will also provide many species of butterfly and moths with the grasses they feed on all through winter

AND there’s no reason why us garden lovers can’t have areas of herbaceous borders nearer the house for our own pleasure, whilst still providing vital pollen and nectar to so many pollinating insects. Echinacea as a late summer nectar for Red Admirals for example.

Then throw in a few piles of logs, stones, branches/grass piles for all the reptiles, amphibians and hedgehogs to hibernate in through the winter, under the trees and shrubs you have planted, and it will maximise the understory of these often bare areas.

The icing on the cake is then adding the finishing touches such as hedgehog holes in your fences, bee hotels, bird and bat boxes and a compost bin for Slow Worms and Grass Snakes and you have all the ingredients of a #wildlifegarden . . .

If you don’t believe me that all this can be achieved in as little as 50sqm, “here’s one I made earlier…” 😆👇

If we can create the majority of habitats found naturally in our landscape, within a 50sqm garden, we can certainly do more with the millions of acres surrounding them. Many species need more than 50sqm, but the above goes some way to showing what can be achieved in small spaces.

For anyone looking to make their one #wildlifepond, here’s a three part series I made on how to make one 😊👇

And for anyone who can’t afford to make a #wildlifepond or perhaps you’re in rented accommodation, here’s the next best thing and how to make it…😊👇