Your Local Isle of Wight Gardener’s Top 5 Tips For Creating A Wildlife-Friendly Garden On The Island
Here on our island, we’re truly blessed with wildlife. Aren’t we, though?! We’re a stopover spot for hundreds of migrating birds, strongholds for thousands of threatened butterflies and, let’s not forget, we’re home to a certain furry red rodent! From Ventnor to Compton Bay, Hamstead to Ryde, the Isle of Wight is home to far more than just its human inhabitants.
But there must be more we can do to help our struggling wildlife. And indeed there is. I wanted to share 5 easy take-home tips for gardening for wildlife that you can put into place TODAY.
To discover the ways C.A.R. Gardens can help you make your garden a wildlife haven, click here.
1. Pander to pollinators
Bees, butterflies and beetles are all incredible pollinators. And that’s just the Bs. We need these modest heroes to pollinate and crosspollinate our plants to increase their genetic diversity. So, why not give them a hand by planting flowers they’ll love?
Oh, and it’s always a good idea to plant a few flowers you know will come up in early spring. Some pollinators are early risers from hibernation, and it’s a lovely thought to have some food ready and waiting for them.
Here’s a little list I’ve made for you. Can you check them all off in your garden?
| Pollinator’s faves | Early Spring Delights |
| Borage, Borago officinalis | Primrose, Primula vulgaris |
| Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia | Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta |
| Ox Eye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare | Crocus, Crocus Vanguard |
2. It’s for the birds
Not just bird boxes, there’s loads you can do to make sure your feathered friends keep coming back to your garden.
Birdfeeders: Either cages filled with nuts and seeds or just vegan suet fat balls will do the trick!
Bird Baths: Available at almost all garden centres, bird baths help birds stay clean from lice and other pests.
Nest Sites: if you’ve got a tree, don’t clear the old growth so hastily: birds love nesting in branches. Equally, some birds return each year to the same site, so leave nests for a season or two.
3. Leave the mower in the shed
Allowing your lawn to get just a little shaggier will mean the world to insects and pollinators. Not only will a variety of naturally occuring flowers get established (food for the pollinators), every inch of grass can become a better habitat for insects like the ladybird.
Looks like your weekend to-do list just got one job shorter.
4. Pile up your (Green) junk
Did you ever get lectured: “Clean your room, all your junk is in piles!”? No, just me? Well, that was all great training for this moment. Grass clippings, fallen leaves, pruned twigs – hold some of these back from the chipper and make a nice woodpile.
And just how can chucking all your garden waste in a corner of your room – er, I mean garden – help wildlife? As it decomposes, it feeds the soil and produces heat which can, in turn, provide a hibernation site for animals and insects – just make sure you’re not disturbing a sleepy hedgehog in the spring!
5. Returning to the native soil
One of the biggest reasons our wildlife is struggling so much is the sheer rate food and breeding grounds have disappeared. Try this fact on for size: in the second half of the 20th century alone, we’ve lost over 90% of our wildflower meadows. Makes my blood boil.
We can edge the dial on habitat loss back in the other direction by planting native and non native species of flora. There’s an easy way to tell your best local species, too: head to your local woodland. For me in Ryde that’s Firestone Copse, but if you don’t know, have a root around (pun very much intended) the Isle of Wight forests listed on the Woodland Trust website here.
A tree I always recommend for gardens of any size is the silver birch. Native to the UK, its unmistakable whitish-grey trunk and beautiful wispy canopy, combined with its relatively small size, make it an excellent option for any home project. Also, over 100 insects rely on this tree for their home! We’ve a fair few beautiful specimens on the island, too.
Services C.A.R. Gardens Offers To Make Your Isle of Wight Garden A Wildlife Haven
Natural Pond – Natural ponds, which are ponds that oxygenate themselves with plants rather than through chemicals and a pump, are possibly the best single thing you can do for wildlife. At C.A.R. Gardens, we’ll dig, fill and populate your pond with the perfect mix of plants to attract wildlife.
Planning For Flower Diversity – We’re professionally trained to plan out which nature-loving plants will work best in which area of your garden.
Establishing Compost Bays We’ll build state-of-the-art compost storage facility so you’ll have a ready store of soil topper, as well as providing habitats for wildlife.
Bug/Bumble Bee Hotels – Make a designated place for insects and pollinators to live. Let us sharpen our tools and make a holiday resort nature will love.
Beautiful Bounteous Borders – Borders are an oft-overlooked habitat space. With a great mix of shady and sunny options in most gardens, leave it up to us to make a border you, and nature, will just love.
Places To Appreciate Nature – Sometimes, we need to fall back in love with wildlife to know how to care for it. Let us craft for you spaces where you can relax and enjoy wildlife.
The Right Raw Materials – As a Veganic and Organic-committed gardening business, we’ll do our very best to make sure everything we do for your garden can be sustained. Read our blog post on mycorrhizal fungi here.
But we can do pretty much anything – that isn’t a brag (well, it sort of is), it’s just that we’ve been potting, planting and perfecting gardens for nearly 20 years (nearly 18 on the Isle of Wight). So, any project you have in mind, we’ll be open to.
