Gardening for wildlife
The untapped potential of our gardens, parks and balconies could be part of the solution to the climate and biodiversity crisis, a Guardian long read.
Go wild in your garden! Together, our gardens are a vast living landscape. With an estimated 24 million gardens in the UK, the way they are cared for can make a big difference to the natural world
Insects thrive in tiny city gardens, a study in the Netherlands has found. The two factors that offer the biggest boost are having lots of plants and having lots of different types, but it makes no difference whether the plants are native or not. See also Buglife on the import role of insects in our ecosystem.
RHS: 12 ways to grow a low-carbon garden and Gardening for the environment
BBC: How to turn your garden into a carbon sink
7 plants to keep mice and rats from invading your home and garden
RHS Plant for Pollinators - gardeners can help wild bees and other declining pollinators by planting to provide forage for a wide variety of pollinating insects. Using scientific evidence, extensive experience and the records of gardeners and beekeepers, the RHS has selected a range of year-round flowering Plants for Pollinators to tackle the decline in pollinator numbers. See also Wildlife Trusts advice on suitable plants.
Nature on Your Doorstep - expert tips and tricks from the RSPB, including advice on putting in a pond, what flowers to plant to help bees, installing nest-boxes...
The RHS on gardening to encourage wildlife includes a list of the top beneficial wildlife for garden, including lichens, slime moulds and wasps, and how to encourage them - see the news item.
RBK on How to help at home: “There are lots of things people can do to help improve biodiversity in the borough... If managed well, gardens can provide a rich habitat to a wealth of species in Kingston.”
Butterfly Conservation study says "Wilder lawns feed caterpillars and create breeding habitat"
BBC on why you should let insects eat your plants: "... Insects face all kinds of threats, and on a gigantic scale. For example, the use of pesticides across vast tracts of agricultural land. It might seem unlikely that diminutive private gardens can make much of a difference to their decline. But Shepherd insists that they can: "We're talking about small animals, so small areas do help."
Alys Fowler’s guide to laid-back wild-life-friendly gardening - ditch your spade, forget fertiliser, listen to the weeds
Adapting your garden to a changing climate | Grow Wild | Kew - how to create a biodiverse and resilient garden for people and wildlife.
Build a hedgehog highway! 33 ways to welcome more wildlife into your garden
Growing food, at home or in the community
Local community gardens - see also Kingston Environment News for current opportunities and updates
Make your community greener - Eden Project Communities
Morag Gamble's Permaculture video channel: "Our Permaculture Life, on “Simple Living • Permaculture • Growing food • Edible and Medicinal Plants • Compost and Worms • Practical gardening tips • Off the Grid Living • Nature Kids • Education for Sustainability • Fabulous Interviews”
Lend and Tend, a voluntary-run project which aims to connect like-minded, kind people who want to share gardens: people without gardens and people who have gardens.
House and Garden feature on the rise and benefits of community gardens
This not-for-profit community education project specialises in forest gardening and helping Londoners learn to grow more of their own food. projects. Find a variety of community workshops and events
More weblinks for wildlife enthusiasts and wild-life friendly gardeners
London Wildlife Trust protects wildlife across London.
Surrey Wildlife Trust is a wildlife charity caring for over 6,500ha of land for wildlife in Surrey.
Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s FREE resources
Butterfly Conservation can help you identify butterflies and moths
Froglife has useful information about wildlife gardening, building a pond and much more
Citizen Zoo - a social enterprise dedicated to rewilding in the UK – sign up for their newsletter highlighting lots of lovely rewilding news and events.
The London Natural History Society Virtual Natural History Talk series brings together naturalists, experts and specialists via Zoom. Talks are recorded and you can catch up with them here.
The Seek app uses your smart phone to identify the plants and animals all around us, and can make the daily walk much more interesting.
BirdNET can identify 984 of the most common bird species of North America and Europe. from song recorded on your phone.
Etcetera
A collection of interesting articles and websites taken mostly from our monthly newsletter Kingston Environment News, and gradually being checked and put into the right categories:
- What do bees like to eat? 10 common herbs are among some of the best plants in providing bees with valuable nectar and pollen throughout the year. They also happen to be some of the best herbs for cooking with and easy to grow. Let FoE guide you on how to grow these bee-friendly plants that will make your food taste delicious.
- Droughts - useful advice about water conservation, watering and drought-resistant plants: https://watersworthsaving.org.uk/top-tips/gardening/; https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-jobs/water-collecting-storing-and-using; https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/for-places/drought-resistant; https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/aug/07/james-wong-on-gardening-clever-use-of-water-saves-time-and-effort.
- Four ways to be a greener gardener from the RHS - reduce, reuse, recycle and reinvest
- Why climate-change gardening means breaking all the rules
- Century-old weather records give glimpse into climate change - every day since 1904, the weather conditions at the RHS flagship garden in Wisley have been meticulously recorded, come rain or shine, war or recession.
- The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has predicted that “planet-friendly gardening” will become more popular among gardeners in 2022.
- Why climate-change gardening means breaking all the rules
- Food Not Lawns is a network of ecologically conscious gardeners around the world, sharing seeds, food, resources and information toward building a more sustainable gardening community.
- Learn about urban food growing and running community gardens at Capital Growth training sessions (online for now) which cover a number of themes from climate resilience to growing for nature. Recordings of some sessions are also available to members on the Capital Growth member's dashboard.
- AllotMe, a recently launched digital platform touted as the “Airbnb for gardens” to enable people who have green spaces they don’t use to rent them out to would-be growers looking for land. Read all about it in Positive News.
- Community Harvest,Capital Growth’s initiative providing community food gardens with tools, materials and advice to grow more food for their local community.
- Buzz Club for the science behind wildlife gardening - a citizen science club, bringing together gardeners and volunteer scientists of all ages to answer important questions about garden wildlife
- Royal Horticultural Society advice on drought-resistant plants: as climate change presents us with the challenge of gardening with less water, choosing plants to suit our growing conditions becomes paramount. In a short RHS video Ian Bull from RHS garden Hyde Hall explains how with some conditioning of the soil and careful watering, there is a considerable range of plants that can tolerate dry conditions once they are established. Or read about drought-resistant plants on the RHS website and see also RHS section for community gardeners
- Don't worry about planting late!
- Great ways to get kids into gardening, from The Observer Magazine
- Help Buglife save the planet. by gardening with bees and bugs in mind: “The best environments for British insects are those that are closest to our native natural habitats. In many cases, that means that the best thing you can do is not very much...”
- Sustain briefing: Fringe Farming in London - the social, economic and environmental case for more commercial, agro-ecological fruit and vegetable production in London’s urban fringe. And lots more useful resources accessible from this page.
- Find out more about community forest gardens.
- Capital Growth for online training sessions - learn about urban food growing, running community gardens and themes from climate resilience to growing for nature, in some short and some longer workshops. Recordings of some of sessions are also available to members on the Capital Growth member's dashboard.
- How to plant a wellbeing garden, from The Guardian
- Eco-gardening tips from the RSPB: Eco garden tips and Actions you can take to reduce your plastic usage in the garden
- Hubbub’s 6 tips for easy watering
- Seed Swap - an online resource for exchanging heritage and open pollinated seeds. Swapping seeds is easy - it works in the same way as going to a seed swap event. You just do it online instead 24/7.
- Garden Organic “If all... gardens were cared for organically, it would create a much better environment – for our families, plants and wildlife.”
- Grow veg in the tiniest space
- Parks Community UK is a new space created by and for Friends' groups to share experiences, info and ideas..
- London Friends of Greenspaces Facebook page and website..
- Guidance on companion planting to help your garden thrive
- Gardening 2020: even the smallest patch can help fight climate change