Thompson & Morgan Gardening Blog

Give your garden a pollinator friendly makeover
Image: Dogwooddays

Planting for pollinating insects has never been more important. As insect populations decline across the world, we need to find ways to help these essential invertebrates, for our future as well as theirs.

Gardeners can play a vital part in this recovery. With over 400,000 hectares of garden habitat across the UK, filling our gardens with plants that provide food sources for butterflies, bees and other pollinating insects can have a significant effect.

We asked garden designer, Nic Wilson of dogwooddays, for her thoughts. Here are eight simple suggestions to help make your outside space perfect for pollinators:

1. Add pollinator-friendly trees

Beautiful blossom on Nic’s espaliered apple tree is a great source of pollen
Image: Dogwooddays

Trees provide important sources of pollen and nectar for insects, especially bees, as they have many flowers close together. Flowering cherries like Prunus ‘The Bride’ and Prunus ‘Little Pink Perfection’ are ideal small garden trees, reaching two metres at maturity.

Fruit trees also offer masses of spring flowers and have the advantage of a delicious harvest. My family love the honeyed fruits from our greengage tree and we also grow several apples as cordons and espaliers. With a dwarfing rootstock and a trained form, fruit can be grown in even the smallest of spaces.

2. Consider flower shape

Pollinators love Campanula bells planted en masse in blues, whites and pinks.
Image: Campanula medium (Mixed) from Thompson & Morgan

Choose cultivars with single blooms as the pollen and nectar producing organs in double flowers have often been transformed into extra petals. With single-flowered perennials like Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’, Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and Echinacea purpurea, you can fill your garden with food for native insects.

Growing different flower shapes such as bell-shaped (campanula, bluebells), tubular (heather, verbena), and flag (pea family) will attract a range of pollinators.

3. Plant in swathes or drifts

Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ looks stunning when planted in swathes
Image: Salvia Hot Lips collection from Thompson & Morgan

Insects use less energy if their food sources are close together, so planting in swathes not only creates a sophisticated effect, it also makes feeding more efficient. For a late summer combination, fill containers with a collection of salvias like Salvia ‘Hot Lips’, ‘Cherry Lips’ and ‘Amethyst Lips’.

Alternatively, plant intertwining drifts of Eryngium planum ‘Blue Hobbit’, Echinacea ‘Rainbow Marcella’ and Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’. The contrasting blue and orange tones will create energy in the border and the pollinators will love this late food source.

4. Fill gaps with pollinator-friendly annuals

Pollinator-friendly annuals like rudbeckia are a striking way to fill gaps in borders
Image: Del Boy

Sowing annuals is a flexible way to provide a food source for pollinators as you can vary the mix each year based on which flowers are most popular with the insects. A few of my favourite pollinator-friendly annuals include: borage, calendula, Cerinthe major, snapdragon and rudbeckia.

5. Avoid chemicals

A re-useable slug trap can be used again and again
Image: Defenders slug trap from Thompson & Morgan

With increasing evidence about the effects of chemicals on wildlife, especially insects, we now know how important it is to avoid chemical control in the garden.

Use physical methods to control unwanted pests like squashing or dislodging aphids with jets of water, or using copper tape and wool pellets to discourage slugs. Try biological solutions like nematodes for slugs, vine weevils and thrips. Encourage ladybirds into your garden to eat aphids rather than reaching for chemical sprays. As Alys Fowler recently wrote in The Guardian: “these are chemicals that silence the soil.”

6. Think seasonally

Michaelmas daisies provide a stunning food source right through until late October
Image: Aster novi-belgii ‘Dandy’ from Thompson & Morgan

Pollinators need food sources from early spring into late autumn, so plant with the seasons in mind. Spring flowering perennials such as lungwort, cowslips, honesty and flowering currant are ideal early nectar sources and autumn stalwarts like Michaelmas daisies, dahlias and sedum offer food when many other flowers have faded.

7. Create a herb garden

Plant herbs in pots on a patio or balcony if you don’t have a large garden
Image: pixfix

Planting herbs in a sunny spot is sure to bring in the pollinating insects. My lavender is covered with bees and butterflies in the summer months, while the chives, marjoram and thyme all attract pollinating insects and provide me with harvests for salads, soups and pizza.

8. Make a mini-meadow

Contain your mini meadow in a raised bed if you prefer a bowling green style lawn
Image: Dave Head

One of the most exciting projects we’ve undertaken in the garden this year is to leave a small strip of lawn long and plant wildflower plugs to create a mini-meadow. Bare patches of ground can be sown with a meadow seed mix, but areas of long grass should be planted with wildflower plugs or container-grown plants. We can’t wait to see what pollinating insects are attracted to our mini-meadow later in the year.

By putting nature at the heart of gardening, we can enjoy the beauty of plants and animals working together in healthy ecosystems, knowing that our gardens are contributing to the wellbeing of the living planet that we all inhabit. Learn more information about planting for pollinators, along with interesting facts, by visiting our dedicated hub page.

Nic Wilson

Nic Wilson is an author, editor and Guardian Country Diarist based in North Hertfordshire. Her debut nature memoir, Land Beneath the Waves, was published in June by Summersdale/Hachette.

Nic works for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and her writing has featured in numerous journals and magazines including The English Garden, The Garden (RHS Magazine), BBC Wildlife Magazine and the John Clare Society Journal. She enjoys growing flowers and unusual fruit, vegetables and herbs, and loves to encourage nature into the garden. Nic volunteers with her local Wildlife Trust.

www.nicwilson.co.uk

Are you stepping out of your comfort zone this year to try something new?
Image source: Tom Gowanlock

Are you looking for fresh inspiration? It’s easy to get stuck in the trap of repeating successful plants, flowers and crops year after year, rather than trying new things.

We caught up with a few gardening bloggers to see what they’re trying differently this summer. And as there’s nothing quite like learning from mistakes, we’ll catch up with them later in the year to find out how things went! In the meantime, check out these pioneering ideas to see if anything takes your fancy…

Know your onions

Try planting in bunches rather than individually
Image: Mark’s Veg Plot

Mark of Mark’s Veg Plot is test-planting onions in bunches of half a dozen, rather than planting them individually, which is what he’s been doing up until now. The advantages? A saving of space, and no fiddly pricking out – but at the potential cost of smaller veg, as they don’t have quite as much room to spread out.

To be properly scientific, Mark’s also growing individual onions so he can compare results. He’s testing out the Ailsa Craig variety, which often grow into large, globe-shaped bulbs, so it’ll be interesting to see how they fare when planted so closely. We’ll find out later in the year!

Starting from scratch

Ronnie’s got plans for her new allotment
Image: hurtledto60.com

Having moved house in 2018, Ronnie’s starting from scratch, and shifting her gardening habits to an allotment plot. It’s early days yet, but this Hurtled to 60 blogger has already established a cottage garden with a small wildlife pond, and is currently inundated with dahlia and sweet pea seedlings!

Determined to cultivate some food as well, she’s decided to set up ‘Christmas lunch beds’, where parsnips, carrots, beans, peas and more are growing. We look forward to catching up with her closer to the time to see how her festive feast shapes up.

Flowers and feasts

Dahlia ‘Black Beauty’ – Sally’s favourite from last year!
Image: Thompson & Morgan

Sally of Sally’s Garden Blog is always looking for new ideas, and her focus for the next season is very clear:

“I will be growing as much food [as I can] for my family and visiting wildlife this year.”

So root-bound fruit trees in pots have been finally planted out, and an old, plastic fish container is now home to dill, chives and marjoram – all perfect for a fish dish!

Much of Sally’s outside space consists of containers in a paved yard, which she moves around for variety. If you’re a container lover, take a tip from her and reorganise the space regularly. One new idea she’s kept from last year, though, is to grow Dahlia ‘Black Beauty’ again – there’s no point changing something you love simply for change’s sake!

Chickpeas and competitions

Chickpeas on their way!
Image: The Veg Grower Podcast

Richard at The Veg Grower Podcast is up for a challenge – and this year, it’s chickpeas! So far, the seeds have germinated, and are “growing into some rather attractive plants” – so he’s got his fingers crossed they’ll soon become something edible.

He’s also entered into a competition with fellow bloggers, Lee, Kirsty and Lucy. The rules are simple. They each have a vegepod, and all have to grow the same plants. The winner will be the gardener who manages to produce the most food – so it’s all down to growing techniques. We’re intrigued to find out what works best.

Are you feeling competitive? Perhaps your local gardening club has something beyond prize marrows to wager your green fingered reputation on…

A word to the wilds

Just for the starlings
Image: Dogwooddays

Nic at Dogwooddays has a new mission on her to-do list this year:

“…adding holes in the fences and a gate for hedgehogs…”

She’s also installed a selection of nest boxes around her garden to help a range of bird species find a good home.

The commitment to supporting wildlife doesn’t end there. She and her family are developing a wildflower area, along with a pond, and log piles for insects to inhabit. They’re even planting brassicas just for the large white, small white and green-veined white butterflies!

Having made the commitment to accommodate as much wildlife as possible, they’ll be surveying the biodiversity in the garden later this year to try and measure the success. You can follow their highs and lows on Nic’s blog, and we look forward to hearing her tips once they’ve had a chance to get everything up and running.

Are you trying something new in your garden or veg plot this year? Drop us a line to let us know at blog@thompson-morgan.com or pop over to our Facebook page.