We all know about planting for pollinators, says John Little, but when it comes to increasing biodiversity, it turns out that it\u2019s not all about the plants. Illustration Rosanna morris <\/p>
There are some big misconceptions about attracting wildlife <\/a>into gardens and the best ways to combat the biodiversity<\/a> loss crisis. The reality may seem surprising and counterintuitive. For example, shopping trollies that are dumped in water actually boost biodiversity. Brownfield sites<\/a> and allotments<\/a> are really great places for wildlife. And 20 per cent of our most important sites for nature are linked to mineral extraction.<\/p> You may also like<\/strong><\/p> When you go to your local garden centre<\/a> over the weekend and look at the products promoted as being for wildlife, you\u2019ll probably find a table of pollinator-friendly plants<\/a>, which is fine. But in my dream garden centre\u2019s wildlife corner, the next thing down the line on your table of wildlife materials would be a pile of sand<\/a>. Take it home, tip it out and immediately, just by doing that single act, you\u2019ve created a new substrate and a bit of topography that will pull in ground-nesting bees and solitary wasps<\/a> and all sorts of other wonderful wildlife.<\/p> Let\u2019s \u2018plant\u2019 more dead trees and build more dead hedges<\/p><\/blockquote> Structure in a garden is totally undervalued. I use local sand and construction waste to vary the nutrient levels and drainage in my garden, and adding piles of various materials adds to the mix of microclimates. This is so important with the climate crisis<\/a> upon us. If you are a bee in a flat field with no topography or structure and the temperature gets too high, you have nowhere to go.<\/p> Next along the line at the garden centre would be a pile of logs<\/a>; essentially, dead stuff. Dead logs and rotten timber are great \u2013 as are corpses, but you hopefully won\u2019t find any of those at your garden centre \u2013 and are a massive part of a functioning ecosystem, but are hardly ever designed into a landscape. Let\u2019s \u2018plant\u2019 more dead trees and build more dead hedges. You can stack a pile of logs on the surface of the soil, but you will also want to dig a hole and stack logs upright in it to create damp wood and dry wood and standing dead wood.<\/p> Take a pipe home, block the end off and fill with vegetation and water, and it becomes a lagoon<\/p><\/blockquote> Further along the row in our garden centre, there are some old pipes. Take a pipe home, block the end off and fill with vegetation and water, and it becomes a lagoon \u2013 which is a rather glamorous phrase in the conservation world for a stagnant piece of water<\/a> \u2013 and you will then attract a lot of hoverfly larvae species. You can\u2019t get those beautiful hoverflies without getting the mildly sad-looking, rat-tailed maggot larvae first. Strap the lagoons to a tree, if you\u2019re lucky enough to have one, or a fence, or bury it slightly in the ground, and then you are mimicking the hollows in trees and temporary stagnant pools that would have been all over the place naturally.<\/p> Don’t make everything flat. Flat things are the enemy of biodiversity. <\/p><\/blockquote>