Use natural, sustainable materials, or re-use and recycle

Natural and sustainable materials are usually (but not always) organic materials - those that derive from living things, rot and eventually become incorporated in another living organism. Compost, grass and hedge clippings, seaweed, bark chippings, bone and newspaper are all organic. The materials will rot and the nutrients released will be taken up by new plants and trees which in turn feed animals. This process is cyclical and sustainable. Compare this with using plastic which is made from oil. Oil is natural (and organic) but it is not a sustainable resource - when its gone, its gone - we are using it at a faster rate than the millions of years it took to form. Peat is another example. Wildlife gardeners never use this as it takes thousands of years to form and peat mining is destroying valuable peat bog habitats. Some products made from unsustainable resources, e.g. plastic pots, suffer from another problem. Being indigestible to organisms means very often they take hundreds of years to rot.

Wildlife gardening is rarely a purist approach. Usually the aim is to do more good than harm and to minimise harm to wildlife and the environment where we can. There are times when non-sustainable products are used if they have great benefits such as longevity, no alternatives are available, or if we aim to re-use or recycle to get maximum mileage from the same product. Plastic is sometimes used, for example, because its non-rot and insulating.

Inorganic materials are sometimes used. For example, corrugated metal is great for invertebrates to shelter under and re-uses something that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Rock and gravel is commonplace and is a cause of much debate. These materials are quarried, causing damage to the environment, dust and a large input of energy. However, the quarries would be there anyway to supply the construction industry and the habitats that are left behind are very rich, often providing valuable homes to rare wild flowers and animals.

Fertilisers

Inorganic garden fertilisers such as concentrated phosphates and nitrates pollute the soil. They release quickly and whilst this may cause a nice growth spurt or greener lawn, the excess nutrients cannot be absorbed by plants. Instead they wash away through the soil in the rain and end up polluting rivers and other water courses, harming wildlife. And the lush, tender growth is more susceptible to frost. Wildlife gardeners therefore opt for organic fertilisers such as seaweed and bonemeal. These release nutrients slowly and are obtained from sustainable resources.

Pesticides

Chemical pesticides are dangerous to wildlife. They are 'wide spectrum', meaning they kill a vast array of organisms, including useful garden invertebrates such as bees and hoverflies, as well as the intended 'pests'. Also, animals which eat the poisoned insects or slugs, such as bats, hedgehogs, hoverflies and ladybirds also become poisoned. Ironically, then, some gardeners are poisoning the natural predators of the pests they seek to remove. In the wildlife garden we can minimise harm by choosing a pest-specific, targeted approach with the minimum severity necessary.

The ideal is prevention rather than cure. Try to encourage a healthy ecosystem in the garden where predators are welcome and where they can feed on insects without being poisoned. Ladybirds, hoverflies, earwigs and birds eat greenfly, for example. And give wasps a break! They eat all sorts of garden pests. Keep plants well watered so they tolerate having their sap sucked and so they grow new leaves to replace damaged ones. Laying carpet or cardboard around the base of plants will prevent many insects from laying their eggs e.g. raspberry beetles, gooseberry sawflies and cabbage root flies. Regular hoeing will bring insects to the surface. Crop rotation has been used by farmers for centuries to prevent pest build up. The lifecycle of some insects lasts more than one growing season and if you constantly grow the same crop in the same place the pest levels build up. So growing something different each year over a four year cycle in a given patch of soil will prevent this.

If prevention fails, the next ideal is to leave the pests alone. Most plants tolerate a large number of pests before they suffer and natural predators will be attracted. It is surprising to see people's joy at seeing a butterfly one moment and to see them reach for the insecticide moments later to kill a caterpillar. And by the time pests are spotted they have already transmitted any disease they are carrying so this justification for killing them is unfounded. The next level of severity is to blast them off with a sprayer or hosepipe or hand pick them off and place them on a bird table. You could sacrifice the stem or leaf in question and throw it on the compost heap where the pests will disperse or be eaten. Traps and deterrents can be used such as Venus Fly-traps in greenhouses and grease bands to prevent moths climbing fruit trees. Remove leatherjackets (daddy-long-legs/crane fly larvae) by watering a lawn copiously and laying plastic sheeting on top overnight. Pick them of the surface or leave for the birds in the morning. Crushing aphids in the fingers and slugs under foot is environmentally friendly in a broad sense but brutal at an individual animal level. A slow, painful death wriggling in insecticide or dehydration in salt is even less desirable.

Biological controls are becoming more popular. Here, natural predators are encouraged in the garden or bought and introduced to control the pests. Nematode worms will control slugs in an environmentally friendly, yet rather horrible, way by infecting and killing them. Slug predators such as birds, hedgehogs and frogs will not be poisoned as with metaldehyde pellets.

If you feel you must resort to chemicals do a final weather check - rain will often do the trick naturally. Start with soapy water before trying something stronger but not very toxic such as Derris. Spray a weak strength solution on a still day with a coarse spray so it doesn't float around. Direct the spray specifically at the colony or individual insects. Spray in the evening when the bees and birds are less active and avoid spraying flowers as they will be visited by beneficial insects.

Fungicides

Again, most fungicides are wide spectrum, harming useful fungi which, for example, help the rotting process. Without these useful fungi we would be swamped in organic materials. Wildlife gardening involves finding wildlife-friendly alternatives. For example, branches that rub together cause open wounds that could become infected so these branches are pruned out. Dead wood is also regularly removed and any infected prunings are buried deep in soil. Mildew is usually a problem in unhealthy, stressed plants, particularly when they dry out so regular watering is required. Vegetables should be planted in rotation. The next level in our line of attack would be to use substances that are compatible with organic standards such as copper fungicide (Bordeaux and Burgundy mixture) or dispersible sulphur. Only if all else fails would we sacrifice the plant or reach for chemicals. Chemicals should be sprayed on a calm day to prevent drift and only sprayed where necessary.

Control

Traditional gardening is all about exercising control. During the agricultural and industrial revolutions control over nature became an obsession whether it be increasing yields of crops through the use of chemicals, cultivating larger and brighter flowers through selective breeding, or importing exotic plants and animals into countries where they do not naturally belong. The process of control continues today with genetically modified food. Gardens have become more and more controlled and clinical over history. A typical garden consists of a relatively sterile combination of a grass monoculture (lawn) and cultivated double flowers or exotics that are low in nectar yield. Wild flowers and piles of leaves or branches (which are great for wildlife) are rarely seen. Wildlife gardens need not be 'messy' or 'out of control'. This is a common myth. A log pile with toadstools, a well-placed drift of beautiful wildflowers and a meadow at the bottom of a mown lawn will all be great for wildlife and will all look fantastic. Not only can wildlife gardens be tidy but their aesthetic appeal can be judged on other criteria as well such as the interesting animals that visit, bringing colour and movement to the garden.

Wildlife gardeners try to work with nature rather than against it. Rather than spend too much time trying to alter the soil, the wildlife garden is usually planted with plants that are suited to the pH, nutrient levels and soil type already there. A few 'weeds' (wild flowers) and 'pests' (wild animals) are tolerated alongside the more 'desirable' and 'beautiful' wildlife such as hedgehogs, butterflies, ladybirds and birds. It's hard at times but wildlife gardening involves trying to suspend some of our cultural value judgements and welcoming animals and plants of all types. We try to think about bigger ecological and global issues, and tie them in with our own self-interests such as having a 'beautiful', 'pleasurable' or 'productive' garden.

All gardening is going to involve some degree of control but the extent is an individual choice. Wildlife gardening is more about careful and selective management and respecting non-human vistors to the garden. Different types of gardening are also choices between types of control. Wildlife gardening involves a great deal of self-control and thought and it can pose real challenges. For a newcomer to wildlife gardening it can be difficult to change the habits of a lifetime. They will no doubt reach for the weedkiller or feel tempted to by the price of a peat-based compost. They might be letting an area of grass grow long but find themselves with a mower in their hand before they remind themselves of what they are trying to achieve.

Ultimately, wildlife gardening is a very enjoyable and rewarding way to look after your garden and help garden wildlife whilst making your own small but very valuable contribution on a global level.