PPN Wild Advisor Sarah Rideout: Ideas for Garden Biodiversity across the Park

By Sarah Rideout

I recently visited two coastal community gardens with the aims of adding plants and features that will increase biodiversity and provide learning opportunities - one garden will be used for Forest School activities - and favours plants that can be easily propagated. In my role as Biodiversity Advisor, I assess what is there already - every site has specific requirements, with different soils, aspect and other factors influencing suitable plants.

It was a pleasure to talk to people at the gardens who are motivated to take action to increase habitat, forage and shelter for wildlife. With water sources, healthy soil and compost bays a starting point, here are just a few of the possibilities to add also discussed:

• Native hedging, fruit bushes.

• A pond – needs to be well fenced – sturdy chestnut/hazel.

• Adding sand/gravel areas, drought tolerant plants, local coastal plants.

• Using common fennel to create foresty feeling and provide forage for pollinators.

• Insect homes - pallets filled with suitable materials, solitary bee posts,

• mud/clay banks for nesting holes and native wild flowers. A log pile, or dead hedge. Tepees of habitat materials.

• Adding more flowering plants – Sunflowers – seeds for birds. Borage – re-nectars within minutes, good for bees. Messy bits are good – leaving dried plant stems, leaf litter, perennial plants, undisturbed patches.

• Allow more edible wild plants to grow, in beds with information boards to explain why they are growing. Provide recipes to members for nettles, cleavers, dandelion, herb Robert…all these plants are useful for insects and/or provide seed for birds, and high in nutrition for us.

More insects mean more other wildlife, so creating habitat for them is a great place to start. I’m looking forward to more visits to help plan for increasing biodiversity in the Ouse Valley. Having signed up to the People’s Park for Nature charter, you can book a free visit via the People’s Park for Nature website.