The Wild Garden: Expanded Edition

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Nature’s prize pollinators will make an, um, beeline for your garden if you plant a pretty mix of flowers – think alliums, lavender and catmint – and cultivate a fragrant herb garden with rosemary, sage, mint and chives. Garden birds are great at slug and snail control, plus there’s nothing more relaxing and enjoyable than sitting outside on a sunny day, listening to a chorus of birdsong and watching winged visitors alighting on branches. While brand new gardens are typically bland and void of plants, the advantage is that you have a blank canvas to work with. Improving the stony, thin, compacted soil requires some time and effort, but many wildflowers actually prefer poorer soils, so conditions are ideal for this kind of wildlife-friendly planting. Although it may take some time for other plants, shrubs and trees to get established, you can start from scratch and plan exactly what you would like to put in. Planning your wildlife-friendly garden

The lawn has been allowed to grow as a wildflower meadow with mown paths through the sward, a venerable pollarded weeping willow shading its centre. A laid hedge of elm and hawthorn boundaries the lane while to the rear of the farmhouse is the orchard which leads onto Lugg Meadow – an historic Lammas meadow. The garden is managed with wildlife in mind not only through the planting but with log piles, a large compost heap, bee houses and the sensitive hands of the wonderful volunteer gardeners. London Wildlife Trust Birds, butterflies and bees are pretty to look at and help improve your garden’s production. Encouraging hedgehogs, bats and frogs is an ideal solution for pest control, reducing the need for pesticides. Robinson’s greatest written work ‘The English Flower Garden’ was published in 1883, and is still available today. He encouraged each and every person to be individual in creating their own garden, encouraged the study of the interaction of plants, how each ones size, shape and foliage worked with the other. He wanted to leave gardening ‘to each gardener’s individual imagination and ability to create his own private, personal wilderness’.It’s worth bearing in mind that among the best flowers that attract bees are purple blooms, as bees can see the color purple more clearly than any other color.

The bigger the diversity of flowering plants the greater the number of insects will benefit and the more birds will come in to eat them,' explains garden designer Cheryl Cummings.Over 50 species of insects have been recorded in the garden and in the summer several species of bee can be seen buzzing around nectar-rich plants, including nesting mason and leafcutter bees that make use of the bug hotel to lay eggs and six spot burnet moths can be found hatching in the grass meadow. The garden is a green oasis in an otherwise urban surrounding, and is free to visit (donations always welcome). Open Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm. Herefordshire Wildlife Trust

The Wild Gardener presenter Colin Stafford-Johnson living his best life in idyllic surroundings (Credit: BBC Two) You can get creative about how you reuse other natural materials to create dry spaces for bugs and other wildlife,’ suggests Jo Thompson.

A few simple changes in the way you manage your garden can help provide habitats to support a rich variety of species.