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Nature Friendly Garden

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Hi, I want to make my garden as nature friendly as possible this year.
Me and my son are collecting things to put in an insect hotel that we are going to build next weekend.
I've started buying some bird feeders to hang around the garden
Brought a birdbath and a few other bits like that.


I have a metre or so square patch of soil that I want to turn into a wild flower garden to attract bees and butterflies etc. I'm not very green fingered, so I was hoping to get some suggestions on what kind of plants I should be looking at?

Also, is there anywhere I can get free bee friendly seed packs? Or any other garden/flower/nature freebies for that matter!?


If anybody has any other suggestions on things I can do to make my garden as nature friendly as I can would be much appreciated too :D

Thanks in advance

Dan
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Comments

  • Farway
    Farway Posts: 14,684 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Homepage Hero Name Dropper
    Most bees, insects, butterflies prefer flat single type of flowers, think daisy like, or heavy with nectar, such as buddlia [no space for that in your patch]

    Have a look at sedums, perennial, flowers later in year, no bother to grow at all, easily propagated from a stem or offsets

    Nasturtiums are another one, dead easy, self seeds, never sow again

    Look in the likes of Wilko, maybe Lidl or similar for packet of bee friendly flowers
    Eight out of ten owners who expressed a preference said their cats preferred other peoples gardens
  • JulieM
    JulieM Posts: 764 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Newshound!
    Verbena Bonariensis is good for attracting butterflies. It can grow quite tall but doesn't get bushy, it also seeds easily so you can have as many or as few plants as you like.
  • -taff
    -taff Posts: 15,364 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Bees for some reason reall like purple and blue flowers, cornflower, theres a tall purple multiheaded one that I can never remember the name of, and clover, sage flowers, rosemary flowers, runner beans, sunflowers. A quick google will showyou many more...
    Rotting wood will attract beetles [ just pile some in a corner and forget about it], nettles moths, you could make hedgehog friendly hibernating areas..A bucket of water left to go smelly [ put some nettles in it to really get it going - also good liquid feed for any plant that likes nitrogen] will probaby attract rat tailed maggots who gorw up to be drone flies.

    Diversity will attract many many more insects an wildlife
    Non me fac calcitrare tuum culi
  • WeAreGhosts
    WeAreGhosts Posts: 3,113 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I garden with nature in mind too and am slowly changing the garden to incorporate more bee and insect friendly plants.
    Last year the best plant was Agastache Black Adder It flowered for months and was covered in bees. I ended up having to tie it together as the stems were top heavy and tall, but it survived and flowered until the first frosts.

    There is a Buddleja that doesn't get too out of control, called Flower Power.
  • Advice on growing wildflowers at:


    https://www.growwilduk.com/wildflowers/how-grow-wildflowers


    I think they give away seed packs, but now only to community groups, not individuals...
  • longwalks1
    longwalks1 Posts: 3,828 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Buddleia will attract butterflies.


    We bought 2 butterfly bushes, and honestly with an hour of putting them in the garden we had 10 or more bumble bees around them, and they were always occupied throughout the summer


    And we bought a wild meadow seed packet from Amazon I think that we sowed in 3 large planters and all 3 flowered some beautiful meadow flowers, most grew to waist height which the bees and butterflies loved


    Oh, and a bee hotel, which we've placed close to the butterfly bushes
  • harrys_nan
    harrys_nan Posts: 1,777 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic
    When you are buying seeds, look for either the bee or butterfly on the packet. The one I bought says Bees (or Butterflies) like this plant, the other thing I do is when browsing in a garden centre or nursery is to look and see which plants the bees/ butterflies are settling on.
    One plant I bought was Teasel, bees went mad for it but mine did grow big
    Treat other's how you like to be treated.

    Harry born 23/09/2008
    New baby grandson, Louie born 28/06/2012,
    Proud nanny to two beautiful boys :j
    And now I have the joy of having my foster granddaughter becoming my real granddaughter. Can't ask for anything better

    UPDATE,
    As of today 180919. my granddaughter is now my official granddaughter, adoption finally granted
  • Farway
    Farway Posts: 14,684 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Homepage Hero Name Dropper
    harrys_nan wrote: »
    One plant I bought was Teasel, bees went mad for it but mine did grow big

    I've grown these, easy & self seed, may not be ideal with youngsters because they are prickly devils, but interesting plants non the less

    The goldfinches love the seed heads in winter, and if you care to you could paint spray heads for indoor decoration
    Eight out of ten owners who expressed a preference said their cats preferred other peoples gardens
  • longwalks1
    longwalks1 Posts: 3,828 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    harrys_nan wrote: »
    When you are buying seeds, look for either the bee or butterfly on the packet. The one I bought says Bees (or Butterflies) like this plant, the other thing I do is when browsing in a garden centre or nursery is to look and see which plants the bees/ butterflies are settling on.
    One plant I bought was Teasel, bees went mad for it but mine did grow big




    When i carried 2 butterfly bushes to the car last summer because the Mrs loved the look of them, it wasnt til I loaded them into the boot I saw 15 or 20 bees on each one! :eek:
  • Grenage
    Grenage Posts: 3,199 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Borage is a winner; bees love borage. I sowed at one month intervals at the start of last year. it was still blooming in December due to the late cold weather.
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