Gardening Tips for May 2025

This month’s gardening tips has an emphasis on conservation, so rather than turning the garden into a parking lot, or laying artificial turf to save on mowing, or extending decking as far as you can afford, or concreting over the garden for any of the above, spare a thought for the wildlife that inhabit the garden or could inhabit the garden if we were only

just a bit more wildlife savvy.

According to the Butterfly Conservancy,

• more than half of UK butterfly species are now in long-term decline for the first time on record

• Small Tortoiseshell had its worst year ever and is in long-term decline

• Common butterflies that live in gardens and parks had their second-worst year since 1976.

And it's not just butterflies that are in trouble, moths, bees and other insects (and yes that does include wasps) all appear to need a helping hand, so what can we do?

For starters, Alan Titchmarch recommends,

• Stop spraying with pesticides and avoid using chemicals. The lawn can be a mixture of grass and wildflowers that can tolerate being cut close to the ground. Starlings, blackbirds and thrushes find it far easier to forage on a close-mown lawn than they do in a taller meadow; however,

• Longer patches of grass are vital, too, as egg-laying sites for many butterflies. Creating a balance is vital; some short grasses and some long will make sure that all creatures can find at least a part of your garden that offers sustenance.

• Leave a patch of stinging nettles in a sunny spot and you may be lucky enough to spot the caterpillars of Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock butterflies. The nettles are great egg-laying sites and nursery plants for the caterpillars of these butterflies and may occasionally support Comma and Painted Lady larvae as well. A patch of nettle close to the kitchen garden can be a useful distraction).

• Grow as wide a range of single flowers as you can to provide nectar for adult butterflies and pollen for bees and other insects. (Double flowers tend to lack nectaries and are shorter on pollen.) Everyone knows about Buddleia (the butterfly bush), Lavender and Flat-headed Sedums (ice plant) but experiment and you’ll discover there are loads more flowers that butterflies adore.

• Don’t be too tidy. Some butterflies overwinter in sheltered spots – dense hedges and garden sheds, for instance – and will appreciate the provision of such dormitories before emerging to lay their eggs in spring.

The Wildlife Trust recommends setting up a ‘nectar café’ to benefit butterflies as well as moths, bees and hoverflies, so how to set up a nectar café?

• Choose a sheltered sunny spot

• Place plants in drifts (garden speak for a group) so that the colour and scent are easy to detect

• Prolong the flowering season – select plants so that you have a show of flowers from early spring to late autumn

• choose flowers with a simple (often flat) structure, like old cottage varieties, as they are the easiest for insects to feed from

• Remember to provide a night-time feast for moths. Plant some night-scented flowers.

• Add herbs to the mix as they are highly attractive to insects, or design a dedicated herb garden

Consider planting heathers, lavenders, common mallow, sea holly, verbena, wall flowers, cornflowers, French marigold, golden rod and honeysuckle (pollinated by moths at night). Plant wildlife friendly herbs such as Rosemary, Caraway, Hyssop, sage, wild thyme, fennel, chive, mint or marjoram.

To make a bee hotel use anything with a hollow stem such as bamboo, cut to 10 cm lengths and bundled together, aim for an internal diameter of 3 to 5 mm for bees and anything between 2 cm and 10 cm for other insects. Mason bees are attracted to 4 mm diameter holes drilled about 4 cm deep into a mortar course on the side of the house!

And it is true that bees like blue flowers, blue to us humans, more 'come and get me' signals to bees, suitable blue flowers include pulmonaria, ceanothus, Russian sage, thistle as well as the blue/purple flowers already mentioned.

Keep gardening. Richard Haigh