Planting for wildlife this spring
England in April
I want to make my garden as wildlife friendly as possible this year so I am planting for wildlife this spring.
The winter in England has been very wet and to be honest it has not been appealing to go and spend time in the garden. That has changed now and for the last few weeks it has been dry, sometimes sunny and sometimes warm, so warm that I’ve had to water pots and a couple of plants that had collapsed due to lack of water.
Easter weekend is traditionally a time when people start gardening and the garden centres were certainly busy yesterday on Good Friday. I came home with seeds, plants, bulbs and compost. It’s a great time to take a look at your garden and see if it needs some extra plants to fill in any gaps.
I’ve decided to go for some brighter colours this year and have several red, yellow and orange plants. There is a lot of blue and pink and white already, some flowering now such as forget me nots, wallflowers and symphitum and lots to come later on. There are a lot of bumble bees buzzing around and they love the symphitum.
I put up my mini greenhouse yesterday and planted some of the seeds. I was given a white pen and I am labelling my flower pots with it so I can remember what I have planted.
Bulbs for pollinators
These are some of my recent purchases. Most of these like a sunny position or will tolerate partial shade.
Broadiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’- Echinops ritro
- Echinacea ‘White Swan’
- Phlox ‘White Admiral’
- Ranunculus asiaticus Orange
Seeds
- Cosmos bipinnatus Pinkie
- Zinnia elegans Red
- Lavandula Angustifolia
- Calendula Single Orange
Sarah Raven Brilliant for Bees and Butterflies seeds (from Johnsons and available online or from Homebase)
Plants
- Erysimum (wallflower) Apricot Twist
- Mountain Cornflower
- Clematis ‘Miss Bateman’
- Clematis ‘Pink Fantasy’
Do you have any of these in your garden already or will you add them? Please let me know in the comments below.