The Wildlife-friendly Garden. Michael Chinery

       Pergolas

      Although pergolas tend to be associated mainly with formal gardens, they can actually be wonderful wildlife centres. Clothed with roses or honeysuckle in summer, they attract lots of insects and insect-eating birds, and some birds will readily nest in the dense climbers. You can make pergolas work for you in the winter as well by hanging an assortment of bird feeders on them. The sturdy uprights also make good supports for nest-boxes, but it is as well to move the feeders to another site before the nesting season begins: hordes of birds squabbling over a nearby bag of peanuts are not likely to make your nest-boxes desirable residences. Solitary bees and wasps will also appreciate your pergola if you drill a few small holes in the woodwork.

       Michael Chinery

      Pergolas allowed to become overgrown with an assortment of creepers can be superb for garden birds.

A wildlife meadow

      In the middle of the twentieth century, flower-rich meadows could be found in many parts of Britain, but less than two per cent of the meadows that delighted us in the 1940s survive today. Unfortunately, we cannot put them back, but every little helps and a flowery lawn in your garden is a good start.

      Put your mower away for a few weeks and you will certainly get some new flowers on your lawn, but unless your garden is on a chalk or limestone slope you probably will not grow much more than dandelions and daisies initially. To create a good flower-rich habitat you will have to introduce most of the flowers.

      Scattering seeds into an existing lawn is not likely to achieve very much because the grasses will swamp the young seedlings, although you can increase their chances by removing the turf from small areas before sowing. Therefore a better way is to stick established plants into your lawn, but even then they are likely to be overshadowed. The best approach of all is to strip all the turf and much of the top-soil away and then re-seed the ground with a mixture of grass and flower seeds. Make sure that the grass mixture does not include rye grass, which is too vigorous for a wildflower meadow.

       Michael Chinery

      Abandon your mower and you will soon acquire a grassland jungle similar to this, where field mouse-ear and bird’s-foot trefoil are flowering below the thistles and tall flower-heads of the grasses.

      Do not be tempted to sow too many species in a new lawn: four or five grasses and half a dozen flower species are plenty. Spread the grass seeds evenly over the area, but for a natural appearance the flower seeds should be sown in drifts of just two or three species. Never add any fertilizer to your meadow – this will merely encourage the grasses to grow and overshadow the other plants.

       Choose your species

      The chart opposite lists some of the most useful and attractive flowers for your meadow, but what you can grow successfully obviously depends on the soil. One sure way to find out what might be best for you is to have a good look at the surrounding countryside, including the roadside verges. Flowers that grow well there are likely to do well in your meadow. You can collect the seeds by shaking the ripe seed-heads into paper bags, but never dig up the wild plants. If you have access to the Internet you can call up a website that allows you to see a list of all the plants growing in your area just by inserting the first half of your postcode (see here). It also tells you whether the plants are garden-worthy and lists the suppliers of native plant seeds. It is very important always to use native seeds; foreign seeds, even if they are of the same species, may be adapted to different conditions and their genes may contaminate and damage our native flora.

      Drifts of delicate pink cuckoo flowers adorn many areas of damp grassland in the spring, and they are often accompanied by bright yellow cowslips.

      Sow your seeds in the autumn, but do not expect a mass of colour in the first summer – many seeds will not even germinate until the spring, and the young plants need a full season’s growth before they are ready to flower.

       Management is vital

      Meadows were originally created by grazing and/or cutting, so you need to cut your flower meadow at least once a year. Use a scythe or a strimmer if possible, but if you have to use a mower make sure that the blades are not set too low.

       Cut in late summer or autumn for a good display of spring flowers, such as cuckoo flower, cowslip, fritillary, bugle and dandelion.

       Cut in spring and autumn for summer colour from the likes of knapweed, lady’s bedstraw, scabious, meadow cranesbill and ox-eye daisy.

      Always leave the cut vegetation on the ground for a day or two to allow any seeds to fall, but then make sure you clear it all away because a good flower meadow depends on poor soil fertility.

      If you are lucky enough to have a large meadow area, you can mow paths through it more frequently so that you can enjoy the flowers at close quarters.

      An area of long grass can look untidy even if it is full of flowers, so it is a good plan to mow the edge to stop the grass from tumbling on to your path or drive. You might like to mow the area nearest to the house as well and allow it to merge gradually into the longer grass, much as a golf course fairway grades into the rough.

      If you live in open countryside, you could even construct a ha-ha boundary (a sunken fence or ditch) so that your wild meadow appears to drift off into the surrounding fields.

       MEADOW PLANTS

      These native plants are suitable for you to plant in your wildlife meadow:

• Bladder campion	• Cowslip
• Cuckoo flower*	• Field scabious
• Greater knapweed	• Ox-eye daisy
• Meadow cranesbill	• Ragged robin*
• Self heal	• Yarrow

Plants marked * will thrive in damp areas.

      The meadow cranesbill is one of the most beautiful of our grassland species. It does best on lime-rich soils, where its bright violet-blue flowers can be seen throughout the summer.

The gardens hedge

      Most houses come complete with some sort of boundary