With bees, butterflies and other pollinators threatened by climate change and habit loss, it’s now more important than ever to support and nurture pollinators in your garden. Rachel de Thame’s new book ‘A Flower Garden for Pollinators’ is a beautiful and practical guide to creating a garden that provides an abundant resource of plants rich in nectar and pollen.
On Monday 29 April, Rachel will be joined in conversation by botanical illustrator Lauren Lusk and BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Arit Anderson to celebrate the launch (livestream tickets available here). Ahead of the talk, we’re sharing this exclusive extract from the book:
For most of human history, it hasn’t been necessary to consider the needs of pollinators. Nature had the upper hand, and a vast range of individual habitats evolved over millennia across the globe, each containing innumerable species of plants. In tandem with the plant world, an equally large number of insects and other creatures have adapted to play their part within these finely balanced ecosystems. The closely interlinked relationships between plants and insects is wonderous and often complex, with very specific requirements being met by and for the plant and the insect, to their mutual benefit.
We live in exciting and precarious times. Technology is enabling entomologists and botanists to uncover the true complexity of the interactions between plants and pollinators as never before. Recent studies are revealing how light intensity and day length, air temperature and levels of humidity, have direct influence on insect behaviour and activity. We are beginning to understand the indivisible connections between plant and insect, where a symbiotic, location-specific relationship has evolved. Often, these are extremely specialised and relate to only one or very few pollinators, with the aforementioned colour, pattern, scent, shape, movement in the form of vibration, sound and timing all crucial to ensure successful pollination for the plant, and healthy offspring for the pollinator. Nature so often works collaboratively to ensure the best outcomes. We must tune in and once again become part of this interlinked and interdependent natural world.
For things are now very different. In an extremely short space of time, humanity’s interference – often in the guise of progress – has disrupted the precious and fragile relationships between habitat, plantlife and wildlife. As humankind has intruded on nature and tampered with the status quo, we have created problems for pollinators and other insects. In some instances, this has caused pollinator numbers to drop alarmingly. Many pollinator species are now endangered to the point of extinction, with others likely to head the same way unless we take action.
Pollinator species vary greatly across the globe, and in some parts of the world include birds, bats and others. Bees are among the most essential and the UK alone has approximately 270 species. The vast majority – almost 250 – are wild solitary bees, such as mason bees and mining bees, which live separately, rather than in colonies. Bumblebees and honeybees work differently, forming sophisticated communities, either in the natural environment or in man-made hives constructed specifically for the purpose. Yet, during the last fifty years, more than half of the bee species in the UK have declined dramatically.
Butterflies, also prolific pollinators, are faring no better. There are 58 native species of butterfly in the UK, and vastly more moths – some 2,500 species. Unfortunately, it’s estimated that there’s been an 80 per cent decline in British butterflies in the past 50 years and approximately 40 per cent fewer moths in some parts of the country. In the UK, butterflies and moths generally live in colonies, and these tend to be grouped in close proximity to one another in order to maximise opportunities for adults to mate. It’s rare to spot a butterfly until the latter part of March, but we gardeners can help year round by providing sufficient quantities of suitable forage to minimise the distances they have to fly between food sources. It’s also vital not only to think of the needs of adult butterflies and moths, but to create habitats in which they can lay eggs and to provide plants which offer a food supply to developing caterpillars.
Bees, butterflies and moths are often large and colourful and sometimes noisy, making them the most obvious pollinating insects in our gardens. But they are not alone: others live their lives largely unnoticed by us. Huge numbers of hoverflies, thrips, many types of fly, beetles and occasionally other beneficial insects are also either deliberate or accidental pollinators. All are essential to sustaining nature’s equilibrium.
The decrease in pollinator numbers may seem a daunting global issue, ultimately requiring intervention on a national and international scale. But each one of us can make a significant difference. The domestic gardens we tend, which combine to form ribbons of green along our streets, through the suburbs and across our parks and other public recreational spaces, become what are essentially thousands of hectares of nature reserve across the UK. If we all do a little, the shift will be huge.
To achieve this, we gardeners need to adopt a change of mindset: letting go of neatness; rethinking goals; and accepting that other creatures rely on our gardens far more than we do. In my gardening life to date, I’ve seen a dramatic shift in acceptable horticultural practices. As a child, it was largely considered the norm to use strong chemicals to control anything unwanted. The aim was to ensure lawns were immaculate and flower beds entirely weed free. Fading daffodil leaves were bent double and tied in bundles, and herbaceous borders were completely razed to the ground in the late-autumn clear-up, referred to as ‘putting the garden to bed’. All too often, there was nothing symbiotic or respectful in the way we gardened. Nature was to be dominated; weeds and many insects were adversaries to be eradicated.
But a shift is afoot. I believe we are currently experiencing as dramatic a revolution in garden style and thinking – and re-evaluation of what is considered desirable in a private garden – as the movement towards naturalistic landscaped gardens made popular in the 18th century by Capability Brown, which swept aside formality and saw countless parterres grassed over. After the highly mechanised and pesticide-driven second half of the 20th century, an increasingly holistic approach is beginning to dictate the way our gardens will look.
This book is the result of my own experience of rethinking the way I garden. Several years ago, I decided to fill part of our old walled garden in the Cotswolds with plants that would attract pollinators and other beneficial insects. The rest of the space I continued to devote to organic kitchen gardening. An area 50ft long, it’s similar in size to that of an average garden in the UK. Previously the plot had been devoted entirely to growing flowers for cutting, which was joyous for me but not always for pollinators, and I became increasingly uneasy with that scenario.
A slight shift in priorities was easily achieved. Some plants were already bee and butterfly magnets and these were left in situ. Others were replaced with insect-friendly perennials. I sowed plenty of hardy annuals that would be attractive to pollinators, as well as continuing to provide some fresh flowers for the house. Bee hotels were nailed to the wall and, partly born from time-poor necessity, I adopted a far less fussy approach to ‘weeds’, leaving undisturbed, messy areas elsewhere in the garden to balance the comparative neatness within the walls themselves. Pollinators’ other needs were met over the garden walls where they could access the trees, hedges and wildflowers beyond.
I hadn’t expected these simple changes to have such immediate and dramatic results. On one particularly sunny late afternoon, towards the end of August in that same year, I stopped deadheading, stood still in the middle of the space and was amazed by the number of butterflies darting across the garden. Bees, hoverflies and other small flies also zipped from flower to flower. I closed my eyes and listened to the various hummings and buzzings. The garden was fizzing with insect activity, and as I resumed snipping faded dahlias and cosmos, I felt the air stir against my cheek as if whipped up by a tiny fan, and was astonished to realise it was the backdraft of rapidly beating bee wings, centimetres from my face. That same evening, I watched a hummingbird hawk-moth hover over a mound of nepeta. It was the first I’d seen in the garden, and it felt like a turning point.
By putting these small but vitally important creatures at the very top of the list of my gardening priorities, I’ve found, somewhat unexpectedly, that in return the garden is giving so much more back to me. I feel deeply invested in it and in the pollinators with which I share the space. We’re all connected – I going about my tasks, they focussed on theirs – all aiming to achieve simple but essential life goals. I still want my garden to be beautiful and productive, and to bring me, my family and my friends joy on many levels. But, ensuring it works for pollinators is crucial, too. I’ve found the two driving forces to be inextricably knitted together; one cannot be enjoyed without the other.
If we begin to see ourselves as co-custodians of our gardens, rubbing along with the wild creatures that share the same space day and night for the entirety of their lives, we would tune into their needs. After all, we barge into their space. They are forced to tolerate our presence and constant interference with their home environments. Let’s redress the balance, tread gently on their territory, adorn it with carefully chosen plants, primarily with their requirements in mind, and we will reap the benefit in countless ways – not least ensuring these irreplaceable creatures are around for future generations. We can no longer think of gardens primarily as places enrich the human soul. They have to provide nourishment and habitats for pollinators too…and that can be equally beautiful.
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Buy the book
Rachel de Thame will be in conversation with Lauren Lusk and Arit Anderson on Monday 29 April, 7pm: Book the livestream