At Martineau, working with wildlife is key to making it a beautiful and tranquil space – who wants to spend time in a garden without bird song or the buzzing of bees? There are a few ways we achieve this, that you might want to try out at home. 

Creating diverse habitats 

This is one of the main ways we support wildlife – by having lots of different habitats that suit a variety of insects, birds, mammals and more. This includes some of the more managed and ornamental areas as the gardens, as well as areas that are allowed to go wild and do their thing. 

We have multiple ponds, including a rill with moving water and a large wildlife pond where we run our pond dipping courses, all of which support lots of creatures including dragonflies, newts, frogs and more.

Bees, trees and birds  

Our woodland area is also very important – it is managed to ensure it’s safe for our human visitors, but in general it’s left to grow the way it wants. Ivy covers many of the trees, there’s a shrub layer full of berries and fruit for the birds, and fallen leaves are left to become a rich layer humus that supports insect life and feeds the trees and other plants within the woodland.  

This habitat is also home to our honeybees, who don’t have to go far to find lots of nectar, as well as the majority of our bird feeders. We’re also in the midst of creating a bog garden in the woodland, to introduce yet another habitat to support more life.  

Try it at home 

Martineau Gardens cover 2.6 acres, which is a little bigger than most gardens, giving us lots of room to house many different habitats and therefore species. If you have a small, or no garden it’s more difficult. But there are still things you can do to make your space more welcoming to wildlife. 

Create planting layers 

In nature, there are different layers – the tree layers, the shrubby under-layer, and the lower herbaceous and ground cover layers. This gives wildlife a variety of different options, from birds to insects and even larger mammals like badgers, deer and foxes. 

You might not have room for trees in your space, but even with pots you can create layers – try a medium sized shrub in a large pot, surrounded by smaller, lower pots with plants that flower at different times of the year. This will give much more nooks and crannies for wildlife to fill than you might think. 

Include some water 

From a full-on wildlife pond to a saucer full of water to serve a re-hydration station for bees and birds, just adding a bit of water to your garden or outdoor space will make a big difference to the species you see visiting.  

With a big enough pond you could see newts and frogs visiting, and they’re breeding grounds for many insect life, including damsel and dragonflies. 

Go organic 

Aside from the diversity of habitats at Martineau, the other, equally important factor is that we manage the gardens organically. That means we don’t use any pesticides or herbicides, and we don’t ruthlessly dispatch every weed we see. In fact, we have areas where we encourage nettles, which are the larval food plant for more than one species of butterfly. 

With other weeds, while we do keep on top of them in some areas, like the veg patch and the rose beds, we leave them in other areas, as many plants that are classed as weeds are actually wildflowers that support lots of our native wildlife. Of course if they start to take over, we manage them a bit more proactively! 

If you’d like to find out more about wildlife at the gardens, visit our Wildlife page, which includes links to list of all the species we’ve recorded in the gardens, and more! Wildlife at Martineau Gardens.