Gardens that share space with wildlife
A garden is made for people. That is the starting point, and it is why a wildlife garden that has quietly stopped being usable is not a success. The interesting work is in designing a space where both things are true at once: the clients get a garden they actually use, and the wildlife sharing it has somewhere to live.
Done properly, habitat is part of the structure of a garden rather than a set of accessories bolted onto it.
Layers do most of the work
Cover at different heights is the single biggest factor. A garden with tree canopy, shrubs, a dense herbaceous layer and ground cover supports far more than a lawn with a border around it, because it offers shelter, nesting sites, hunting ground and food in the same space.
Layering is also what makes a garden feel enclosed and comfortable to be in, so it is rarely a compromise.
Water, in whatever form fits
Water transforms what a garden supports, and it does not have to be a pond. A shallow basin, a sunken trough, a rill or a small pool with planted margins and one gently sloping side so animals can get out will do.
Where small children use the garden, shallow water over pebbles or a planted bog area gives most of the benefit with none of the worry.
Deadwood, stone and the quiet corners
Log piles, stacked stone, a bank of spoil and an undisturbed heap of prunings are the cheapest habitat there is, and they can be built from material already on site. Tucked into the back of planting, under a hedge or behind a shed, they are invisible from the terrace and full of life.
Leaving one corner genuinely undisturbed does more than a dozen bought boxes and bee hotels.
Boundaries animals can use
A sealed garden is a dead end. A gap of roughly 13cm square at the base of a fence lets hedgehogs move between gardens, and a hedge, or a hedge in front of a fence, gives nesting cover a panel never will.
Permeable surfaces and planted boundaries also deal with water better, which matters more every year.
Keeping the balance in the client's favour
The habitat goes into the edges, the beds, the boundaries and the corners. The parts people use — terraces, paths, a lawn if it is wanted, somewhere to sit in the evening — stay generous, well built and easy to look after.
Lighting is worth thinking about here too: warm, low, aimed where it is needed and switched off when it is not, so the garden works after dark for people without disrupting everything else using it.
That is the coexistence I am after. Not a garden given over to wildlife, and not a garden sealed against it, but one where both have room.
Written by George Hughes-Stanton of GHS Spaces, a landscape design practice based in Bristol. See the projects or get in touch.