Most of the information in this table comes from Gardening for Wildlife. A complete Guide to Nature-Friendly Gardening by Adrian Thomas. New edition first published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc in 2017.
ISBN HB: 978-1-4729-3857-2

Bird

Habitat

Habits

Food

Roost

So...

Barn Owl -
 

Including this one, there is another 40 birds including rarities and migrants, which I have not completed below.

If you follow the advice in the So... column below, then you should satisfy most of the birds.

Please do not concrete, tarmac, deck, use paviors or plastic grass in your outside areas. Remember that doing this the rain falls on your roof and outside waterproof areas; dumps it with your sewage into the rivers and thence via the sea to the European countries round the UK. Otherwise the rain could be stored in your ground and used by your plants - the excess drains through and is collected by the Utility company to supply your drinking water.

The other minor detail is that those manmade materials do not provide you with oxygen to breathe, which most live people use. When you breathe and use a car it deprives the world of oxygen for which you are not paying and so where are we to get it. What you breathe out is carbon dioxide and the same for car exhausts; this increases as a proportion in the air, since there is less plants to change it back to oxygen and the world heats up.

The Gulf Stream is very close to collapsing, the Poles are defrosting and the ice under the permafrost there and in Siberia is melting which will raise the sea level by 2400 inches (6000cms) to flood most of Medway. The inhabitants in the UK would not survive when the Gulf Stream stops, nor would UK agriculture to feed us with, since the cost of irrigation would more than exceed the sale price of the produced animals, vegetables or fruit on that land.
The UK government is currently (17 November 2022) fighting inflation - when you add up the support from the chancellor in this Autumn Statement it is about £57.05 billion, with extra taxes and savings in departments being £135 billion.

Blackbird -
Turdus merula

A bird of the woodland edge liking a mix of bare ground, leaf-litter and short grass, plus the shade of bushes and trees with somewhere to bathe

Feed mainly on ground and bolt into cover if danger is sensed.

Insects, worms from tossing aside leaves or by scratching at the earth; berries and fruit in autumn. Some seed from bird tables.

Thick cover, such as evergreen trees or climbers.

Mulch flower beds with leaf-litter, keep a mown lawn, plant fruiting shrubs and trees (especially dense, thorny ones), and plant climbers against walls

Blackcap -
 

Black-headed Gull - Larus ridibundus
 

In summer they are on saltmarshes, shallow lakes and gravel pits. In winter, they visit the coast, estuaries, gravel pits, reservoirs, urban park lakes, rubbish tips, playing fields and arable farmland.

Often gathering by day to preen and bathe. The only come into gardens to scavenge kitchen scraps.

Mainly worms and insects, following the plough avidly. They also snatch food from the water surface or by shallow plunge-diving. They will take flying ants in the summer.

They roost in large flocks at sea, on reservoirs and estuaries.

Encouraging them into gardens by providing food may attract larger gulls and is probaly best avoided.

Black Redstart -
 

Blue Tit -
Cyanistes caeruleus

Needs deciduous trees, especially oaks and birches, favouring sunny woodlands

Work methodically from tree to tree, scouring branches and foliage for food.

Mainly insects and spiders gleaned from trees, especially caterpillars in spring, but they also eat seeds, berries and nectar.

In a hole in winter; often in dense foliage in summer.

Plant leafy broadleaved trees as a hedge at the bottom of the garden and allow hedge to be 96 (240) high, so that 24 (60cms) is above the fence top

Brambling -
 

Bullfinch -
 

Eat Nettle seeds.

Carrion/ Hooded Crows -
 

Chaffinch -
Fringilla coelebs

Prefer open woodlands and larger gardens. In winter, migrants will move more widely on farmland.

A sometimes approachable bird.

In winter, takes seeds of all sorts from the ground, including from cereals and grasses, the cabbage family (Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 1
Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 2) and goosefoots (Goosefoot). In summer they are mainly insect eaters, taking aphids and caterpillars, and fly-catching in the trees.

They roost alone, in a thick evergreen or thorn bush.

A typical large garden, with a mature tree or 2, and a shubbery with an area of seed-rich flowers.

Coal Tit -
 

Collared Dove -
Streptopelia decaocto

Needs a few trees or elevated perches plus open ground for feeding to eat the grain or seed in farmyards and gardens

They gather in groups to feed on the ground

Many cereal grains, weed seeds and a few invertebrates.

Usually in groups in dense evergreens or thorn bushes.

Grow a tall hedge for nesting and grain-based seed.

Dunnock -
Prunella modularis

Anywhere there is a dense, low cover in open habitats such as scrubby heaths, wasteland and hedgerows.

They spend much of their time on the ground.

Spiders and insects such as ground beetles, weevils, earwigs, springtails, flies and caterpillars, plus worms and some weed seeds such as nettles (Nettle), Yorkshire Fog Grass (in Grass Soft
Bromes 3) and docks (Dock Bistorts,
Dock Sorrels).

They roost alone or with a partner, 40-80 (100-200) up in a dense thorny hedge.

A good dense thorny shrub bed or a native hedge will work wonders. A patch of Brambles (in Rose 1)and nettles - Dunnocks and Bullfinches eat the seeds - would be good too.

Feral Pigeon -
 

Fieldfare -
 

Goldcrest -
 

Goldfinch -
 

Great Spotted Woodpecker -
 

Great Tit -
Parus major

Deciduous trees and scrubby undergrowth and a few conifers as in woods, parks, gardens and hedgerows.

Forages through the trees

Insects and spiders, especially moth caterpillars, beetles, flies and bugs. Seeks berries and seeds in winter, including beechmast, hazelnuts and acorns.

In a hole (including nest box) in winter; in dense foliage in summer.

The same advice as for Blue Tits for a garden stuffed with tree-living insects.

Greenfinch -
Carduelis chloris

In the breeding season, they need a combination of trees and open ground rich in seeds, while in winter they sometimes move into farmland or coastal areas. Gardens suit them well.

Birds follow a daily routine visiting several feeding sites.

Mainly large, hard seeds, taken from the ground, such as those of the cabbage family (Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 1
Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 2), cereals, docks (Dock Bistorts,
Dock Sorrels) and goosefoots (Goosefoot). Will also eat berries including Yew, and rosehip seeds. Chicks are also fed insects, especially caterpillars, and spiders.

In winter, flocks gather at regular sites, often in dense evergreen shrubs or ivy.

Provide roosting and nesting sites by planting a shrub bed or dense hedge of evergreens or thorns, and by growing ivy up a garden wall (not a house wall) or tree.

Green
Woodpecker -
 

Grey Heron -
Ardea cinerea

All sorts of shallow, moving slowly, water

Generally wary of people.

500 grammes of fish a day. they also take amphibians, grasssnakes, dragonflies and small mammals.

They will rest on the ground near feeding sites by day or night.

Herons rarely come into gardens, but a garden pond stuffed with goldfish or froggy snacks is clearly very tempting. So net your pond. Herons like to land near water and then walk up to it, so extend 2 wires or ribbons around the margin, one 8 (20) off the ground, the other 14 (35), as a visible deterrent, not a tripwire.

Grey Wagtail -
 

Herring Gull - Larus argentatus
 

Once bred on sea-cliffs, but have moved mainly to coastal towns. In winter, they are regular on beaches, rubbish tips, estuaries, sports fields and farmland.

They make long feeding flights of up to 50km to find food. Problems can arise when pairs are nesting, including ripping open rubbish bags. Also, if you stray near their eggs or chicks they see it as a threat and can dive-bomb to try and frighten us away.

They eat dead fish, shellfish and crabs on the tideline and at sea, but they are very adaptable and follow the plough for worms, scavenge fish offal in ports , grab human rubbish in the street, on beaches, in gardens and at dumps. But they do not eat bird seed or cling to feeders.

Outside the breeding season, many travel each evening to spend the night on reservoirs or the sea. Breeding by forming large colonies on cliffs or rooftops. They lay one brood of 2-4 eggs in Apr-Jun, incubated for 28-30 days. The young fledge after 35-40 days.

Do not feed them.

The Herring Gull has a bill capable of ripping into unguarded bin bags and has taken readily to nesting on roofs, which mimic its original cliff top home.

Use netting or anti-bird spikes to deter them from nesting on your site, but do it in the winter and not when the birds are actually nesting; remember breeding birds are protected by law.

House Martin -
 

House Sparrow -
Passer domesticus

Allotments, stables and farmyards.

Enjoy gossip sessions ('chapels') in thick hedges and are fond f dust bathing.

Seeds, taken mainly from the ground, especially ceraeals and grasses, plus some berries such as Elder. Insects such as caterpillars and aphids are crucial for the chicks

In autumn and winter, they gather in flocks in dense bushes; otherwise they roost in the nest

Fill the garden with insects: plant a hedge and deciduous shrubs, have a vegetable patch and do not use chemicals in your garden use Companion Planting
A ,B ,C ,D ,E ,
F ,G ,H ,I ,J ,K ,
L ,M ,N ,O ,P ,Q ,
R ,S ,T ,U ,V ,W ,
X, Y, Z
...Pest Control
...using Plants instead.

Jackdaw -
 

Jay -
 

Kestrel -
Falco tinnunculus

Open grasslands, such as downland and moorland, motorway verges and meadows. They also need safe perching places.

Usually alone, they hover a few metres above the ground; before plunging to the ground after prey. They sit for long periods on high perches and often choose to hunt in low light.

Mainly voles, plus small mammals such as wood mice, a few beetles and other invertebrates. In urban areas, they will target small birds such as house sparrows and starlings.

In trees, on a cliff or on a building.

If you encourage Kestrels in urban areas, they will probably feed on garden birds. If you have the space in a rural garden, turn lawns into meadows so that voles can thrive.

Lesser Redpoll -
 

Long-tailed Tit -
 

Magpie -
 

Mallard -
Anas platyrhynchos

They visit shallow waterbodies with plenty of bankside vegetation.

They frequently gather in flocks

Grass, waterplants, seeds (especially cereal grains), insects (midges, mayflies, etc), worms, tadpoles, fish, even carrion.They pick food off the ground, from the water surface, or up-end while swimming, and will feed at night.

They roost on the water's edge, especially on islands, by day or night.

Provide as large a pond as possible, with bankside vegetation.

Marsh Tit -
 

Mistle Thrush -
 

Moorhen -
Gallinula chloropus

Sheltered lowland pools, lakes, streams, ditches and rivers. They like open water, so a tiny garden pond is not enough. They also require abindant aquatic plants and thick cover at the pond margins.

Usually live in pairs or family groups sculling across the water looking for food or clambering through vegetation at the water's edge, never straying too far from the water edge.

A mix of plant material, mainly aquatic, such as duckweed (Duckweed), pondweed (Pondweed), rushes (Rush,
Rush Woodrushes), leaves, seeds and fruit, plus some invertebrates such as mollusces, worms, spiders and tadpoles.

In trees or in dense aquatic vegetation.

You may live close to a ditch, canal or river, in which case a well-vegated pond may become a nice addition to their territory, and they may even breed there.

Nuthatch -
 

Pheasant -
Phasianus colchicus

Woodland and woodland edge, on farmland wherever they have access to thickets and a good water source.

They spend most of their time on the ground, scratching and digging for food.

Cereal grains and seeds, insects (beetles, flies and their larvae, etc) and worms, and plant food such as roots, shoots and berries. They are fond of acorns and blackberries.

They normally roost off the ground in trees or a thicket, and may spend much time sleeping.

If you live near farmland, you may get wandering Pheasants. A tray of water and a dense shrub bed for them to retreat intoo will also help.

Pied Wagtail -
 

Redwing -
 

Reed Bunting -
 

Robin -
Erithacus rubecula

Found near mature trees that offer cool shade, a moist woodland floor, sunny glades and perching posts. very fond of recently turned soil

Feed mainly on ground and watching from a low perch dart down to grab an insect.

Crawling insects such as beetles, ants and earwigs. Eat seeds and berries in autumn. eay mealworms or fat from bird table.

In dense cover such as ivy or thick conifers.

Develop a shady woodland garden, increase the number of safe nest sites and boost your beetles.

Rook -
 

Rose-ringed Parakeet -
 

Siskin -
 

Song Thush -
 

Sparrowhawk -
Accipiter nisus

Wooded countryside and farmland.

They hunt in low dashing manoevres along regular flightpaths, nipping over hedges and fences to surprise their prey.

Birds, with the smaller male taking sparrows, buntings, tits and finches, and the female preferring thrushes, Starlings and doves but even taking Woodpigeons.

Roost alone in a tree, changing sites regularly.

Remember that the presence of a top predator is always the sign of a healthy food chain and environment.

Spotted
Flycatcher -
 

Starling -
Sturnus vulgaris

In grassland, but especially on farmland and in gardens. Tends to avoid mountains.

They like to bathe communally.

In summer, they seek insects such as leatherjackets, beetles, flies and flying ants, plus worms, by probing in short grass. In autumn, they gorge on fruit and seeds such as elderberries (Honeysuckle) and cereal grains.

Roost in reedbeds, conifers (including cypresses), on building ledges and seaside piers.

Provide an insect-rich lawn, an Elder tree and a fruit tree.

Swallow -
 

Swift -
 

Tawny Owl -
 

Treecreeper -
 

Tree Sparrow -
 

Waxwing -
 

Woodpigeon -
Columba palumbus

Likes trees, especially liking farmland with woods and spinneys, but doing ok in gardens.

Gathers, often in flocks, to feed on open ground or sometimes on the woodland floor.

Mostly plant material, especially cereal seeds, ivy berries (Ivy), elderberries (Honeysuckle), and leaves of clovers, peas (Peaflower
Clover 1
Peaflower
Clover 2
Peaflower
Clover 3
Peaflower Vetches/Peas), beans and cabbages
(Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 1
Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 2).

Roost in tall trees with thick cover such as conifers or ivy, using the same site each night.

They can peck at peas, beans and cabbages in your vegetable patch, so net those crops.

Wren -
Troglodytes troglodytes

Deciduous woodland with dense ground cover, especially along wet valleys, but at home anywhere with tangled vegetation, rocks, log piles and thickets.

They explore in, under and behind thick cover, rocks and logs, ften near the ground.

The shortest of wings and tail make nipping in and out of nooks and crannies all the easier for Wrens.

Small creepy-crawlies, especially beetles and spiders, but also bugs, small snails, flies, ants and woodlice.

Roost usually alone in vegetation such as ivy, but groups may snuggle together in holes and nest boxes in cold weather.

Grow dense thickets, make several log and stick piles, plant hedges, and cloak walls and fences with climbers, preferably over a trellis (you could use chainlink fencing from 24 -60 (60-150cms) which gives you many places to use non-plastic or non-metal twine to tie the climber to.

Yellowhammer -
 

Migrants

Rarities

Top 10-12 Birds drinking and bathing species in Town and Suburban Gardens.

Based on a survey by the Devon Bird Watching and Preservation Society in 1978

Frequency of Drinking:-
House Sparrow,
Starling,
Greenfinch,
Blackbird,
Blue Tit,
Collared Dove,
Chaffinch,
Donnock,
Robin,
Song Thrush

Frequency of Bathing:-
Starling,
House Sparrow,
Blackbird,
Blue Tit,
Robin,
Dunnock,
Song Thrush,
Great Tit,
Chaffinch,
Coal Tit,
Greenfinch,
Wren

Top 11 Birds drinking and bathing species in Village and Country Gardens

Frequency of Drinking:-
House Sparrow,
Starling,
Blacbird,
Chaffinch,
Blue Tit,
Collared Dove,
Greenfinch,
Robin,
Great Tit,
Woodpigeon,
Dunnock,
Coal Tit

Frequency of Bathing:-
Starling,
House Sparrow,
Blackbird,
Blue Tit,
Chaffinch,
Robin,
Dunnock,
Song Thrush,
Great Tit,
Pied Wagtail,
Greenfinch,
Wren

 

Simon Milne of the Scottish Wildlife Trust advises that the plants in this row are not used in your garden - because being imported they are presenting from other countries the greatest threats to our native UK plant life - by going on the rampage.

Land Plants

Cotoneaster microphyllus and Cotoneaster simonsii.
False Acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia),
Few-flowered Leek (Allium paradoxum),
Giant Rhubarb (Gunnera tinctoria),
Hottentot Fig (Carpobrotus edulis),
Indian (Himalayan) Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera),
Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica),
Rhododendron ponticum,
Shallon (Gaultheria shallon),
Spanish Bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica and its hybrid Hyacinthoides hispanica x non-scripta).

Water Plants

Australian Swamp Stonecrop (Crassius helmsii),
Canadian Pondweed (Elodea canadensis),
Nuttall's Pondweed (Elodea nuttallii),
Curly Water weed (Lagoriphon major),
Fanwort (Cabomba caroliniana),
Floating pennywort (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides),
Giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta),
Parrot's Feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum),
Water Fern or Fairy Fern (Azolla filiculoides),
Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes),
Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes)

Gardening for Minibeasts
The birds above eat these minibeasts and so if they are not there the bird food chain is broken. This is why weeding a garden and leaving the area between the plants you want to keep bare, is also breaking up the foodchain for those plants.
So mulch, or mulch and Green Manure, or mulch and Animal/Chicken Manure :-

1. collect your vegetable peelings, egg shells, tea bags, coffee grounds and fruit peelings in a small plastic bucket with its own top under the sink in the kitchen.
2. when you need to mow the lawn, weed an area of your garden.
3. put the weeds on the lawn
4. prune shrubs and put the prunings on the lawn (its stem prunings no thicker than a pencil onto the lawn; cut off the larger and cut them up to straight lengths no longer than the distance between the end of your thumb and your smallest finger and lay them on the weeded bed)
5. mow the lawn each fortnight and spread the mowings on the weeded bed no thicker than 0.5 inches (1 cm) to cover the peeligs from your kitchen. If the layer is thicker, then during the first process of decomposition which is aerobic the process generates heat - you would not put your hands round a kettle and it boiled nor do the stems of plants - and the mowings turn light brown. The second process is anaerobic, which means that it works without air and is a cold process.
6. You can put a 3 inch (7.5 cm) deep mulch of spent mushroom compost, bark or shredded autumn leaves (use rotary mower at highest setting and mow the lawn to suck up and cut the fallen leaves during the autumn with some grass) on the weeded bed in the autumn. This mulch will need topping up each autumn.
7. Apply Lawn Top Dressing to the lawn in the spring - Fine Turf Dressing or Rootzone for clay soils, Surrey Loam for sand soils, Rootzone or Surrey Loam for chalk soils, Fine Turf Dressing and Surrey Loam for peat soils to feed the lawn and provide an improved soil structure for its roots.
8. Plant Green Manure between your plants in the shrub/flower beds, both sides of hedges and in rows in the vegetable garden to provide shelter for the minibeasts and food for the plants. Under-sowing in rows with spinach, mustard or phacelia provides the companion planting aid to the minibeasts and vegetable, and means that next year you simply move your vegetable rows 10 (25 cm) so that where they were becomes a new green manure row, without digging or rotovating the ground.
9. The above provides food for the minibeasts and their waste is food for the plants. It stops the wind and sun from drying out the ground. It provides a beneficial environment for the following minibeasts so the birds can eat them.
10. You might think that digging up the garden beds or vegetable garden each year before replanting is a good idea:-
    
    Okay you have just bought your new home and your babies have arrived in the first year. A bulldozer arrives and destroys your home and squashes your babies and family into pieces each spring. Being dead, you will find it difficult to recover. Rotovating the ground is exactly this process by cutting up worms and moving organisms from their preferred position in the basement to the top flat, where if they were alive when transferred will now die off because the food that came down to them via the worm holes in the rain is now below them.
    Instead of rotovating, or tilling (In the above written in black, tilling is like replacing the bulldozer with an atom bomb, thus this is the best way of guaranteeing that life in your soil will be truly destroyed and you will then further destroy it by the use of pesticides, insecticides and herbicides as well as dumping lots of chemical fertilizers in the soil to get stuff to grow), or digging and raking,
    
    I did the following for a client:-
    I received this from a client - An unsuccessful planting scheme had left bare areas of garden as plants failed to survive winter in the waterlogged clay soil. The loss of numerous plants and the cost of replacing them had left us disheartened.
    Solution -
A 150mm (6 inch) deep mulch of mixed peat, sharp washed sand and horticultural grit was applied on top of a heavy clay soil to improve its structure, and stop the plants therein from drowning, at £10 a square metre. The mix was:

    1) 4 cubic metres of Peat (to provide the Organic Polymers/Organic Matter and Carbon. Instead of peat, why not use Bark?)

    2) 2 cubic metres of Sharp Washed Sand (to provide the sand for the production of microaggregates)

    3) 2 cubic metres of Horticultural Grit (to provide larger particles for aggregation or a mix with added grit/perlite)

    4) 25kg of Garden Lime (to provide Calcium for the plants and allow clay minerals to bond together to form domains. Once clay minerals are stacked together to form domains, they can then bond with organic matter to form microaggregates)

    5) 25 kg of Sulphate of Iron (to provide Iron to act as a trace element and to create soil colloid for buffering chemical nutrients in the soil for later use by plants)

    6) 25Kg of Sulphate of Potash (to provide fertilizer for the plants)

and the following was sent to me in October 2004:-
    An unsuccessful planting scheme had left bare areas of garden as plants failed to survive winter in the waterlogged clay soil. The loss of numerous plants and the cost of replacing them had left us disheartened. It was evident that remedial action was needed in the form of a mixture of gravel, sand and peat to create an organic loam. Approximately six inches was added in April and left to settle and do its job. By July there was a noticeable difference in the quality of the soil and the plants. Shrubs with sparse, mottled leaves were looking glossy and robust, overall growth had increased (including the weeds!) and the soil was holding its moisture well. But the biggest difference came in the confidence it gave us to transform the garden. The borders used to be a no-go area between May and September as the clay baked and cracked, but the new soil was easy to handle and weeds could be successfully removed. We realised that there are no quick fixes - the key to a healthy garden is rich, nutritous soil. Once our plants began to thrive we were optimistic that, with good advice, we could create a garden to be proud of.

Besides the other pages in the Soil Topic, it might be useful to view

• Why is Organic matter important in Soil?
• How soil is created with Organic Matter?
• How is clay created?
• How is Humus made?
• How is material lost from the soil?
• In Soil Formation - What is Soil Texture?
• and the most important page in the whole website is In Soil Formation - What is Soil Structure?
• How does Water act in the Soil?
• Action Plan for YOU to Do with Your Soil,
• Before you buy another building please take account of What to do about Subsidence caused by Clay?

Minibeast

Habitat

Habits

Food

Breeding

So...

Ants - there are about 50 ant species in the UK including the Black Garden Ant - Lasius niger, Red Ant - Myrmica rubra, Yellow Lawn Ant - Lasius umbratus and Yellow Meadow Ant - Lasius flavus.

Mainly creatures of warm places, with the greatest number of species on sandy heaths and open grasslands. Some in woodland.

Ants live in colonies, with a social structure matched only by the social bees and wasps. A colony can persist for many years.

Most species eat a range of plant and animal matter, such as seeds, nectar and caterpillars. Many will climb trees as well as making ground raids. Ants also milk aphids for honeydew, even taking them back to the nest to tend them.

The queen sits within her chamber lay ing eggs, which workers take away to hatch, feed and guard. In late summer there is a synchronised hatching of winged males and virgin queens. These fly up into the sky where they are eagerly picked off by wheeling Starlings, Swallows and gulls. The mated queens that survive come back down to start a new colony.

Ants are almost the entire diet of Green Woodpeckers. They do little damage in a garden and are eaten by more garden birds than you would realise. Brush the Yellow Meadow Ant's little soil mounds back into the lawn if they offend you.

Beetles - there are more than 4,000 species in the British Isles

There is a beetle for every habitat, but heathland, undisturbed flower-rich grasslands and woodland hold the most species.

Many are nocturnal. They tuck themselves away among leaf litter, in deep vegetation, or in the soil. Most spend their life on their feet, either on the ground or in vegetation.

Some beetles use their biting jaws to eat plants, others to devour other creatures, and some to bore into live or dead wood. Most have larvae that are like maggots-with-legs with the same biting jaws (and tastes) as the adults.

Most species survive the winter as eggs in the soil or behind bark.

If you aim to deliver these basics, you will encourage a wide range of species and hence benefit the whole food chain above:
1. Plants, plants, plants. Whether trees, shrubs, climbers, flowerbeds or meadows, pack in whatever you can. Many of the vegetarian beetles have very picky needs, requiring a single plant species, so having more types of plant should mean more beetle diversity. Plant choice is also important - good old hawthorns or oaks are probably among the best for supporting lots of species.
2. Provide plenty of rotting wood - that is not treated wood or plywood or mdf or chipboard.
3. Use mulches, especially of leaflitter, for them to rove through.
4. Compost heaps are great for both debris-eaters and predator beetles.

5. and of course, do not use insecticides.

Bloody-nosed beetles -
Timarca

Open grass habitats in the southern half of the UK and are peaceful vegetarians, feeding on bedstraw (Bedstraw) leaves.

Northern Bedstraw is in rocky places. Hedge Bedstraw is in dry bushy grassland, especially hedge-banks. Upright Hedge Bedstraw on dry grassy slopes, especially on chalk and limestone. Wall Bedstraw lives on old walls or in sandy ground. Lady's Bedstraw in dry grassy places. Heath Bedstraw in grassy and heathy places on acid soils. Slender Bedstraw on limestone and on chalk. Marsh Bedstraw in wet places. Fen Bedstraw in fens.

Ladybirds:
Two-spot Ladybird - Adalia bipunctata,
Seven-spot Ladybird - Coccinella 7-punctata,
Black-on-yellow 22-spot Psyllobora 22-punctata

The Harlequin Ladybird - Harmonia axyridis from Asia munches on its smaller cousins since 2004 in southern England. The Seven-spot Ladybird seems to have coped relatively well with this arrival.

Aphids

Adult ladybirds need somwhere to hibernate over winter - a good diverse garden, with clumps of tall grasses, hollow plant stems, leaf litter and old trees should do the trick

Stag Beetles - Lucanus cervus

Rotting tree stumps such as those of old fruit trees.

The white, bloated larvae will munch on their high-fibre, low-calorie diet for up to 3 or 4 years before emerging.

You can create ideal conditions by burying a log of a suitable tree species, with the top just poking out of the ground.

Thick-kneed Flower Beetle -
Oedemara nobilis

Nibble pollen of all sorts of summer flowers, from scabious (Teasel)to bindweeds (Bindweed).

The larvae live in hollow plant stems, another reminder not to hack back everything to the ground at the end of autumn

Once you have seen the males of this gree, metallic beetle, you will never forget them, for they are the original winner of the knobbly-knees competition

Wasp Beetle -
Clytus arietus

Its black and yellow warner markings visit flowers. These fearless adults are quite harmless.

Its larvae live in dry, dead wood such as willows and birches (showing how your log piles should not just in damp, shady corners)

Earthworms have a simple design - a muscular tube that eats its way the soil. Earth and dead leaves go in the front end, travel down the gut and come out the other end partially digested. Each worm alone makes little difference, but a 1,000,000 or so per hectare of 10,000 square metres or 2.471 acres in the British Imperial System or 11,960 square yards in good habitat move mountains of soil and are vital for the decomposition of organic matter. This activity is hugely beneficial to plants: it aerates the soil, aids drainage and gives roots channels they can easily penetrate. Worms also help break down organic matter making it more available to plants, and they bring essential minerals back to the surface in their wormcasts.
And, of course, worms feature in many creaures' diets. To thrushes, badgers, hedgehogs, shrews and amphibians, they are not a delicacy, but the main course.

There about 25 species of earthworm in the British Isles.

Different species tend to live in different habitats, with species such as the Garden Earthworm - Lumbricus terrestris, Anglers Red Worm - Lumbricus rubellus and the Long Worm - Allolobophora longa live under lawns and grasslands,
and the Brandling Worm - Eisenia foetida and Cockspur Worm - Dendrodrilus rubidus in compost heaps, where huge numbers can gather.

Worms can be found in most fertile soils apart from those that are very acidic, sandy or waterlogged, with good populations in undisturbed habitts such as unimproved grassland and woodland. Regular turning of the soil exposesthem to predators, leading to far smaller numbers in such places.

Earthworms tend to live in the top 10 (25cm) of the soil, going deeper only in dry or cold weather. The usually remain active for most of the year.

Large bits of organic matter are ingested together with soil paricles and bacteria. Some worms come to the surface to yank down big leaves into their tunnels where they can soften them and munch in peace.

Earthworms mature after a year, and can then live for 10. They find a mate and this is followed by each laying a cocoon of about 20 fertilsed eggs in the soil.

Building up a healthy population of earthworms is clearly great for wildlife in the garden. Lawns, meadows and undisturbed woodland floors are preferable to turned soil, which is in turn better than concrete, gravel and decking. A compost heap that worms can get into will help too.

In the vegetable patch, leave a fallow plot in your crop rotation see bottom row.

Mow the leafs off a lawn in the autumn and use the mown leaves and soil as a top dressing in November-December to help the worms

Flies with more than 5,000 species in the British Isles

Flies lay eggs, which then hatch into legless larvae. Most larvae live as maggots in decaying matter, animal or vegetable. The larvae then pupate. When they hatch into an adult, most, but not all, flies can fly. Their mouthparts are adapted for sucking. It is impossible to be bitten by a mosquito - you just get sucked by a very sharp straw.

Gardening for flies equals gardening for other wildlife, so -
Make a pond. Create compost heaps. Do not use chemical. Grow plenty of flowers.

Without flies, Swallows, house martins, wagtails, warblers and spotted flycatchers would all go rather hungry. dragonflies and amphibians also eat flies.

Grasshoppers and Bush-crickets:
Speckled Bush-cricket - Leptophyes punctatissima,
Oak Bush-cricket - Meconema thalassinum,
Dark Bush-cricket - Pholidoptera grisoaptera,
Meadow Grasshopper - Chorthippus parallelus and
Common Field Grasshopper - Chorthippus brunneus.

Grasshoppers like open, sunny, undisturbed meadows where the grass grows quite long; bush-crickets like thickets and hedgerows.

They live to a large extent in sedentary colonies. Grasshoppers are usually active by day, bush-crickets most often at night. Most grasshoppers can fly; many bush-crickets cannot, although the Oak Bush-cricket can and is attracted to lit bedroom windows.

Grasshoppers are vegetarian, eating wild grasses and some low-growing plants. Bush-crickets are usually partly or mostly carnivorous, eating caterpillars and other insects, although the Speckled Bush-cricket likes a bit of bramble or Raspberry leaf.

Females lay eggs in or near ground, or they insert them into plant tissue or behind bark. Most specoies winter as eggs, all the adults dying as winter draws in. They hatch as miniature versions of the adults in spring and moult up to 10 times to reach maturity by late summer.

In the case of grasshoppers, lawns are usually too manicured for them to survive. In the case of bush-crickets, our shrub beds are not always a match for a good bramble thicket. If you can turn your lawn into a sunny meadow and create a woodland garden with mown paths through the meadow and a bramble thicket in an end corner of the garden.

Hoverflies with 280 or so species in the UK

Sunny, sheltered habitats with lots of flowers

Adults spend a lot of time at flowers, tending to prefer those that have an open, 'table-top' shape

Larvae eat aphids and others feed on rotting vegetation or bulbs

Grow lots of flowers, especially those in the carrot ('umbellifers' - Umbellifer 1
Umbellifer 2) and composite (Dandelion- and daisy-type- Daisy) families.

Dandelion type flowers of nipplewort, catsears, hawkbits,
ox-tongues, goatsbeard, lettuces,
sow-thistles, hawkweeds, hawkbeards and dandelions are in Daisy Thistle,
Daisy Catsears, Daisy Hawkweeds and
Daisy Hawksbeards families.

Dig a pond.
Create sheltered, sunny glade like habitats.

Millipedes and Centipedes - There are close on 50 species of both in the British Isles

They all need to keep out of sunlight in moist dark places such as in the soil, leaf-litter, under logs and stones, and in compost heaps.

Centipedes are flat, fast, fanged carnivores, hunting prey at speed and grabbing victims with pincer-like, venom-pumping front legs.

Millipedes are generally slow-moving, burrowing vegetarians, with some looking like worms with hundreds of legs, others like woodlice, and others like centipedes!

Centipedes eat caterpillars, spders, small snails and worms;

millipedes mostly eat decaying plant matter.

They all lay eggs in the soil; very few show any level of parental care after that.

Create a compost heap, develop a woodland garden, apply leaf-litter as a mulch to your flowerbeds and build a log pile.

Pond Creatures - Water beetles and their larvae.

True Bugs

Water Beatles and their larvae - Great Diving Beetle - Dytiscus marginalis, which can grow up to 1.4 (3.5cms) long. Both the adults and the larvae are ferocious enough to kill newts, tadpoles and goldfish. There are several smaller species of diving beetle, all still top oredators. Even the several species of Whirligig beetles - Gyrinus, spinning crazily across the surface, are actually hunting prey.

True Bugs.
The 4 UK species of backswimmers - Notonecta are also formidable predators. They swim upside down clutching an air-bubble to their chest. They catch prey using a venomous bite and are good flyers.
Several types of pond-skater - Gerridae, the long middle legs provide propulsion, the back ones steer and the front ones grab prey through the surface.
The Water Scorpion - Nepa cinerea stalks just under the surface and poking its spear-like rear end through the surface as a snorkel. It feeds upon aquatic animals, especially insects.
Water-boatmen are true bugs which rove the bottom eating plant particles and algae

Flies.
Mosquitos lay their eggs in rafts on the water surface. Their larvae and pupae hang down from the surface.
Midge larvae live in the mud of stagnant water.
The rat-tailed maggot is the larvae of the Drone-fly - Eristalis tenax and lives in stagnant water with a long breathing tube of a tail.

Caddis-fly larvae.
Several species crawl about on the pond bottom, eating tiny fragments of whatever they can find and hiding in little home-made cases.

Molluscs.
The Great Pond Snail - Lymnaea stagnalis with its pointed spiral shell and the ramshorn snails - in the family Planorbidae with their colied discs are grazers, munching through algae.

Crustaceans.
Gammarus is a genus of what are sometimes called 'freshwater shrimps' that are very common in ponds, wriggling about in the debris on the bottom and eating detritus.
The waterlice or hoglice of the genus Asellus are like small underwater woodlice with overlong legs. They too are cleaners, sifting through the pond's rubbish.There are 2 groups of microscopic crustaceans that are abundant in ponds. The genus Daphnia and Cyclops filter microscopic plankton.

You can accomodate many of them by creating a large pond with parts in sun and parts in shade, with deeper areas and penty of shallows, with different substrates such as pebbles and gravel, and plenty of aquatic vegetation. However, keep rich organic material susch as soil and leaves to a minimum if you want to reduce the risk of stagnant conditions and algal blooms.

Slugs and Snails - these are a key link in wildlife food chains.
There are 80 or so species of snail and 30 or so slugs in the UK.

Most live in damp habitats such as woodland. Snails are especially common on lime-rich (chalk or limestone) soils, as the minerals there are important building materials fir their shells.

Slugs and snails are molluscs, but they still need damp conditions, and so escape becoming sun-dried by hiding by day under logs and stones, and many of the slugs by burrowing deep into the soil. The yellow-and-brown whorled Brown-lipped - Cepaea nemoralis and White-lipped Snail - Cepaea hortensis preferr t eat dead and rotting vegetation or fungi rather than living plants.

Slugs and snails have every individual with both sets of sexual organs. All are able to mate with any other of their species and all then lay eggs. These are deposited in loose soil, 30-80 at a time, up to 6 times a year.

Spiders and Harvestmen - They trap or grab millions of insects each year. They are themselves vital food for many garden birds. Spider's webs are used by some birds such as Long-tailed Tits and Goldfinches to help build nests. There are more than 600 species of spider and just 23 species of harvestmen in the UK.

Sunny woodlands, hedgerows and meadows are key habitats, especially near water, but there is a species for almost every habitat. The Woodlouse Spider - Dysdera crocata, is a common species of log piles and brick stacks.

The web-spinning spiders mainly target flying insects, but many of the hunting spiders will target other creepy-crawlies, too.

Harvestmen can not spin silk, and so hunt on foot. They have very long legs and only have one main body section, whereas spiders have two.

Most spiders and harvestmen live for just one season and die at the start of winter. The females leave behind eggs either in a like sac or in the soil or rotting wood. The eggs hatch in the spring as miniature versions of the adult.

Gardening for insects, equals gardening for spiders which equals gardening for birds. Provide spiders with vegetation, trees, standing water, log piles, hedges - all will boost the nunbers in your garden.

True Bugs with 1,800 species in the UK

Lots of plants of different types and a lack of insecticides will mean lots of bugs and that, in turn, will mean lots of food for other wildlife

Wasps and Hornets, besides the ones who want your jam sandwiches, there are several 1000's others that have no interest in you whatsoever - like ichneumon wasps, potter wasps and digger wasps

The Hornet looks for insect prey. They rarely sting humans.

The wasps that worry us most are the stinging social wasps, including the Hornet. They use chewed rotten wood to build football-sized, papier-mache nests underground, in attics and sheds, or in hollow trees. These wasps have a similar colony structure to Honeybees, with a single queen and a large daughter workforce. The big difference is that worker wasps catch insects for their larvae (usiually getting rid of a lot of pests for us in the process).

The adults drink sugary liquids, usually nectar.

Most are small and solitary who catch insects, laying an egg in them so that the developing larvae can then feast on fresh meat.
Some tiny wasps lay their eggs in plant tissue, which prompts the plant to produce strange tissue called galls, within which the larvae feed. Oak apples, spangle galls on oak leaves and 'robin's pincushions' on roses are all caused by wasps

Remember that Wasps and Hornets are also part of Nature's food chain.

Woodlice - There are 5 widespread species in the UK, the Common Rough Woodlouse - Porcellio scaber, the Common Shiny Woodlouse - Oniscus asellus, the Striped Woodlouse - Philoscia muscorum, the Common Pill Woodlouse - Armadillidium vulgare and the Common Pygmy Woodlouse - Trichoniscus pusillus, with about 30 rarer species.

Woodlice are crustaceans, related to the crabs, but they have a way to survive on 'dry' land by hiding in dark, moist places such as under the bark of dead wood, in compost heaps, and among rock piles.

Being gregarious, they emerge on dampat nights and rarely travel far. Woodlice are eaten by various spiders, shrews, toads, and just a few birds such as Wrens

They eat large amounts of dead leaves and other spent organic matter, helping hugely in the decomposition process

Females have an internal puch, where they incubate their eggs.

With a compost heap, log pile or 'habitat' pile, you should have all the woodlice ypou need, a little army helping to ensure that you do not end up knee-deep in dead plant material.

Problem Beetles

Vine Weevil - Otiorhynchus sulcatus has root-chomping larvae, especially in containers.

The bright-red Lily Beetle - Lilioceris lilii from Asia can devastate lilies and other bulbous plant

Rosemary Beetle - Chrysolina americana from southern Europe, metallic green with red stripes nibbles your plants

Garden Chafer - Phyllopertha horticola and Cockchafer - Melolontha melolontha have larvae that feed on plant roots.

The best answer is a healthy, wildlife-rich garden where nature will find a balance. Starlings and Rooks eat Cockchafers

Problem Bugs

They are predominantly plant eaters.

Aphids are perhaps the biggest culprits. Many exude a swet liquid called honeydew, which is harvested by ants and drunk by various butterflies and other insects. Aphids are also important in the diet of ladybirds, hoverfly larvae, lacewings and some birds.

Scale insects and mealy bugs suck away at plants, but are perhaps most of a problem with houseplants and in the greenhouse.

Focus on having a rich, varied ecosytem in your garden to get nature to redress the situation.

EarthWorms and Lawns

Groundsmen of the 'the perfect lawn' see them as a curse because of the casts that Allolophora worms leave on the surface. As a result, worm-killing chemicals are still widely used, but the tragedy is that these kill ALL earthworms, not just those that make casts. A lawn without worms will need much more spiking and fertilising than one with, and will be far worse for wildlife in general. Anyway, it is no big deal to brush the wormcasts in onve dry or just give up and replace the cricket or bowling green lawn with articial grass and complete the madness.

Discouraging Unwanted Flies

Houseflies can be limited through good kitchen hygiens, while midges and mosquitos are most prevalent where water isstagnant. This tends to happen in open water butts, buckets and ponds where organic matter such as leaves has been allowed to accumulate

Coping with Slugs and Snails

Grow plants that snails and slugs avoid; many herbs and other aromatic plants are an ideal place to start. See which ones in
Pest Control using Plants from Companion Planting.

Place slug and snail hideaways (rock and log piles, compost heaps) away from vulnerable plants.

Seedlings are most at risk, so propagate them indoors (perhaps in greenhouse) and plant them out when well advanced.

Grow vulnerable vegetables in raised pots, and harvest potatoes early.

Use cloches made of plastic drinking bottles pushed into the soil around small plants.

They do not like anything that dries their mucus, so lay barriers of crushed eggshells, soot, sharp sand, bran, woodash and human hair. None are guaranteed to work, but all should have some effect.

Lure them with their favourite things, such as an upturned half grapefruits or wilting cabbage leaves, and then relocate them to places where are not a problem.

Use copper tape and sheets of matting impregnated with copper to give them a mini-electric shock.

Lay rows of guttering in the soil, with each side one and another across the top and the bottom filled with water. Put soil/compost in the inside guttering and grow shallow rooted salad vegetables. Neither snails nor slugs swim.

Colour Wheel - Plant Use and Flower Shape Gallery

Site Map

Dark Tone
or Shades (Colours mixed with Black) is the outer circle of colours.

Mid-Tone
(Colours mixed with Grey) is the next circle of colours.

Pure Hue
(the Primary, Secondary or Tertiary Colour named) is the next circle of colours.

Pastel
(Colours mixed with White) is the innermost circle of colours.

These 12 colour spokes of Dark Tone, Mid-Tone, Pure Hue and Pastel are split into:-

Plant Bloom
Dec-Jan
Feb-Mar

Plant Bloom
Apr-May
Jun-Aug

Plant Bloom
Sep-Oct
Nov-Dec

There are other pages on Plants which bloom in each month of the year in this website:-

• 12 Bloom Colours per Month Index
• Plants Blue, Orange, Red, Yellow, White, Other Colours which lead on to other pages
• Colour Wheel - All Flowers per Month 12

• Bedding
• Bulb
• Climber
• Deciduous Shrub
• Deciduous Tree
• Evergreen Perennial
• Evergreen Shrub
• Evergreen Tree
• Herbaceous Perennial
• Rhododendron
• Rock Garden and Alpine Flower Colour Wheel
  Rock Plant Flowers 53
• Rose
• Wild Flower