There’s something special about a garden that grows with you. A space that offers you a chance to get outside, connect with your family and connect with nature. The power of gardens is well documented, with their ability to bolster our mental and physical health, whilst supporting biodiversity being remarkable. Whether you’re starting from scratch or revamping your current garden here are some ideas for a new garden to elevate your space and boost your biodiversity.
This list isn’t about perfection or pristine borders. However, it is about understanding that your garden can be a unique and special place. But designing a garden isn’t the same as designing a room in your house, because a garden is subject to the natural world. Whether we decide to embrace that or not. So, these ideas for a new garden will help make your garden beautiful, low-maintenance, functional and great for wildlife.
Ideas to Boost Biodiversity in Your Garden
If you’re looking for ideas for your new garden, these simple and fun projects can help you to create a vibrant garden that is alive with wildlife.
Build a Bug Hotel Bench
Every thriving garden needs its pollinators, decomposers and a beetle pest patrol. So, one of our favourite projects is a bug hotel bench; part seat, part sanctuary. It’s so easy, just stack up logs with holes in, bamboo canes, sticks, pinecones and straw into a gabion basket. Then, top it with a chunky timber plank and you’ve got a place to sit and watch the garden you’re building from the ground up.
Add a Container Pond
Water adds a totally new dimension to your garden. However, if you don’t have room (or the appetite) for a full-blown pond, a container pond is a brilliant alternative. Use an old galvanized tub, a deep, watertight plant pot, or even a sink. Then, add a couple of native aquatic plants like water mint or marsh marigold, some taller plants for dragonflies and some stones or logs for access. Next, top up with water and let the magic happen. Before long, you’ll have frogs, hoverflies, dragonflies and all sorts coming in to visit.
Plant a Mini Wildflower Meadow
Strip back a patch of lawn or leave a weedy corner to go wild. Try and sow a mix of native wildflower seeds in spring or autumn oxeye daisies, red clover, cornflower and yarrow are all good choices. It might take a season to settle in, but when it does, you’ll have bees, butterflies and colour in abundance.
Create a Log Pile
Deadwood is living gold for beetles, fungi and solitary bees. So stack a few chunky logs in a shady corner and let them slowly rot down. It’s one of the easiest and most valuable things you can do for biodiversity in your new garden.
Grow a Sweet Pea Teepee
Perfect for little ones to hide in and snack from. Push bamboo canes or hazel rods into the ground in a circle, tie them at the top, and loop some string around them. Then sow or plant sweet peas, climbing beans or runner beans at the base. Then watch as it turns into a living den by midsummer and is alive with bees. You can cut the sweet peas to encourage more flowers, and if you choose to grow beans you can also eat them.
Plant a Wildlife-Friendly Hedge
Swap fences for hedges where you can. Why not try a mixed hedge; think hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, or dog rose creates shelter, nesting spots, berries and flowers across the year. It’s a living boundary full of texture and life.
Install a Nesting Box (or Three)
A simple bird box can make all the difference to our feathered friends. Pop them up in quiet spots, away from prevailing winds and direct sun. Different species like different shaped holes and heights from the ground, so vary your offering if you can.
Embrace the Mess
It’s tempting to tidy, but nature thrives in the untamed corners. So, let grass grow long at the base of hedges, leave seedheads for birds in winter, and resist the urge to rake everything up in autumn. Remember, the garden doesn’t need to be neat to be beautiful.
Make a Living Roof
If you have a shed, garden office or even just a cover for your bins, why not use the roof as planting space? This doesn’t have to be complicated. You can get kits from places like The Green Roof Company or make your own!
Plant for the Seasons
Try to keep something flowering or fruiting through as much of the year as possible. Snowdrops and hellebores in late winter, alliums and foxgloves in spring, and rudbeckia and sedum in autumn. The more flowers we can have in our garden across the seasons, the more we can support pollinators. If you’re looking for some ideas for a new garden and are not sure what is in flower when, where you live try visiting local gardens to see what they have flowering.
Add a Simple Compost Bin
Not glamorous, but so effective. Home composting turns kitchen scraps and garden cuttings into rich, dark soil. It’s also a brilliant habitat in itself full of worms, woodlice, and heat-loving beetles. It also helps to recycle the nutrients in your new garden and reduces the inputs you need. Even if you’re short on space, try a hot bin or even a worm farm.
Create a Mud Kitchen
If you’ve got young kids, a mud kitchen is an absolute winner. Just use some old crates or pallets, pots and pans, and get creative. This idea encourages play, creativity, and a bit of mess, which is what gardens are all about.
Grow a Living Wall
Short on space? Try a vertical garde, which can be a beautiful feature. You can use an old wooden pallet or a wall-mounted planter to grow herbs, strawberries or pollinator-friendly flowers. Also, the bees won’t mind the height and it’ll look great in your space. Remember that these can take a lot of watering, so make sure you can commit to that or install some irrigation.
Consider Lawn Alternatives
Moss, lawn chamomile, clover or even meadow flowers make a superb alternative to a lawn if you’re struggling to grow grass. Don’t feel like you have to have a lawn just because most other people do. So break the mould, be creative and make the most of your space with one of these alternatives.
Build a Hedgehog House
Even if you don’t have hedgehogs in your garden, installing a hedgehog house could help attract them. Why not try building your own for an extra special family project. They’re simple to make, and having these beautiful creatures share your space is simply wonderful.
Set Up a Wildlife Camera
Most gardens come alive at night, and we don’t ever get to see it! Whether it is Bats, Hedgehogs, Badgers, Deer or just the neighbour’s cat, it can be fascinating to see what goes on when the lights go down. Installing a wildlife camera can open a new window into your garden.
Install a Water Butt
Harvesting rainwater is great for the planet and your plants. Plants prefer rainwater to tap water because it’s full of nutrients. Plus, it’ll save you money on your water bill. If you’re not a fan, you could consider one of the swanky decorative water butts that look amazing.
Add a Bee Brick or Mason Bee House
Solitary bees need nesting spots too. So, a bee brick or a homemade mason bee house with holes drilled in untreated wood can give them a safe space to lay eggs. These can be a wonderful way of engaging your children with pollinators as they can see the little doors formed inside the holes to protect the eggs.
Plant a Herb Garden
If a barbecue area or pizza oven is on your ideas for a new garden list, why not impress your guests even more by growing your own herbs? Herb gardens needn’t be boring either. You could try including some edible flowers to make it pop and liven up your salads.
Ideas for a New Garden: How to Make it Grow
It’s all very well having lots of ideas for a new garden, but actually getting these to work in your space can be a challenge. My book Grow a New Garden is packed with simple design tips from a top UK garden designer and information on how your soil and garden work as an ecosystem. The idea is to make you into your own gardening expert and help you understand the processes in your garden, so you can enjoy your space even more. It doesn’t have to be a new garden either, the book is aimed at anyone wanting to revamp their space, whether it is old or new.
Ideas for a New Garden
At the end of the day, a biodiverse garden isn’t just good for wildlife, it’s good for people too. It becomes a space to gather, to learn, to rest, and to grow together. The bug hotel bench becomes a space for you to relax. The container pond becomes a place for curious eyes. The wildflowers are a place to watch butterflies and bumblebees. When you start to design with life in mind, something clicks. The garden becomes more than a list of jobs or a background to your day. It becomes a part of the family.
Start small. Don’t stress the mess. Try one new idea, then another. Before you know it, your garden will be buzzing, rustling, croaking and singing back at you. And that’s when you know you’ve got something special.
If you have any wonderful biodiversity-encouraging ideas for a new garden to add, put them in the comments below to help inspire others!
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