At times, it feels completely overwhelming, doesn’t it? When I was researching this piece and looking through the statistics, there was more than just alarm bells ringing in my brain. There was also outrage, guilt and a whopping great sickening dollop of shame. By the way, if you’re looking to validate these statistics above, I’ve linked to the reports at the end. 

They all make for stark and bitter reading! But they beg the question, how do we combat such loss? The loss of habitat across UK and beyond? One of the most widely-publicised statistics is that in the last 90 years we have lost 97% of British wildflower meadows. At the top level, it's the Government and Industry and they’ll be at loggerheads for decades, but one feels they will always wriggle out of any commitments! Just call me cynical. Even with a groundswell of voters and legions of customers demanding change, it’s like trying to turn an oil tanker at full speed. It will take time, but time is in desperately short supply.

Iconic habitats like the meadows are not the only losses. Home and property owners have played their part too. Looking closer to home, according to the RHS 2015 Greening Grey Britain Report, over five million front gardens had no plants growing in them. Over 7 million were nearly totally paved over.

I’m dumbfounded by this. I remember as a kid, our local streets were lined with row upon row of modest front gardens. Some, just a lawn with a massive pampas grass (like ours) or a mophead hydrangea. Many with regimented tiny borders of bedding, but rich with blooms. Carefully tended little lawns. So many roses! And yes, the odd gnome or two. 

Over the last 20 years they have all vanished. Replaced by brick pavers and tarmac to park our cars. It represents a dramatic loss in potential ‘nature’ real estate, not to mention creating even more hard landscaping where rainwater flows off into an already overwhelmed drainage system. Maybe a discussion for another time.

More positive steps

Plant more spring bulbs to provide energy for those early emerging bumblebees and solitary bees. Snowdrops, crocus, winter aconites, and iris reticulata are among the earliest. Also look at hellebores, viola, winter-flowering honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima), mahonia, and Viburnum tinus for winter flowers. Forget the bedding plants! Pansies, begonias, and busy lizzies are poor resources for pollinators, bringing little benefit. There are better options!

Add more variety and diversity to your garden with flowering (blossom) trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals that flower in succession throughout the entire year. Keep deadheading those herbaceous plants to keep them flowering for longer.

If you do have the space, plant flowers of the same type together in clumps, swathes, ribbons, whatever your design aesthetics are. Just like tree blossom, packing in the same flowers will help winged-pollinators save energy moving from flower to flower more efficiently.

If outside space is at a premium or you’re renting, you can fill window boxes, hanging baskets, pots and planters with a range of plants, whether you’re on the ground floor or the top. Don’t forget those vertical spaces for flowering climbers. Planting flowering mediterranean herbs like rosemary and thyme in pots will serve two roles, one for the pollinators and one for the kitchen. They’ll also cope with drier conditions too. Dwarf fruit trees and fruit bushes are equally at home in pots or trained against walls, especially if you have plenty of sunshine.

Relinquish areas of your lawn (however begrudgingly) and give them over to flowering borders or wilder swathes of grass. Remember, it doesn’t have to be native grasses and wildflowers, although that is truly wonderful if you can. You can plant all manner of wondrous bloomers in your lawn! (Now chuckling at the thought of ‘wondrous bloomers’ on the lawn)

Provide cover for overwintering pollinators by leaving twiggy woodpiles and plant stems or piles of autumnal leaves swept into a corner. Old tree stumps, ivy-clad walls, a patch of unmown grass, and plants left standing all winter (not being cleared in autumn) are all incredibly valuable for all manor of insects and invertebrates.

Stop routinely digging your garden soil. Many of our bees need undisturbed soil for their underground nest chambers or winter hibernation burrows. By digging over soil in the autumn or spring, you risk killing hibernating Queen bees or even disturbing nests of active bees, such as the Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris)⁶.

For goodness sake, for the love of all that you cherish, take all the poisons and chemicals from your shed or garage and dispose of them. Safely. You do not need them. The widespread and indiscriminate use of pesticides and herbicides are a massive issue. Besides, the garden will find a natural balance without us interfering and fussing. Please trust me and every other organic gardener and grower.