The case for plants that look after themselves

Wildlife gardening has a reputation for being hard work, all nettle patches and endless watering. In truth, the richest gardens are often the least fussed over. Choose tough, long-lived plants that flower generously and set seed freely, and you can feed bees, butterflies, hoverflies and birds while barely lifting a trowel.

The trick is to think in terms of three jobs: nectar from late winter to the first hard frost, seeds and berries through autumn and winter, and dense cover for nesting and hibernation. Get those right and the garden looks after itself. Match every plant to the spot you have — dry shade, heavy clay, a windy coastal corner — because a plant in the right place needs no mollycoddling. A plant in the wrong place needs constant attention and still looks miserable.

Hardy shrubs: the backbone of the garden

Shrubs give the most return for the least effort. Plant them once, water them through their first summer, and they will reward you for twenty years or more.

• Ivy (Hedera helix) — arguably the single best wildlife plant in Britain. Late nectar for bees and hoverflies, berries for thrushes in spring, and dense evergreen cover for roosting and hibernating. Let it clothe a fence or a shaded wall and cut it back only if it heads for the guttering.
• Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) — May blossom for insects, haws for winter birds and thorny cover for nesting. Grows happily as a hedge cut once a year in late winter.
• Buddleja davidii — the butterfly bush earns its name, and it will grow almost anywhere, including dry gravel. Cut it hard in March to keep it flowering low and long.
• Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) — a small tree rather than a shrub, but ideal for a modest plot: spring blossom, autumn berries and glorious leaf colour.
• Mahonia aquifolium and Viburnum tinus — both flower in the depths of winter, when early bees are desperate for a meal.
• Lavender and rosemary — for a hot, sunny, well-drained spot, they are unbeatable for bees and need nothing more than an annual trim after flowering.

Long-flowering perennials for months of nectar

The best perennials are the ones that keep going without staking, splitting or pampering. These are the workhorses.

• Verbena bonariensis — airy purple heads from July to October, loved by butterflies, and it self-seeds politely around the garden. Leave the stems standing over winter.
• Salvia nemorosa — weeks of deep blue flowers if you shear off the first flush, and completely happy in ordinary soil.
• Hardy geraniums, such as Geranium rozanne and Geranium macrorrhizum, flower for months, smother weeds and tolerate dry shade.
• Echinacea, rudbeckia and helenium — daisy flowers for late bees, then seedheads that goldfinches will strip through the winter.
• Sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile) — flat pink heads in September and October, exactly when butterflies and late bees need them most.
• Oregano and marjoram — a long, generous flowering season and a kitchen herb into the bargain.
• Pulmonaria — early nectar in shade, with spotted leaves that look good all season.

Self-seeding annuals: free plants, free nectar

Some of the best wildlife plants are the ones that sow themselves. Scatter seed once onto bare soil, resist the urge to mulch too deeply, and you will have them for good.

• Foxgloves — biennial, but they seed so reliably that you will never be without them. Bees disappear up the tubes in early summer.
• Common poppy, cornflower and corn marigold — a pinch of each in a sunny border gives a June feast for insects and seed for finches.
• Nigella, borage and calendula — quick, cheap, long-flowering and thoroughly bee-friendly.

Leave the seedheads standing until early spring, then shake them where you want next year's display before pulling the stems.

Ground cover, seedheads and winter structure

Weeds are the real labour in any garden, so let plants do the suppressing. Alchemilla mollis, bugle (Ajuga reptans), wild strawberry and creeping thyme will knit together in a season and keep the soil covered. In paving cracks, thyme and selfheal ask for nothing at all.

Then break the tidying habit. Standing stems, hollowed seedheads and fallen leaves are not mess — they are habitat. A small log pile in a shady corner, a patch of longer grass and a shallow dish of water will do more for wildlife than any amount of pruning.

Plant it once, then step back

Autumn is the ideal planting time: warm soil, reliable rain, and roots that settle in before winter. Water new plants through their first summer, mulch once with garden compost, and after that leave them be. Group plants in generous drifts rather than ones and twos — insects find them more easily and the border looks better for it.

Favour single flowers over doubles, which often hold little or no nectar. Avoid bedding annuals that need replacing each year. Cut perennials back in late winter or early spring rather than autumn, and deadhead only enough to keep the flowers coming — a few seedheads left standing will feed the birds.

Do those few things and you will end up with a garden that is generous, lively and genuinely low-maintenance. The plants do the work; you just get to enjoy the result.