How to create a container garden for wildlife

How to create a container garden for wildlife

Pots and containers are a great way of introducing wildlife features onto patios, or outside the front door. They are also perfect for small gardens or spaces like window ledges or roofs. Herbs, in particular, make good container plants and attract lots of wildlife.

Pots and containers are a great way of introducing wildlife features into more formal areas of the garden like the patio, or outside the front door. They are also perfect for small gardens or spaces like window ledges or roofs. Herbs, in particular, make good container plants and attract lots of wildlife, as well as being useful in the kitchen.

There are many ingenious planting schemes that can be tried: sow your own mini wildflower meadow in a windowbox; line a pot with plastic to make a potted pond; or use walls to create vertical herb displays. 

Use a quirky container

You can use anything you like for planting. Try an old watering can, chimney pot, kettle or teapot, holey boots, metal pails and buckets, bird or other pet cage, paint tins, catering tins, pans and colanders, veg racks... the sky’s the limit! 

    Upcycle something into a plant pot

    Runner beans growing in a old tyre

    Runner beans growing in a old tyre ©Eden Jackson

    You can use anything you like for planting! How about...

    • Watering cans
    • Chimney pots
    • Old kettles
    • Holey boots
    • Metal pails and buckets
    • Paint tins
    • Pans and colanders
    • Old sinks - or even bathtubs!

    Make a hanging basket

    vertical garden wildlife trust

    Cath Hare

    1. Rest the basket or container on a bucket or large pot for stability.
    2. Line with an old woolly jumper (not a moss liner) cut to size, or choose a solid basket.
    3. Plant using peat-free compost. Put in a tall, central plant (such as scabious, lavender, sage), followed by smaller plants around it, and trailing plants through the sides.
    4. Continue building up plants and compost until about 5 cm from the top.
    5. Feed once a week and water frequently in summer.

     

    What to plant in your hanging basket:

    Cool blues: Aubrieta, Lobelia, Wild Pansy, Nepeta
    Hot reds: Marigolds, Fuchsia
    Neutral whites: Sweet Alyssum, Erigeron, Ox-eye Daisy
    Tall central plant: Knapweed, Scabious, Lavender, Snapdragon, Pot Marigold
    Herb smellies/eatables: Verbena, Patio Tomatoes, Chives, Thyme, Rosemary, Parsley, Sage, Patio Strawberry, Dwarf Lavender
    Trailers: Ivy, Nasturtium, Honeysuckle, Sweet Pea, Lobelia ’Pendula’ 

    Make a meadow pot

    Long hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta) on cornflower at Bonhurst Farm, Surrey Wildlife Trust

    Long hoverfly on cornflower by James Adler

    1. If needed, make drainage holes in your container, drill 0.5-1cm diameter holes into the bottom of the pot about 15cm apart.
    2. Cover with rocks.
    3. Half fill with peat-free compost.
    4. Start planting! How about:
      Cool blues: cornflower, wild pansy
      Hot reds: poppy, corncockle, pheasant’s eye
      Soft yellows: corn marigold, corn buttercup 
    5. Continue building up plants and compost until about 5cm from the top.
    6. Feed once a week and water frequently in summer.
    7. Sow each year.
    container pond

    Edda Dupree - Shutterstock

    Make a container pond

    How to create a mini pond