by Elizabeth Shaheen
Every little bit helps when gardening in tune with nature. Ever more homes have a concrete or a brick floor for family cars, rather than a front garden.
Many home-owners turn their back gardens into a patio, all of which means that vital refuges for wildlife are fast disappearing.
In England, many public parks (such as London’s Hyde Park, Regents Park, Green Park and St James’s Park) in the past, was enough to give the entire area a pristine look and make walking for visitors easier.
Now, it does my heart good to see dotted across the parks, year-round shelters for wildlife, which have been created by long-swaying grasses.
They not only look attractive and inviting to the human visitor, but they are critical for drawing wildlife to them.
Here in Bahrain, we generally think of wildlife as being such creatures as the mongooses, doves, pigeons, bulbuls, larks, shrikes, sparrows and, our naughty Koi-karp-hunters, the herons and flamingos.
It is such a pleasurable occupation watching the mongoose dig up our lawn.
I rest in the knowledge that he is after a chafer grub or another type of reprobate that, given the chance, will destroy the lawn. And, although we feed the birds each evening, without the invertebrates they would not be able to feed their young.
Slugs and snails may be the proud gardener’s enemy, but they are a vital part of the food chain.
Gardens without a plentiful supply of insects, gastropods or other invertebrates, which are part of the lower orders of life, would cause the creatures that give us most joy in the garden (those towards the top of the food chain) not to give them a second glance.
It is therefore fundamental for the natural gardener to care for such tiny, vulnerable creatures.
Where space permits, and if you have a lawn, an idea would be to emulate, but on a much smaller scale, the parks of London.
Rather than mowing your lawn within one inch of its weekly growth (or twice weekly in summer), how about growing long wands of swaying grasses within it, finishing off the look with neatly-mown straight or sweeping paths.
Such a wildlife invitation can take on a most picturesque-look.
This is especially so when planted with various bulb species, such as Crinums, Zephyranthes or the spring flowering Narcissus tazetta, all of which are available from a few of Bahrain’s garden nurseries.
We, some years ago had several lawn areas. Now my plan is to do to our only remaining small lawn as I have just suggested.
It has in any event shrunk, for in January I made a border under the ‘frangipani’ (Plumeria obtusa). The lawn slopes away from one side of the front of the house.
On the opposite side is a raised bed, which was topped with lawn but is now a mixture of small-growing shrubs, climbers, grasses, perennials and in spring and summer, some annuals.
Another was a lawn bank, which sloped down to meet the shrub border that surrounds our English garden.
It has long been a bank of milk-white Zephyranthes candida, which looks stunning when in bloom and when not, the erect, grassy leaves give it a grass-bank look.
I have packets of various species of wildflower seeds, which I shall try – but I’m not promising that I shall succeed.
One is a prominent sight in spring meadows and hedgerows in England and that’s the endearing ‘cowslip’ (Primula veris).
This plant of unfussy beauty, with perfumed, lemon-yellow, pendulous flowers is alleged – according to the instructions – to be easy to grow and enjoys either sun or shade.
Now I’m truly trying to push the boat out with ‘Edelweiss’ (Leontopodium alpinum). Its natural habitat is the inaccessible nooks and crannies up in the Alps, but as the instructions are to sow in March to May, I think I might just get away with it by sowing in November.
It is truly amazing the ability plants possess to adapt to new environments. Our soil should suit it, as it prefers a sharply drained, neutral or alkaline soil in sun.
Set above the lovely, silvery foliage are distinctive, four-inch, blooms that mimic miniature starfish wearing snow-white, woolly coats.
It grows to just eight inches high.
Let’s hope ‘purple loosestrife’ (Lythrum salicaria) doesn’t give me any strife. I could just do with this stately plant with its tapering spikes of purple-red flowers that tower above its dark willow-like foliage.
Medicinally the entire plant provides for an excellent gargle and wound cleaner. It also quickly stops bleeding.
Imagine in front of it the beaming suns produced by the ‘corn marigold’ (Chrysanthemum segetum). This plant is designed to attract beneficial insects and yet, once a common sight across the British Isles, it is only seen occasionally these days and that too only on wasteland.
To perfume the garden with a whiff of honey, then the candidate is, ‘lady’s bedstraw’ (Galium verum). Tiny yellow flowers smother the plant and although it is a rather straggly, creeping plant, it will suit my plan down to the ground as it tolerates dry conditions and enjoys any good garden soil in full sun. It should bestow a perfect den for creatures from which to play hide-and-seek.
Finally, but I hope by no means least, I have a spare packet of mixed Californian wildflowers which includes, Oenothera missourensis, Layia platyglossa, Gilia capitata, nemophila insignis, Eschscholzia, Clarkia elegans and Phacelia campanularia, which all look very promising.
Not only will these flowers dish up nectar and pollen, the long grass will afford a safe haven for our garden frogs, lizards, small mammals and birds. I can just see our oh-so-shy garden quail darting in and out of the grasses on the hunt for juicy morsels. Now I can’t wait to get started.