The Wildlife Gardening Co.

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The Wildlife Gardening Co. Eco-friendly, organic wildlife gardening service based in Sheffield.

Before this week I’d never seen a Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus). Now I’ve seen two. Today’s customer spotted this one ...
23/09/2026

Before this week I’d never seen a Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus). Now I’ve seen two.

Today’s customer spotted this one land in garden and it’s stuck around long enough for me to get a photo. I believe this is a female due to the cream spots on the dark upper wing margins.

Clouded Yellows migrate from North Africa and the numbers that arrive in the uk vary each year. It would seem this year is a good year for them. Their larval foodplants are Lucerne and various clover species inc. Bird’s-Foot Trefoil. At present our climate is usually too cold and wet for them to overwinter, however, that may change due to “you know what”.

We’ve been out cutting meadows a lot recently. It’s sometimes seems a shame to cut down what are attractive looking stan...
10/09/2026

We’ve been out cutting meadows a lot recently. It’s sometimes seems a shame to cut down what are attractive looking standing stems, but the long term diversity and health of the meadow will be benefitted by the extra light reaching the ground.

In fact you can see the benefits of an early cut in pic no 3. This section was cut in mid August and the germination rate is amazing. Many of those seedlings will go on to become small plants before the first frosts meaning they are more likely to survive. Compare that to pic 4 cut in early sept and there is hardly any germination due to the overshadowing of standing vegetation. This is why mosaicing your meadow is important. It allows seeds to germinate earlier whilst leaving vegetation and flowers for wildlife.

In the final pic you can see a section on the left that we’ve left standing plus mowed grass around the edge has been left since July. Both will provide refuge for wildlife such as the many frogs that use the meadow. There’s also a large haystack under the trees that will be brilliant overwintering ground.

It’s all a balancing act between increasing floral diversity, reducing fertility and providing habitat and food for wildlife.

A pond we installed a couple of years back. It’s struggled with the drought but now we’ve connected it up to the overflo...
08/09/2026

A pond we installed a couple of years back. It’s struggled with the drought but now we’ve connected it up to the overflow from the waterbutts and it’s staying a lot fuller. The plants are starting to fill in around the edges. Purple loosestrife is so resilient! 🐸

Male Common Blue Butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) on Ragwort. You can see how similar the underside is to the Brown Argus...
13/08/2026

Male Common Blue Butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) on Ragwort. You can see how similar the underside is to the Brown Argus in the fourth photo. The brown females of this species get missed up with BA quite frequently.

Despite their name, they’re not actually all that common in Sheffield. We need more Bird’s-foot Trefoil, something we’re working on proliferating one garden at a time!

Catterpillar foodplants according to Butterfly Conservation : “Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) is the main foodplant. Other plants used include Greater Bird’s-foot Trefoil (L. pedunculatus), Black Medick (Medicago lupulina), Common Restharrow (Ononis repens), White Clover (Trifolium repens), Lesser Trefoil (T. dubium).”

I wanted to show you a forest garden guild we’ve been slowly building. This is probably a 3.5m x 2m space and it’s cram...
29/07/2026

I wanted to show you a forest garden guild we’ve been slowly building. This is probably a 3.5m x 2m space and it’s crammed full of useful and edible perennials.

It has also been fairly resilient to the drought, with the soil being shaded by the plant growth and chop and drop method being used to mulch and retain moisture.

This way of growing maximises all the planes within a space featuring productive crops in groundcover, herbaceous layer, shrub layer, climbers and canopy (here the perennial kale trained as trees).

This method of growing encourages you to get in the thick of it and really interact with your plants, like foraging in your own garden. A forest garden guild can be implemented on any scale by adjusting the plants you use for each layer.

Including flowers means it’s also brilliant for wildlife and I’d recommend having a sacrificial kale for the caterpillars to feed on.

Monster mulleins about 2m tall! Lots of food for Mullein Moth Caterpillars (Cucullia verbasci) 🐛 their sole foodplant.Al...
15/07/2026

Monster mulleins about 2m tall! Lots of food for Mullein Moth Caterpillars (Cucullia verbasci) 🐛 their sole foodplant.

Also, a glowing ragwort for the Cinnabar Moth Caterpillars (Tyria jacobaeae) 🐛

Even some willow herb for the Elephant Hawk Moth Caterpillars (Deilephila elpenor) 🐛

Plus, yarrow, brambles, hogweed, burdock. All native plants that probably support native caterpillars as well as a plethora of other invertebrates.

The beginnings of a mini food forest. Looks a bit “messy” at the moment but that’s mainly the chop and drop Phacelia tha...
14/07/2026

The beginnings of a mini food forest. Looks a bit “messy” at the moment but that’s mainly the chop and drop Phacelia that has been feeding the pollinators until now. It’s now acting as a great mulch between the gooseberry and currant bushes. There’s a ground cover of wild strawberries, ajuga, an apple to be espaliered on the back wall, Taunton Dean Perennial kale to be trained into a tree shape (currently being enjoyed by cabbage white caterpillars 🐛). We’ve added annual flowers whilst things are growing — sunflowers, white scabious, snap dragons. Red valerian and dyer’s camomile for the pollinators. Bocking 14 comfrey as a mineral accumulator for more chop and drop. I’m sure we can squeeze more in. It’s all watched over by the lady at the back. The goddess Venus? She doesn’t talk much, hope she approves.

It’s been a good year for impromptu bathroom moth trapping. (Getting them out again is the difficult part)1. Swallow Tai...
13/07/2026

It’s been a good year for impromptu bathroom moth trapping. (Getting them out again is the difficult part)

1. Swallow Tailed (Ourapteryx sambucaria)
2. Common Emerald (Hemithea aestivaria)
3. Heart and Dart (Agrotis exclamationis)
4 Box-tree Moth knocking at the window. (Cydalima perspectalis)

Slow worm (Anguis fragilis), legless lizard, found next to a pond today. First one I’ve seen in all my years of gardeni...
14/04/2026

Slow worm (Anguis fragilis), legless lizard, found next to a pond today. First one I’ve seen in all my years of gardening. 🪱

They also like compost heaps where they’ll eat slugs, worms and other invertebrates.

Very happy!

Juniper Shield Bug (Cyphostethus tristriatus) on daffodil. 🌼 These bugs are known for feeding on native Juniper, hence t...
05/03/2026

Juniper Shield Bug (Cyphostethus tristriatus) on daffodil. 🌼 These bugs are known for feeding on native Juniper, hence the name, but are now also using Lawson’s Cypress (seen in the back ground of the third photo). You can tell them apart from the similar looking Hawthorn Shield bug by the black “X” on their wing membrane.

Photo 3 is a bed full of my fave garden things- apple tree, Pulmonaria, twigwam, bird box, primrose. Still room for more though!

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Sheffield

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Monday 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm
Friday 9am - 6pm

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