Case study Wildlife Gardening Team Wilder, Tom Willmott, BS3

Tom Willmott and his family in Bedminster have turned their urban garden into a wildlife haven, by making easy and effective changes. Their garden design was motivated by:

• a safe family space; fun and practical for their young children
• productivity; plenty of growing space for food and plants
• to attract wildlife
• be as sustainable as possible
• easy to manage, meaning less time spent on weeding and more time to enjoy being outdoors.

Their wildlife garden is full of beauty, colour, inspiration and practicality. Tom spoke during the Team Wilder Introduction talk about his garden projects.

See Tom's Instagram wild_garden_revival
for more pictures and detail about his amazing BS3 wildlife garden. 

TIP: You don't need masses of space to incorporate wildlife gardening.

After making a mini pond out of an old sink during lockdown, they upgraded to a larger pond. They cleverly added an old apple tree branch over the pond, which is used as a perch by dragonflies. 

Tom and his family see dragonflies, water boatman, pond snails and pond beetles, as well as the wildlife that comes along for a drink and snack. He has planted in watercress, water mint, bog plants and more. 

TIP: Grow Wilder has a wildflower nursery with plenty of pond and blog plants for sale and also growing on display around the site.

HOW TO: Create and maintain a pond with local pictures  

The green roof is located near their pond, giving a lovely backdrop. Green roofs provide more habitat opportunity to attract wildlife especially in urban environments, in small or large roof spaces. 

TIP: Remember that the soil should not be fertile to grow wildflowers.

Tom wanted to have a low maintenance forest garden, with berries, fruit and veg ready to pick for his family and visiting wildlife. He saw his front garden as an opportunity to grow edible plants that compliment each other and designed the area to be a 'mini food forest'. This recreates the system provided by a woodland or forest: fruit trees as canopy, shrubs as sub-canopy layer, ground plants such as mint and wild strawberries as a crawling base layer. Tom has also added mulch, where he is growing mushrooms. This system is self-sustaining, so it is minimum maintenance once established.

Through trial and error, research and advice from Grow Wilder, he has grown the following plants:

• Quince (similar to apple), crab apples, common medlar, mushrooms, juneberries, mulberries, mint and wild strawberries.
• In the back garden, he has also grown (with the help of his family): tomatoes, potatoes, raspberries and much more!

TIP: Grow what you will enjoy to eat. These fruits/berries can be picked and eaten at any time (not one mass harvest). 

HOW TO: Grow a wildlife friendly vegetable garden

To attract birds to their garden, Tom has installed a few birdboxes, including a swift box high up out of reach of neighbourhood cats. Spikey hedges, such as pyracantha, has also been incorporated into their design to add more cover for their feathered friends.

ADVICE: Incorporate as much cover as possible. Pyracantha are great for nesting and food supplies.

It's ok to have a cat and still encourage birds! Just keep the bird boxes high up. Try to view the garden from a birds point of view in terms of safe places to hide before getting food or water. Bird boxes are also more likely to have inhabitants if near a covered area. Tom also added spikey bush trimmings around the base of the food containers to discourage cats as well. They will always be there, so don’t let cats be a reason not to introduce wildlife to your garden or outdoor space.

HOW TO: Feed birds  Build a nesting bird box

Tom has created a hole in his fence to give hedgehogs more freedom to move between gardens. Hedges allow hedgehogs to move freely but fences area barrier to wildlife. If neighbours with fences all have hedgehog holes in their fences, a hedgehog highway is created. Tom and many other homes in Bristol BS3 are part of the Hedgehog Street map.

HOW TO: Create a hedgehog hole