crystal palace wildlife garden
A garden centred around wildlife with a broad selection of food plants for invertebrates, habitat creation and pollinator friendly planting without compromising on aes. The focus was also on creating a beautiful, natural aesthetic with year-round flowers that mimicked a woodland glade, with native wildflowers, log piles, ephemeral ponds and native hedgerow plants. These relate to the Great North Wood which once covered this area of London, with large fragments still located close to the garden. The garden hosts hummingbird hawkmoths on the centranthus, rare lunar moths, peacock butterfly larvae, multiple bee species, greater spotted woodpeckers and many garden birds in the mature crab apple, alongside a friendly fox! Wildflower species focus on caterpillar food plants including ragwort (tiger and cinnabar moth), toadflax (toadflax brocade moth), alder buckthorn (brimstone and holly blue butterfly), galium aparine (hummingbird hawkmoth), guilder rose (privet hawkmoth), lesser stitchwort (small yellow underwing moth) and garlic mustard (orange-tip butterfly). The garden used recycled materials from neighbours, including Victorian bricks from building work and logs & wood chip from a local tree surgeon.