The basic premise: adapt your planting to your conditions. Hostas are never going to flourish on a typical garrigue terrace and lavenders will die of misery in boggy ground. Local native plants are always the best bet as they are adapted to the conditions and won’t struggle. However here I’ll diverge from the strict organic viewpoint and say that although indigenous plants will of course find your conditions ideal, as a Mediterranean gardener you’re not restricted to these. Any plant from a Mediterranean-climate area will flourish in your garden too, if it requires the same conditions as the indigenous flora. And you’re not limited to wild species. Many native flowers (scabious, verbascum, oxalis, poppy, erigeron) have cultivated siblings which you can bring into the garden. Aim for a succession of useful plants throughout the year. There are many helpful books on Mediterranean plants. You can find a list of MGF-recommended books here.

To get a variety of wildlife, you need to provide a variety of habitats. Starting from the top, think about trees.

Tall trees: if you’re lucky enough to have one or more really big trees in your garden, these will be whole ecosystems in themselves. And here we’re lucky: many houses in Mediterranean areas have a venerable tree planted on the south side of the house to provide shade in the summer. A big tree also provides shelter and food for a huge number of micro-organisms: insects, butterflies, cicadas, fungi, lichen, birds and even bats. Oak trees lead the field in this respect, providing shelter to an average of 300 different species, closely followed by silver birches with 225 and poplars with 100. A lime tree in flower will be covered with bees and butterflies in summer (and will provide you with the traditional tisane de tilleul). A large tree may provide nesting sites for woodpeckers or, if you’re very lucky, hoopoes or golden orioles.

Medium sized trees and large shrubs provide different ecological niches: roosting and nesting sites for birds, flowers which attract bees and other insects, nuts and berries in the autumn. If you’re thinking of planting a hedge, forget monoculture and plant a hedge of different indigenous species. Use evergreen and deciduous species together for year-round interest and don’t forget autumn-flowering trees and shrubs such as loquat, Arbutus unedo, Viburnum tinus and elaeagnus, all of which are a magnet for bees. You can expect to see (and hear) robins, nightingales, blue-tits, great-tits, chaffinches, goldfinches, blackcaps, garden warblers and even passing migrants such as hawfinches, bramblings and pied flycatchers. Find out more about Mediterranean garden birds.

Small shrubs will provide nectar and pollen for insects and food and cover for small mammals and lizards. Here Mediterranean gardeners are spoiled for choice, since a wide variety of aromatics grow and flower happily in our demanding conditions, all beloved of bees and other nectar-loving insects. Among the most useful wildlife plants: pyracantha with its red or orange berries, hawthorn, and especially ivy, which provides shelter for moths, nectar for bees and then autumn berries for birds at a time when there’s little food about.

Native wildflowers are essential to a wildlife garden, providing nectar for insects and butterflies, seeds for birds, shelter for a variety of small and large insect life and food for caterpillars. Many butterflies lay their eggs on nettles (Red Admirals, Small and Large Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Painted Ladies and Commas). Silver-washed Fritillaries prefer violets. Find out more about Mediterranean butterflies and moths here and insects here.

Look round and see what flourishes on your land already and leave some patches of grass and wildflowers to grow unhindered. Some, such as field scabious or verbascum, are worthy of being garden plants and can be left if they seed into your borders. However, never dig up anything in the wild: take seed if you want to introduce wildflowers into your garden.

And of course there are many cultivated plants that attract butterflies and bees. Try to arrange year-round flowering. Start with early-flowering crocuses and snowdrops in the early spring. Early summer presents no problem as the gardener is spoiled for choice. But in Mediterranean areas, midsummer presents the biggest challenge, as so many plants stop flowering at the height of the heat and drought. Here lavenders and salvias are invaluable, along with sunflowers, gaillardias, winter savory, hyssop and Verbena bonariensis. As autumn approaches, alyssum will still be flowering, while in winter, Clematis cirrhosa and Iris unguicularis will flower through the winter till spring comes again.

Suggestions for wildlife planting in all the categories mentioned above can be found here. For other ways to help wildlife, click here.

Text: Michèle Bailey
Photos: Michèle Bailey & Ian Davis

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