5 Tips For Planting Trees For Wildlife

When growing your own in your garden or on the allotment, it’s easy to forget about planting trees. Specimens that both fruit and flower can benefit people and wildlife and often don’t require much of your time to care for them. It’s worth the effort for the natural pest control that creatures such as birds and predatory insects provide. Here are some top tips for including these helpful plants on the plot.

1. Create your very own orchard. Just five widely spaced trees actually qualifies as an orchard under current habitat definitions. Planting species such as apple, plum, cherry, quince, walnut, cobnut, medlar and pear will not only supply you and your family with copious amounts of delicious fruit to eat, but they will also provide a valuable food source for wildlife, too.

2. Plant only things you enjoy and if you’re not sure which varieties you might like, consider going along to a local orchard open day. Ideally, fruiting trees should be placed in free-draining soil with a south or south-west facing position to ensure that they get plenty of sunlight as their blossom can be susceptible to wind blow.

3. The beautiful flowers of fruiting varieties will delight any gardener in the spring, and they also offer sources of nectar for butterflies and moths and pollen for our bees, as well as perching posts for birds.

4. In autumn the fruits and insects attracted to them will be eagerly consumed by birds, bats and other mammals, offering a vital food source in preparation for the cold months ahead. For these reasons it’s important to ensure they are easy to access by keeping some areas of the tree free from netting.

5. When harvesting tree crops, remember to leave some fruits on the ground and on the branches themselves for wildlife. Any excess fruit from heavy cropping varieties can be stored for eating later or preserved in compotes, jellies and jams or even used to create juices, ciders and liqueurs.

This post was written by Leonie Washington who is the wildlife site adviser for Suffolk Wildlife Trust. For more great tips on helping native creatures in the UK visit wildlifetrusts.org

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