Vegetable Garden

12 Beneficial Creatures We Want To See In Our Gardens

April 22, 2014

Gardening for Beginners

When we began growing our own food in the Greenside Up garden, one of the early problems we encountered happened when we were trying to identify the ‘good’ wildlife from the ‘bad’. This was before the days of Google and we had no idea whether we were looking at friends or foe scampering across the plants and soil. It’s much easier to check today, but to help you encourage beneficial insects and other creatures into your garden, I’ve compiled a list of a dozen that might help you to ditch the chemicals for good and garden more sustainably.

List of 12 Friendly Creatures in Our Gardens

Ten facts about earthworms1. Worms

The hardworking invertebrate of the soil, worms are one of our number one friends. A lack of worms indicates a poor soil but adding lots of home-made compost or well-rotted organic matter will soon encourage them back. Here’s ten facts about earthworms you may not know. I was particularly surprised to learn that light paralyses them.

photo credit: bleu.geo via photopin cc

photo credit: bleu.geo via photopin cc

 

2. Solitary Wasps

Not all wasps are bad guys intent on stinging us. Solitary wasps tunnel out nests in rotten wood and sandy soil. They fill their nests with aphids, flies, weevils or other insects to feed their young.

 

photo credit: Derek.P. via photopin cc

Song Thrush: photo credit: Derek.P. via photopin cc

3. Birds

Song Thrushes like to eat slugs and snails and Blue Tits eat caterpillars. Buying bird feed that specifically encourages these species into your gardens will help to keep a check on the pests activities.

 

 

photo credit: Dluogs via photopin cc

photo credit: Dluogs via photopin cc

 

4. Beetles

Carabid Beetles (or ground beetles) live mainly on the soil surface and are mostly black, brown or metallic green. The larvae prey on many insects, including slugs and pest eggs. If you’re laying beer traps to attract slugs and snails, always make sure the traps are positioned just above the soil line so that the beetles don’t accidentally fall in.

The majestic Devil’s Coach Horse Beetles are often found under stones, logs or pots. They eat slugs, cutworms and leatherjackets among other things.

photo credit: sankax via photopin cc

photo credit: sankax via photopin cc

5. Wolf spiders

Have you ever spotted spiders scampering around as you weed? I’m slightly nervous of spiders but always leave these guys alone as they eat many insects.

 

 

photo credit: Gilles San Martin via photopin cc

photo credit: Gilles San Martin via photopin cc

6. Ladybirds

Newcomers to gardening may be forgiven for thinking that ladybird larva look like something that will cause damage. If you do kill them, you’re ridding yourself of an
insect that can eat between 200-400 aphids before it pupates into the more familiar ladybird we’re accustomed to.

 

 

7. Hoverflies

photo credit: mausboam via photopin cc

photo credit: mausboam via photopin cc

Only the larvae of hoverfly eat aphids but planting flowers such as limnanthes (poached egg flower) or any other yellow or white flowers that happen to be particularly attractive to them, will encourage hoverflies into your gardens and help to keep the aphid population down.

I know I’ve mistaken these for caterpillars in the past, a pest we don’t want on our veggies, so do look closely before you automatically rid your plants of all insects.

 

photo credit: nutmeg66 via photopin cc

photo credit: nutmeg66 via photopin cc

8. Lacewings

Again, ferocious eaters of aphids, the delicate lacewings can be attracted into your garden by careful  planting. The female lacewings can lay up to 400 eggs. As they hatch and the larvae grow they can eat up to 600 aphids before they become adults, about a month later.

If you have an aphid infestation, try spraying a plant or two with a sugar-water solution (1 tablespoon sugar per 200ml water) which may help to attract lacewings.

Garden centres often sell lacewing attracting pheromones and bug houses too.

photo credit: Mick E. Talbot via photopin cc

photo credit: Mick E. Talbot via photopin cc

9. Centipedes

I often have to check twice whether centipedes are friend are foe as they don’t look especially appealing! However, if you do spot them in your garden, leave them be.

Centipedes live in the surface of the soil and shelter in pots, logs and under stones. They prey on several different small soil animals as well as their eggs.

 

Beneficial Bee10. Bees

Hopefully by now everyone is aware just how beneficial bees are to our very existence. It’s been said that if the bees die out, the human population will only survive for another four years. Here’s a post I wrote recently that suggests five ways we can help bees survive. Number six on the list would be to become a beekeeper, a hobby many are taking up to protect and help them.

 

Permission: British Hedgehog Preservation Society

Permission: British Hedgehog Preservation Society

11. Hedgehogs

One of the most viewed posts on this blog is about getting rid of slugs organically. Hedgehogs love to eat slugs so if you can find a way of encouraging them into your garden you’re on to a winner. They do however, like to eat worms so perhaps encourage them away from your compost heap!

 

froggy12. Frogs and Toads

Adding a pond has been on our list of garden improvements for a long time and hopefully we might manage it this year because frogs and toads just love to eat slugs and snails. Whether you have the space for a pond or just a small water feature, by it into your garden you are likely to attract more beneficial wildlife into your garden.

Stop using chemicals

If you’ve used chemicals of any description in your garden in the past, it may take a while for the natural balance to restore itself. However, by planting a broad range of insect attracting flowers, native hedgerows, adding organic matter on a regular basis or leaving out specific feeds to attract different creatures, you’ll begin to encourage all the beneficial creatures to return to your garden, helping to keep the bad guys at bay.

There are many other gardeners friends, from bats and ducks to parasitic wasps, did any in the list above surprise you? You might not like the idea of sharing the outdoors with a few of these but it’s unlikely you’ll come across too many of them as most are tiny and they like to keep themselves to themselves. Have you come across any creatures that could be added to the list? I’d love to hear about them.

 

19 Comments

  • Reply Susan April 22, 2014 at 10:07 pm

    Love them! Very welcome in our garden ☺

    • Reply greensideupveg April 22, 2014 at 10:30 pm

      That’s great to hear Susan, a wildlife haven!

  • Reply michael n downey April 22, 2014 at 10:09 pm

    Brilliant ! and not at all preachy (if you know what I mean)

    • Reply greensideupveg April 22, 2014 at 10:31 pm

      Thanks so much Michael, that made me smile. 🙂 glad you enjoyed it.

  • Reply Naomi April 23, 2014 at 10:58 am

    Great list! I think I will send the kids out into the garden to see how many they can find…. that should pass a happy hour 😉 We love the obvious pollinators such as bees and butterflies too… and we are very excited to see our house martins have returned! That should keep the pesky midge population down a bit!

    • Reply greensideupveg April 23, 2014 at 5:50 pm

      Yes! Anything to keep the midges down is welcome here too. 🙂

  • Reply Lorna April 23, 2014 at 5:37 pm

    I’ve loved all spiders since I read Charlotte’s Web as a child – drives me mad that my daughter is scared of them!
    Have never spotted a hedgehog here.

    • Reply greensideupveg April 23, 2014 at 5:53 pm

      We had a one eyed hedgehog here for a while but he went and have never seen another dead or alive close by since. Ian and one of our daughters love spiders, our youngest is terrified, though I’ve always tried to hide my fear from them – almost succeeded too as eldest only discovered my fear last year.

  • Reply Grower April 23, 2014 at 6:27 pm

    If only I could attract hedgehogs 😉 The others are all welcome and I’ve seen most of them in the garden at one time or other. Yesterday it seemed every bit of straw I moved had a toad hopping out of it.

    • Reply greensideupveg April 23, 2014 at 9:45 pm

      Yes, I know exactly what you mean though great you have toads and all the others so you must be doing lots right 🙂

  • Reply 12 garden pests we don't want to see among our veggies April 30, 2014 at 3:48 pm

    […] step is identifying the good guys from the bad, something covered a couple of weeks ago with the 12 Friends We Want to See in Our Gardens blog […]

  • Reply Amanda Webb May 1, 2014 at 12:42 am

    Reading your post I was struck with both horror at the picture of the spider (I’m actually fine with them outside!) and the cuteness of the hedgehog. It would be lovely to see more wildlife in the garden and it’s good to know they are doing important work.

    • Reply greensideupveg May 2, 2014 at 9:29 am

      The wildlife will do most of the work if we can encourage enough in and by planting lots of colourful flowers and protective hedging, our gardens look pretty too. Sorry about the spider, I deliberately made it a thumbnail!

  • Reply Choosing vegetable seeds - how and what do I buy?Greenside Up December 29, 2014 at 5:42 pm

    […] here’s a couple of posts that will point you in the right direction. The first one here on recognising the good guys, the second on recognising the bugs you don’t want to see hanging out in your vegetable […]

  • Reply 3 Reasons Why We Need to Build More Bug HotelsGreenside Up July 19, 2015 at 9:16 pm

    […] When you build a bug hotel it’s difficult not to learn about the habitats of the beneficial creatures you’re hoping to attract. Ladybirds like dry sticks and leaves to hibernate in while lacewings enjoy bedding down among straw, cardboard and dry grass. These two insects in particular are excellent for keeping aphids at bay as their larvae have ferocious appetites for the little bugs, making them fantastic beneficial insects in our gardens. […]

  • Reply Simple Ways of Gardening Safely October 3, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    […] that there will be a whole host of creatures which call your garden their home. It all depends on what part of the world you live in when it […]

  • Reply Pat Smallwood April 22, 2021 at 8:25 pm

    So want a hedgehog flat worms are our new pest put down a bit of plastic on your grass or soil leave it for a day or two then have a look you will see a slime spiral if you have them in your garden salt water in a jar will end them Happy hunting regards Pat

  • Reply 10 Beneficial Animals to Welcome into Your Garden – The Veggie Vertex June 6, 2021 at 2:47 pm

    […] Sewall, Dee. “12 Beneficial Creatures We Want to See in Our Gardens.” Greenside Up. Published 22 April 2014. Accessed 27 May 2021. https://greensideup.ie/12-beneficial-creatures-garden/. […]

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