Creating Wildlife Habitat in a Small Orchard

Start With the Fruit You Leave Behind

A small orchard is one of the most generous habitats you can create on a modest plot. Three or four old apple trees, a strip of rough grass and a hedge behind them will support more species than an acre of close-mown lawn, and much of the work is simply deciding what not to do. Fallen fruit is the obvious starting point. A share of your windfalls will feed red admirals and commas at the end of summer, then wasps, hornets and small mammals, and finally fieldfares, redwings and blackbirds as the weather turns. Badgers and hedgehogs will clear up whatever is left.

There is a balance to strike. Fruit left touching a trunk keeps the bark damp and encourages brown rot and canker, while a thick heap of rotting fruit can draw rats and unwelcome numbers of wasps close to the house. So rake windfalls clear of the trunks, then tip them somewhere useful: under a hedge, in a wild corner at the end of the plot, or in a shallow tray where you can watch what turns up after dark. Leave a few fruits hanging on the later varieties and the thrushes will do the clearing for you, often stripping a tree in a single afternoon.

Bird Boxes: Small Details, Big Take-Up

Nest boxes are cheap, quick to hang and almost always occupied within a season or two. The single most important detail is the size of the entrance hole, because it decides who can get in and keeps the larger, more aggressive species out.

• 25mm for blue tits and coal tits
• 28mm for great tits and tree sparrows
• 32mm for house sparrows and nuthatches
• 45mm for starlings

Fix boxes two to four metres up, on a trunk or a sheltered wall, facing somewhere between north and east so the entrance avoids the hottest sun and the worst of the driving rain. Tilt them very slightly forward, leave off the perch — it only gives predators a foothold — and fit a metal plate around the hole if grey squirrels or woodpeckers are about. House sparrows like company, so hang three boxes close together; small tits prefer space, so keep pairs of tit boxes at least ten metres apart. Clean them out in late September or October, tipping the old nest material well away from the tree, and add a bottom-entry bat box on the shadiest side while you are up there.

Sow Wildflower Strips Between the Rows

The mown alley between your trees is wasted space unless you let it flower. A strip of native wildflowers sown in autumn or early spring will bring in bees, hoverflies and moths from the first warm days, and the seed heads will feed finches through the winter. Use seed of British origin and include yellow rattle, which weakens coarse grass and lets the flowers through without any feeding or digging.

Sow into a lightly raked surface, keep the strip clear for at least a metre around the base of each trunk so you do not damage shallow roots or compete with young trees, and let it grow long through the summer. Cut it once in late August or early September, then rake off the cuttings so the ground stays lean; a second light cut in early spring tidies it without removing the overwintering tussocks that insects and voles rely on. If you want instant colour in the first year, scatter a little cornflower and poppy alongside the perennial mix and enjoy it while the slower plants establish.

Shelter, Water and a Bit of Untidiness

Wildlife needs somewhere to hide, and a neat orchard offers very little. Build a log pile in a shady corner from prunings and cut branches, stacked loosely with the bark left on, and leave a few brash heaps under the hedge. Slow worms, beetles, hedgehogs and bumblebee queens will all use them, and a stump left to rot in place is worth more than a tidy bonfire. If you have the space, sink a shallow dish of water at ground level with a few stones in it for insects and birds to drink from safely, and keep it topped up through dry spells.

A native hedge along the windward edge shelters blossom from late frosts as well as giving cover, so if you are planting, choose hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and field maple. Delay trimming until late winter, after the berries have gone, and never cut between March and August when nests are in use.

Heritage Varieties and the Long View

Old varieties earn their keep in a wildlife orchard. Egremont Russet, Ashmead's Kernel, Keswick Codlin and Blenheim Orange ripen across a long season, so there is fruit on the trees from August into December; their crops vary from year to year, which suits birds better than a rigid, heavy yield, and unpruned old trees grow lichen, crevices and hollows that modern, tightly trained trees never develop.

Resist the urge to tidy an ancient tree. Dead wood standing in the canopy is home to bats and tree bumblebees, and a hollow trunk is a genuine asset as long as it is not a danger to people or property. When you plant replacements, choose varieties that suit your soil and region and put them on vigorous rootstocks, so that in fifty years someone else inherits a proper standard tree full of holes.

Working With the Seasons

Winter is for planting, pruning and cleaning out boxes. Spring and summer are for watching: mow only the paths you need, leave the strips long, and keep hedge trimmers and strimmers away from nests. Autumn brings the harvest, the windfall clear-up and the sowing of next year's flowers. Do a little each season, leave a corner slightly wild, and your orchard will quietly become the busiest part of the garden.