You can already find an article on designing nature-oriented gardens on our website. So it makes sense to design one of the structural elements described yourself. We were allowed to convert 13 square meters of lawn into a sandarium with two potential retreats for beetles, amphibians and maybe even lizards at some point. Open, nutrient-poor soils are not only home to 75% of the wild bees living in Germany, but are also particularly diverse in their plant community. Many of these species simply cannot prevail against fast-growing plants such as nettles in nitrogen-rich soils. However, it is particularly plants that thrive on depleted soils that are so important for the diversity of our insect world. And because this natural garden element can be perfectly combined with wood and stones and our native amphibians could also use some help, we have created two underground labyrinths on one square meter each as a retreat for newts, toads, beetles and perhaps even lizards. To achieve this, 80 centimeters of arable soil was replaced by hand with fine sand with a clay content, stones and, above all, lots of dead wood were brought in and then planted with native wild shrubs.
The material came from a nearby gravel pit, the wood from kind employees of a company entrusted with “pruning trees to secure the path” and lots of leftovers from building the house.
In addition to promoting biodiversity, the result is also aesthetically pleasing, has saved the removal of construction waste and, thanks to its ease of maintenance, also reduces the workload for lawnmowers.
Potential imitators will find a list of the plants we were able to obtain at the end of the article. The range of native species is huge and at naturadb.de you will find the right plants for every location, supplemented by a list of the individuals that live from and with them. It is important to mention at this point that both living plants and deadwood cannot simply be removed from nature. There are more convenient solutions for this.
Here are a few suppliers who specialize in native plants or at least make up a significant proportion of their product range:
www.staudenspatz.de
www.wild-land.de
www.nordischer-shop.at
www.naturgartenshop.com