Wildlife garden
Replacing invasive alien plants in your garden with natives
Replace invasive alien plants such as cherry laurel, black cherry, tree of heaven, false acacia and Japanese rose with native species: holly, yew or wild privet instead of cherry laurel, bird cherry or rowan instead of black cherry, and dog rose or sea buckthorn instead of Japanese rose on the coast.
What to do
- Identify the invasive species in your garden: their species page carries the label Invasive non-native.
- Choose a native replacement that plays the same role: an evergreen hedge, a flowering shrub or a tree with berries.
- Pull up seedlings when the soil is moist, roots and all. Saw down larger shrubs and dig out the stump.
- For large trees such as tree of heaven and black cherry, ask a tree surgeon for advice: simply felling them leads to masses of new shoots.
- Take prunings with berries or roots to the recycling centre or the green bin, never into the countryside.
- Plant the replacement in the planting season, from November to March, or in autumn for evergreen species.
Caution: Holly, yew and wild privet are poisonous: don’t plant them within reach of young children or grazing animals.
Why it helps
- An invasive alien spreads from gardens into the wild, grows faster there than the native plants and crowds them out. Birds, for example, spread the berries of cherry laurel into woodland.
- Native replacements are just as evergreen, dense or ornamental, but feed far more insects and birds.
Which plants?
- Holly Ilex aquifolium Broadleaf tree · flowers May NativePoisonous
- Yew Taxus baccata Conifer NativePoisonous
- Wild privet Ligustrum vulgare Shrub · flowers June–July NativePoisonous
- Bird cherry Prunus padus Broadleaf tree · flowers April–May Native
- Rowan Sorbus aucuparia Broadleaf tree · flowers May Native
- Alder buckthorn Frangula alnus Shrub · flowers May–August NativePoisonous
- Large-leaved lime Tilia platyphyllos Broadleaf tree · flowers June Native
- Hornbeam Carpinus betulus Broadleaf tree · flowers April–May Native
- Whitebeam Sorbus aria Broadleaf tree · flowers May Native
- Dog rose Rosa canina Shrub · flowers June Native
- Sea buckthorn Hippophae rhamnoides Shrub · flowers March–April Native
When?
May–June and September–November.
Garden jobs in MayGarden jobs in JuneGarden jobs in SeptemberGarden jobs in OctoberGarden jobs in November
Take up the challenge
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Plant 3 native shrubs (October–December)
Plant 3 native trees or shrubs, such as hawthorn, hazel or guelder rose: planting season has begun.
Did you know? Black cherry was once planted in forests to improve the soil and as a firebreak; today it is one of the most stubborn invaders on sandy soil.