Willows are great early in the season, especially woolly willow as they have catkins in early spring which are a great food source to the spring bumblebees such as the Northern White-tailed and Shetland Bumblebee. Willows grow well in Shetland and are easily cultivated from cuttings planted straight into the ground. Another early flowering shrub which the bumblebees seem to love in my garden at the moment is the flowering currant.

As we move later into the spring and early summer, shrubs such as the fuchsia and shrub honeysuckle start to produce rafts of beautiful flowers. Fuchsia are especially hardy and seem to come back every year looking better and better!

Flowering plants that are great for borders and pots include: Livingstone daisy, lupins, foxgloves, lavender, allium, chives, echium and poached egg plant.

Sedums such as Autumn Joy and Herbstfreude are good in late summer as their seeds are also a great food source for birds in autumn and winter. Cotoneaster Horizontalis is a compact evergreen which produces small red berries which add some lovely colour to the garden in autumn.

When gardening with wildlife in mind, one of the best things you can do is nothing! Try and leave patches of your garden wild, let the stinging nettles, thistles, dandelions and clover grow, the insects, birds and maybe even a hedgehog will most definitely thank you.