How to attract insects?

I'm by no means a gardener - at least, I have a garden and don't really know what I'm doing :-) But at he bottom of my garden is some rough ground which I thought I might try and tidy up with some nice plants that would attract insects and therefore hopefully other animals (birds?).

So I'm hoping someone could recommend some insect attracting plants? Preferably fairly "maintenance-free" perennials but annuals would be OK too. I live in the north of England reasonably high up so I guess I would need something fairly hardy? Anything that flowers early would be good too. Don't want much, do I? :-)

Any suggestions gratefully received - with tips on when to plant, ideally :-)

 

Welcome to the forum.

Really tough, periennial plants that are loved by bees and butterflies are:

buddleia (watch out, it self-seeds and will take over if you let it!)

aruncus sylvestris (aka goats beard)

sedum spectabile

 

Thanks for your kind welcome and suggestions, Flinty :-)

I shall follow these up - and it really doesn't matter if the buddleia takes over.

Just a quick follow up - can these be grown from seed?

 

Well you can (see here for 'how' re: buddleia http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/9269/1.html) but at about £4 in 'sheds' and garden centres I'd just buy the plants.

 

I think you're right, Fidgetsmum! :-)

 

Thompson and Morgan is offering buddlejas which have been specially bred to stay small. They're called 'Buzz' and come in magenta, lavender or ivory. You can buy all three for 14.99, post free, if you go to www.thompson-morgan.com/ads63 and put in Code AM209 when ordering.

 

I've got a baby sedum you can have if you are anywhere near stoke as wouldn't want to post

Sedum are the best plant to attract butterflies in my opinion.

 

Tanks very much for that :-)

 

I'm in Rossendale near Burnley so it may be just a we bit too far. But thanks anyway, that's very kind, thatblokeinstoke! :-)

 

Three things that insects/Bees in my garden have adored this year are Hollyhocks, Cosmos and Teasel, especially the latter. Bees are crawling all over them.

 

The Teasel will also bring wild birds in such as our Goldfinch, anything thistle like, they will thrive on the seed heads.