planting with wildlife in mind

If you can wait till autumn you will be able to buy bareroot hedging quite cheaply. You could go for a mix of hawthorn, blackthorn and maybe dog rose for a protective barrier or look at berberis for a more ornamental version (some can have wicked spines).
In the bits I want to stop the cats coming through I use the old pruning as a barrier. We currently have blackbirds nesting again and they have a barrier of pyracantha branches laid on the floor around where they are to stop the cats being able to jump up. Unfortunately it gets them to fledgling size only.

As for plants, there have been some great ones mentioned already. I'll just add that I would plant thistles either as they can really take over but something more ornamental like eryngium is well worth it as they are easily controlled and the birds and pollinators adore them. Other than that my must have would be teasels, which easily self seed but can be controlled and one not mentioned before, birds foot trefoil. It's is an easy plant from seed and one of the best you can grow for wildlife.

Plants are only a small factor in what will attract life. I would also be adding dead wood piles, a source of water, mud plates for bees and plenty of habitat, like rocks for every thing else. Birds will come if there are things to eat.

 

Get over the cats!

We have two cats here, one of whom is a handy hunter, and a large plot full of bird and insect friendly food and shelter plants and nooks. We also have hanging bird feeders and a slab where I put down seeds for ground feeders.

These are sited so that cats can't pounce without being seen. Our huntress brings us rodents but not birds.

 

WOW!
So much to consider for such a small space.

Right now, I'm slowly working my way around the plot with single line of gorse. Well, I intend to, as soon as we get some rain so that I might get a fork into the ground. Will think about getting four tub-type planters for Lavender , to put at the four corners.
That's it for now.

I only put food out for birds in extremely cold weather because I don't want to encourage rats.

 

On the flip side to get over the cats, our new neighbours moved in and got two kittens, making ten cats in total within a 3 house radius. With the previous cats there was some predation but not a lot but these kittens are extremely predatory and their owners seem proud of the amount they bring home.
Now I like cats, I'm happy for our neighbours ten year old cats to be in the garden because they don't cause much bother but the new kittens have meant that another neighbours life has become hell. This lady has two passions, her garden and feeding the birds. In the last 6 months her garden looks like the Somme and stinks to high heaven because of all the cat crap and she doesn't get any birds anymore. Her newly planted plants are squashed or dug up because they use every square inch as a toilet and at nearly 80 herself, there isn't much hope things will change in the time she has left.
If my dog nipped into someone's garden, did a poo and then killed something I think I'd be reported but for some reason cats are seen as perfectly accepted. Again I like cats but they can be very different if they aren't your pet and you have to put up with them.

 

Have those kittens been neutered @Thevictorian ? That might make a difference.

I've had cats for over 50 years now and never had such problems. How very sad for your neighbour.

 

I think it would be better to just cater for insects - bees/hoverflies/beetles etc. You wouldn't need to bother with any 'perimeter' and if you have a couple of smaller shrubs which provide flowers and then berries later, any birds around will take those. Hebes are great for flowers and are covered in bees/wasps/hoverflies.
What you plant also depends on location and climate/conditions, which is why I asked earlier about that. There are many plants which happily grow in the south of England which wouldn't survive here, let alone further north. Sandy soil is also very different from clay, so that determines what works.
Look around your area to see what does well too.
I still don't understand the size you're working with though. Maybe I'm being thick, but if you have all this jaggy, shrubby planting, how are you going to maintain it, especially if you're putting a mesh surround in there as well? Holly and Gorse will spread in all directions, so if that's within the 7x2 metre area, you'll end up with very little room for the annuals/perennials for wildlife, and it'll just provide a hiding place for cats, rather than deterring them.

 

I will have lots of honesty seeds in about 2 weeks if you want. they are pretty big plants if in ideal conditions, maybe 1.5m tall 30cm wide. I like it for the seed heads. but they are biennial so you want to establish 2 generations at a time

 

They are damaging her property, it is actually their legal concern I believe. They should be keeping them inside and toilet training them frankly. She could threatenly plant plenty of lillies if she wants to force them to keep them indoors. idk! I have a cat and she isnt great for wildlife but neither am I, eating food and using electricity...

 

What is it with the lillies?
Do cats not like lillies.
Could maybe look into having some.

 

It's more a case of if a cat gets the pollen on it's fur and then licks it off it may cause serious kidney problems. I would think that it's more of a problem with lilies in the house which are more accessible to cats. This is why you can get pollenless lilies from florists, you could remove the pollen bearing anthers and dispose of safely if concerned.
I've always grown lilies and never seen a cat attracted to them, also lily pollen is incredibly sticky and unlikely to fall onto anything just passing by.

 

This just highlights the difffering conditions. @Adam I has honesty reaching 1.5 metres. They get to about half that height here.
I've grown lilies in every garden I've had. It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever, so that's not worth trying as a deterrent.

 

Lilies are not a deterrent to cats. They just get very ill and usually die if they get the pollen on their fur and lick it. Dreadul suggestion to plant them on purpose.

 

I got the impression that the idea was to threaten the humans so that they'd be more responsible cat owners rather than to actually plant them.

 

That's the impression I got too.

Having had a cat as a pet in the past though (I now have dogs) I don't think you can train them the way you can a dog. It's easy to say "be a more responsible car owner" but they just aren't "wired" that way, they are very instincts-based and don't think in a similar way as dogs. Being a responsible cat owner could mean keeping them locked in the house as much as possible, which would help minimise issues, but there would still be occasions where they would get out, so having harmful plants I don't think is a good idea.

I have a couple of cats using my front garden as a toilet. I don't like it but I know I can't really stop it - neither could their owners, unless they stopped them from going outside the house altogether, which would be rather cruel in my opinion. They are lovely animals overall and the families that have them also have kids who adore them.

 

Yes lilies are lethally toxic to cats. as are the delphiniums/aconites. was more of a threat than anything real, cats learn pretty quickly to not go chewing random plants.

more realistically you could use gorse or something nightmarishly prickly as a border There is an annual solanum called "stately malevolence" that looks intimidating. maybe a motion detection sprinkler?

putting bell necklaces on cats can help prevent them from hunting birds but they can learn to hunt around it.


solanum atropurpureum