Why the Night Shift Matters

Most of us plant with a sunny afternoon in mind, but a British garden has a second shift. From dusk until dawn, moths and other night-flying insects move through the borders and across the lawn — feeding, mating and laying eggs. There are well over 2,000 species of moth in Britain, outnumbering our butterflies by more than twenty to one, and the vast majority are entirely harmless. No clothes-munching, no greenhouse damage, just quiet, industrious pollination.

They matter far beyond their own numbers. Moths pollinate a wide range of wildflowers, and both adults and caterpillars are food for bats, hedgehogs and nestlings — a single pair of blue tits can bring several hundred caterpillars a day to a brood. Many species are in serious decline, which makes even a modest garden genuinely useful. Encouraging them is not about letting things go; it is about designing for the hours when most of us are indoors.

Plant for Scent, Not Just Colour

Night-flying moths navigate largely by scent, so the flowers that serve them best are pale, often white or cream, deeply throated and powerfully fragrant after dusk. Scent carries further in the cool, damp air of evening, which is why a honeysuckle trained over a doorway can draw moths in from several gardens away.

Native and near-native plants are the surest bet, because our moths have evolved alongside them.

• Night-scented catchfly and sweet rocket — cottage-garden favourites with a heavy, sweet perfume after dark.
• Evening primrose — its pale yellow flowers open in the evening and glow faintly in low light.
• Common honeysuckle — a larval food plant as well as a nectar source.
• Field scabious, knapweed and viper's bugloss — long-flowering and nectar-rich, useful to day-flying moths too.
• Red campion, bladder campion and soapwort — the campions feed several moth caterpillars as well as adults.
• Ivy — its late-autumn flowers are one of the most valuable nectar sources of the year, appearing just as many moths fatten up before winter.

Plant in generous clumps rather than single specimens; a dense patch of one scent reads as a landmark to an insect flying in the dark. Position them near a path, a bench or an open window, so you get the benefit as well.

Leave a Patch of Grass Alone

If you do one thing, let a patch of grass grow long — and leave it long through the winter. Tussocky grass is the single most valuable habitat in a wildlife garden: it shelters adult moths by day, feeds a huge range of caterpillars and provides a humid, stable place for pupae to sit out the cold.

Manage it rather than abandon it. A rotation works well:

• Cut no more than a third of your long-grass area in any one year.
• Wait until mid-September at the earliest, so larvae have finished feeding and adults have emerged.
• Leave cut material lying for a day or two so seed drops and insects crawl out, then rake it off to keep fertility down.
• Vary the height — a mosaic of short, medium and long grass suits more species than a uniform sward.

Native grasses such as crested dog's-tail, sweet vernal grass, Yorkshire fog and tufted hairgrass, mixed with knapweed, lady's bedstraw and bird's-foot trefoil, make a meadow that works hard. Never strim a whole meadow in one go, and never burn it off.

Darkness, Water and Somewhere to Hide

Light is the enemy. A bright security light left on all night can draw moths away from flowers and exhaust them, and it disrupts egg-laying. Swap to warm-white, downward-facing fittings with motion sensors, or fit a shield so the light falls only where you need it. Decorative solar floodlights that glow until dawn are worth switching off, and electric "bug zappers" kill far more harmless insects than biting ones — skip them altogether.

Water helps too. A shallow dish with pebbles at the edge gives moths and other insects a safe drink, and a small pond with gently sloping margins supports far more life than a formal one with vertical sides.

Then think about shelter. Log piles, dead stems left standing over winter, leaf litter beneath hedges and an unraked corner of border are all places where insects see out the coldest months. Ivy, dense hedging and mature trees give the humid, sheltered conditions moths prefer.

Getting Started in a Small Garden

You do not need an acre. Even a balcony or a courtyard can pull in moths if you plant with intent.

• Choose three or four night-scented plants and group them together.
• Leave one corner of lawn unmown, or replace a strip with a wildflower and grass mix.
• Reduce outdoor lighting to the minimum you actually need.
• Stop using pesticides, and think twice about slug pellets, which can harm the creatures that feed on slugs.
• Add a shallow water dish and leave a small pile of logs in a quiet corner.

Then go out after dark with a torch — ideally one with a red filter, so you do not disturb what you find — and simply watch. You will almost certainly see more than you expect, and the garden will feel larger and wilder for it.