How To Create A Wildlfie Garden

Nine ways to build a wildlife friendly garden

Great tit at Wakehurst Place, West Sussex

You may have noticed some new visitors to your neighbourhood since the streets or green spaces around your home have fallen quiet. Perhaps you've spotted hedgehogs returning to a city street or can hear the birds singing loud and proud outside your window.

You can get even closer to your local wildlife by making your back garden a safe haven for nature. Here are nine things you can do in your garden to help birds, insects and animals.

Many of us are using the lockdown as an opportunity to get the garden in order. However, research from Plantlife shows how not mowing the lawn can actually be very beneficial for our local wildlife. That's why we're encouraging you to join with us and support Plantlife's No Mow May campaign. Read on to find how to get involved and for more tips on how you can make your garden more wildlife friendly.

1. Let the grass grow

Leave your mower in the shed. Long grass is one of the rarest garden habitats. By letting some or all of your lawn grow you will make space for many plant and insect species, including butterflies and wildflowers. Mowing the lawn only once every four weeks gives 'short-grass' plants like daisies and white clover a chance to flower in profusion, boosting nectar production tenfold.

Orchid in the wildflower meadow — Find orchids in the wildflower meadow

2. Bird box and feeding

Birds are an important part your garden's ecosystem, and creating bird boxes and putting out food will help them thrive. Put your bird box up high in a sheltered area. In spring, provide protein-rich feed, such as fat balls. Seeds are best in the winter. If there are cats nearby place your feeder near a dense bush to provide birds with cover.

3. Grow climbers

Ivy is a very useful plant for wildlife. Both the flowers and seeds are good sources of food and pollen. Plus, it provides year round cover for birds and insects. Clematis and certain varieties of rose are also excellent climbers for wildlife.

Clematis cote de zore — Climbers provide save havens for wildlife, like this clematis cote de zore at Lanhydrock, Cornwall

4. Build an insect hotel

Leave piles of rocks, twigs and rotting wood in your garden. These will create shelter for all sorts of important insects, such as beetles and spiders.

Bamboo, sticks and fern leaves make a wild home — Make a home for the insects and wildlife in your garden

5. Create a pond

A pond is a real boost for wildlife. It doesn't have to be huge. You can use a buried bucket or trough. If you do want a big pond, make sure there are stones or branches to help wildlife get in and out. Ponds are best filled with unchlorinated rainwater from a water butt. Waterlilies will help prevent it from becoming stagnant. Avoid locating it in full sun or full shade.

Hidcote lily pond — A pond provides a haven for wildife and plants, like these waterlilies at Hidcote, Gloucestershire

6. Compost

A compost heap is a win-win. Making and using your own compost will naturally enrich your soil. It will also provide a habitat for worms, woodlice and many other insects, including frogs and slow worms. To avoid attracting rats, only add raw, not cooked food.

A slow worm curled up — Do more to help slow worms, such as this one at Stoneywell, Leicestershire, which are becoming increasingly rare

7. Leave a gap in your fence

Don't lock out hedgehogs and frogs. Make sure your garden fences have some gaps at the bottom. This will allow wildlife to move through from plot-to-plot. It will also help link different habitats together.

Hedgehog at Emmetts Garden, a National Trust property in Kent — Hedgehogs like this one at Emmetts Garden, Kent, are becoming increasingly rare

8. Grow flowers

Flowers look beautiful and bring colour and scent into your garden. They also provide food for many insects. Grow as many varieties as possible to ensure colour from spring through to autumn. Go for native species, if possible.

Bee on a flower in the garden — Flowers feed many insects like this bee at Hare Hill, Cheshire

9. Have a break from weeding

Learn to relax about weeds. Plants such as nettles, daisies and buttercups are important sources of food for many insects, including butterflies and moths. They flower for a long time, whatever the weather. And so provide food when other sources might be absent.