Tips for encouraging wildlife into your garden

Having wildlife visit your garden regularly is a sign that you have a healthy, well-balanced micro-environment.  This is particularly good news for gardeners as it means your garden can help to do its own pest control: frogs to eat your slugs, ladybirds to devour your greenfly etc.  Less chemicals, even more happy wildlife!  Here are our top tips to help ensure your garden is a wildlife-friendly place.

Water

Having some water in your garden is essential for all wildlife but remember to provide it in a container that suits them.  A bird bath is great for the birds but hedgehogs won’t reach it and insects may drown in it.  A shallow dish on the ground, with pebbles for insects to rest on, will be more universally accessible.  Remember to clean the dish regularly and keep it topped up, especially in warm weather.  (It’s surprising how quickly it can dry out!)  Or have a large water feature both will be appreciated.

Feed the birds

Feeding the birds, all year round, encourages them and other wildlife into your garden.  Do feed them over the summer months too; birds are using up a lot of energy raising young and building fat stores for the winter, and it keeps them coming back to your garden or balcony.  We have a great range of different bird foods and feeding containers in stock all year round.

Plan for flowers

Try to plan your planting so that you have something in flower for as much of the year as you can.  Not only does it make your garden look colourful for longer but it also ensures that nectar and pollen loving insects have a food supply for much of the year. Hardy heathers are a great idea for winter colour (and food), for example.  If you want to give your pollinators a boost, leave out shallow dishes (jam jar lids are ideal) filled with a 50% white sugar/water solution.

Butterflies

Did you know that butterflies love honeysuckle flowers?  Their long, thin shape is perfectly suited for long butterfly tongues (their proboscis) to reach the nectar.

Other butterfly-friendly plants, also loved by other insects, include: Sedum, Hebe, Aster, Verbena bonariensis, Lavendar and – of course – Buddleia.

Hedgehogs

Make a space for hedgehogs.  This protected species is in decline so they could use our support.  A 13cm square gap is all they need to get into a garden, and they can travel up to two miles in a night looking for food.  Don’t leave bread or milk out, they can’t digest it; meat-rich kitten biscuits are what most hedgehog charities recommend.

Not too much light

Avoid too much artificial lighting in your garden – it can distract bats, moths and other night-active wildlife from their usual paths.  It can also affect their breeding habits and general health.  Try to ensure all your outdoor lighting turns off when not required or is on short-time sensors.  Bright, security lighting will also be more of a distraction than smaller, twinkly lights, too.

Go wild!

Wildlife is a good excuse to let things go a little wild!  You don’t have to turn your whole garden over to wildlife; letting patches of lawn grow longer or allowing hidden corners of flower beds to collect piles of leaves, for example, provide great habitats for wildlife of all shapes and sizes.