Boosting Wildlife in Your Garden

Encouraging birds, mammals and insects to visit and live in your garden helps to look after wildlife, keeps your garden thriving but also helps control garden pests by having natural predators. All gardens can be made wildlife friendly no matter how big or how small your garden is.

Provide A Shelter

Creating areas for wildlife to live and nest is one way of making animals feel welcome in your garden. Different habitats will attract a variety of wildlife to your garden. The most common wildlife in any garden is insects, they help keep your garden healthy, pollinate plants, eat other insects and also provide food for birds. Some simple ideas that can help:

• Leave logs to rot in the corner of your garden – this will provide a home for hedgehogs and insects.
• Wildlife doesn’t like to be disturbed so if you can provide and area in the garden which can be left alone and be overgrown. You may find that hedgehogs, foxes and insects will hibernate their during bad weather.
• Bird boxes encourage them to come to your garden and nest, maybe even introduce new chicks into the world.

Plant New Trees

Trees provide shelter for all different types of wildlife, from insects to birds and bats. You don’t have to have a big garden to plant a tree, you can plant trees like crab apple, and pussy willow or even hazel will grow nicely in small places.

You could also plant a tree which will grow berries in the winter months, not only will this feed the birds but it will also guaranty they have food through the colder seasons.

Hedges

Hedges in your garden can really help wildlife. Hedges provide food and nesting places for all types of wildlife; you may get birds nesting in hedges, hedgehogs will shelter at the bottom and you may get wood mice living further up in the branches.

Having a variety of hedges in the garden will attract a wide range of wildlife, so plant hedges such as holly, blackthorn and guilder rose – these types of hedges will provide food for mammals and birds.

You can also grow violets, wood anemones and celandine at the base of the hedge to attract nectar-loving insects.

Create A Pond

Ponds are a magnet for wildlife, attracting frogs, newts, dragonflies and other insects. Ponds also provide water for the birds, if you want to add a pond to your garden and you don’t want to spend a lot of money, you can use an old sink or bath and create one that way.

Feed The Animals

• Place bird feeders and tables in your garden – make sure you keep them in places in which cats can’t get to, or put them near prickly bushes to frighten them to stay away.
• Clean the bird tables regularly and don’t leave any food out to rot.
• Once a bird knows that food is been provided them, they will come to you on a regular basis, so make sure you always stock up.
• Choose plants that flower and produce seeds or fruit at different times of the year so that wildlife has food in all seasons.
• Bird baths are essential for birds, they like to clean their feathers on a regular basis, so a small bath will attract many of the birds who are also been fed in your garden.

It is important that we try and protect the UK wildlife, we experience many different extreme weather conditions and with the recent UK storms, our wildlife needs homes more than ever. So be kind to wildlife, you help them and they will help you and your garden.

Published January 21st, 2014 by Jordan. Article ref 2063

Tags: bird baths, birds, foxes, hedgehogs, insects, mammals, plants, ponds, seeds, wildlife, wood mice

« 10 Top Tips To Prepare Your Garden For Spring | Ex Display Compton Sectional Concrete Garage 15ft x 11ft Apex Roof »