insideKENT Magazine Issue 23 - February 2014 | Page 128

OUTDOORLIVING ten steps to a wildlife-friendly garden © Sebastian Knight (rspb-images.com) © Nigel Blake (rspb-images.com) © Grahame Madge (rspb-images.com) Step 1. Grow flowering plants Helps: All garden wildlife Giving nature a home starts with plants, so growing as many flowering plants as you can fit in your garden is a real help. Plenty of flowers throughout the year help to provide nectar, pollen and shelter for bugs, which in turn provides food for birds and beasts. Step 2. Invest in a tree or shrub Helps: Birds and bugs Trees, shrubs and climbers may take a few years before they mature, but they will eventually become places for wildlife to shelter, breed and feed. If you have a balcony or small garden, you can still encourage wildlife with a mix of potgrown shrubs, climbers and dwarf trees. Just what you plant may depend on the space available to you, but if they produce flowers, fruit or berries, you can't go far wrong. A few wildlife favourites are crab apple, rowan, hawthorn, privet, dog rose, ivy and honeysuckle. Step 3. Give your mower a rest Helps: Birds, bugs and beasts Your lawn can be a great place for wildlife to live, especially if you let it grow. However, when it is time to cut your lawn, raising the height of your mower blades will make it better for bugs, which will provide vital food for other animals. If you have space, a patch of longer grass over summer and winter can potentially house and shelter all sorts of wildlife. You may even attract some butterflies, moths and grasshoppers that need long grass to complete their life cycles. Step 4. Make dead wood piles Helps: Bugs, which help garden wildlife Dead and rotting wood provides a home where fungi, mosses and lichens can grow. What's more, as it decays, the pile of wood becomes a bug hotel. So whenever you prune, add the cut branches to the pile. If you have a balcony, fill a well-drained bucket with soil and wood chippings to attract bugs. To make it even better, you could add a couple of small rotting branches and put it next to flowers. Step 5. Make a pond Helps: All garden wildlife Adding a pond to your garden is one of the best ways to give nature a home. Even a small pond could attract dragonflies, frogs, pond-skaters and newts, as well as giving wildlife a place to drink and bathe. Line a big pond with heavy-duty polythene or butyl rubber and create shallow edges to allow birds to bathe, hedgehogs to climb out, and frogs to spawn. Also create a deep area of at 128 least 18 inches in the middle; this won’t freeze and the wildlife will be able to spend the winter there safely. If you have a balcony or small gar en, d you can still help by making a mini pond. Get a plant tub or washing up bowl, then add gravel or small rocks to the bottom. Pile rocks on one side to help any animals climb in and out, and finally, add in native oxygenating plants such as hornwort. Step 6. Feed garden birds Helps: Birds Put out a variety of food all year round and you’ll give the birds in your garden a boost and help them to survive the hard times. Leave them fresh water in a shallow dish and invest in good quality feeders. Feeders must be kept clean to avoid the spread of disease too. Ideal foods include sunflower hearts, seed mixes, suet pellets, porridge oats and apples. Step 7. Build a wildlife shelter Helps: Birds, bugs and beasts A well-planted and cared for garden offers lots of places for nature to feed, shelter and breed. But to a bird, bat or hedgehog looking for a place to raise its young, an artificial home can be a valuable alternative to a natural shelter. You can build shelters or buy a variety of wildlife boxes that you can put out at any time of year.