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
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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.