Your Garden

'We can all make a few changes in our gardens to give wildlife a better chance. 

If each of us does something, no matter how small, we can collectively help to turn the tide on wildlife decline. Why not try some of the ideas below and do your bit for nature and wildlife on your own patch?

The top two things you can do 

• Choose not to use pesticides or peat.

• Allow one area of your garden to grow a bit wilder than it is now.

Autumn

• Leave seedheads standing, to provide natural food for the birds through the cold weather. They will attract goldfinches, tits and other birds to your garden.

• Instead of clearing leaves away, rake them onto your flowerbeds to provide enriching leaf mulch for the soil and worms, protection for tender plants from frosts, and foraging for blackbirds and thrushes.

• Try to leave a corner undisturbed , with leaves and twigs piled up to create an inviting hibernation spot for hedgehogs.

• In general, try not to be too tidy: many beneficial insects need hollow plant stems, bare ground and dead wood as overwintering places.

Winter

• Keep feeding your birds and providing fresh water daily, to help them get through the hard weather.

• Do not disturb leafpiles, so as not to awaken hibernating hedgehogs and other creatures.

Spring

• Join in with No Mow May! Allow an area of grass to grow longer and you will help the many insects who live there, the wild flowers that will bloom and the birds and mammals who feed on them.

• Include a variety of spring bulbs, from early grape hyacinths to later alliums, to provide early food for pollinators.

Summer

• Plant a good selection of pollinator-friendly flowers that will attract bees and others throughout the season.

• Allow an area of grass to go uncut until the autumn. You will be rewarded with a show of wildflowers and you will be helping small mammals, birds that need varying grass lengths to forage in and insects that need places of refuge.

A few ideas for Projects that you may consider:

• Create a pond

• Make or buy a hedgehog house

• Create a hedgehog highway

• Build a bug hotel

• Build a log pile

• Put up a nestbox

You can see gardening for wildlife in action in our Community Bee Garden and read more about it on our signs to give you ideas. There are useful links for these and more ideas, such as pesticide alternatives, on sites such as Green Gardener, the RSPB, and the RHS. Also the Wildlife Trusts’ leaflet below.