Wildlife gardening

Avoid using gravel, concrete or decking. Much more wildlife friendly are lawns (or even better a meadow), shrubs, borders and trees. Mow your lawn less often and tolerate a few daisies rather than treating it with harmful chemicals. A corner can be left unmown to give insects and other animals somewhere to hide. Water less often in the summer to save resources – the lawn will survive.

Create different microhabitats around your garden to attract a range of wildlife -

• Plant spring and summer wildflower meadow areas where there is space to attract insects that support the food chain. Ideal plants include Bellflower, Common Fumitory, Cornflower, Cranesbill, Herb Robert, Honeysuckle, Purple Saxifrage, Rock Rose, and Thrift.
• Make a wildlife rockery for slugs and snails, and help the thrushes that feed on them. Leave the rocks a little looser than usual so small creatures, newts and toads, can hide in autumn and winter. Don’t use slug pellets. They harm frogs, toads and hedgehogs which eat slugs.
• Plant climbers as nesting sites for small garden birds, and as wide a range of (wild) plants as possible. Ivy berries are very important for birds in winter but butterflies such as the Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus, photo) also feed on its leaves. Holly and Ivy provide great winter cover for small mammals, birds and even hibernating insects.
• An overgrown area with brambles, stinging nettles and dead wood is a great help to larger mammals such as foxes and hedgehogs which can rest undercover.
• Leave room for decay. Pile up old logs and autumn leaves in a shady corner to create homes for insects as well as hibernating amphibians and hedgehogs. A woodpile attracts different creatures, from moths and beetles to voles and wood mice.
• Plant native trees and shrubs, from holly, blackthorn, (wild) cherry, hazel and yew at the smaller end of the scale, to oak, beech, ash and hornbeam at the larger. Ash and Oak trees both support a great diversity of species.