Wildlife Garden

Ways to make you garden more wildlife friendly.

There are some scary statistics out there about the loss of wildlife habitats both in urban and rural environments. The key question is: when you are making changes to you garden what can you do to help? Below I have picked out six great things you can consider doing to your garden as the weather gets warmer:

  1. Install a pond to benefit frogs, toads, damselflies and dragonflies as well as many other species. It doesn’t have to be huge, even a small water bowl can support a lot of life and provide a source of drinking water for birds. Just make sure that wildlife can get in and out, either a shallow end or a small ramp can help.
  1. Plant a native hedge. Hedges are an important source of food, shelter and safe passage between woodlands. Native hedges are best and include blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel, beech, hornbeam and wild privet. Ideally use a mix of these to provide a long season of flowers and fruits. This needn’t be a large stretch even a small length at the very end of the garden makes a big difference.
  2. Leave a corner of the garden for wildlife. Do you have a corner of the garden that is an awkward shape or tucked round the back of the shed? If you leave it undisturbed it can become a great haven for wildlife. This is also a great place to have the compost heap!
  3. Leave some (or all) of your grass to grow long. You might have heard of ‘No Mow May’ which promotes letting the grass grow longer for the month of May for the benefit of wildlife which can then travel across the lawn in safety and get nectar from flowers. By reducing the frequency of cutting you really benefit wildlife as well as your chores list. Why not just let a small area grow longer? You can always mow a path though for access.
  1. Allow hedgehogs into your garden. Hedgehogs find it very difficult to forage for food if all back gardens are cut off from one another by fences and this has caused numbers to plummet. Hedgehogs’ favourite foods are slugs and snails, so I want as many visiting my garden as possible. I’ve seen quite a few Hedgehogs in Chislehurst in the last few years, and we can help them by making sure there are small access points for them.
  2. Plant a tree. There are different sized trees suitable for many different locations as small as 2m high at maturity. Their importance cannot be overstated for a wide variety of wildlife. They also do so much to add structure and interest in a garden so it’s really a win win. Seek out advice before planting a tree to ensure you are getting the right one for the space to avoid blocking out light or any root damage.

The key point is that we should be leaving the space better for wildlife than we found it whilst at the same time improving it for us humans.