How to build a wildlife-friendly garden

Blue tit on a bird box with a tree and leaves in the background at Wimpole Estate, Cambridgeshire — Blue tit at Wimpole Estate, Cambridgeshire | © National Trust Images/Mike Selby

You can get closer to your local wildlife by making your back garden a safe haven for nature. Here are nine things you can do in your garden to help birds, insects and mammals.

Let the grass grow

Long grass is one of the rarest garden habitats and by letting some or all of your lawn grow, you will make space for many plant and insect species. Mowing the lawn only once every four weeks gives ‘short-grass’ plants like daisies and white clover a chance to flower in profusion, boosting nectar production tenfold.

Bird box and feeding

Birds are an important part your garden's ecosystem. Help them thrive by planting trees like rowan and wild cherry, plants such as teasles, and putting up bird boxes. Situate boxes and feeders or bird baths well out of reach of cats and keep them clean.

Plant climbers

Climbers are great way of covering walls and fences to create hiding and nesting places for wildlife. Ivy is especially useful as the autumn flowers are sources of pollen for insects, and birds love the winter berries. Honeysuckle is another attractive climber that can provide a haven for wildlife.

Provide natural highways and byways

Trees and hedges offer roosting and nesting sites and become natural highways for birds and mammals allowing them to move around safely, as well as providing valuable shelter and cover from inclement weather and possible predators. Even piles of cut branches, twigs and compost can be fantastic places for animals and insects to live, feed and hibernate.

Bug hotel in the orchard at Polesden Lacey, Surrey showingstacked flower pots, sticks and pine cones to attract insects. — Bug hotel in the orchard at Polesden Lacey, Surrey | © National Trust Images/Mark Wigmore

Build an insect hotel

Leave piles of rocks, twigs and logs in your garden, or arrange them into interesting stacks. These will provide shelter for all sorts of important insects, such as beetles and spiders. Dead and rotting wood is a habitat that is in very short supply.

Create a pond

A pond is a real boost for wildlife. It doesn’t have to be huge – you can use a bucket or trough sunk into the ground. If you do want a big pond however, make sure it has sloping sides to allow wildlife to get in and out. Fill your pond with unchlorinated rainwater from a water butt if possible and plant it up with native species.

Compost

A compost heap is a win-win: it gives you a way of turning waste into compost, which will naturally enrich your soil, plus it may also provide a warm hiding place for many creatures including slow-worms. To avoid attracting rats, never add bread or other cooked food.

Leave a gap in your fence

Don’t lock out hedgehogs and frogs. Make sure your garden fences have some gaps at the bottom that can allow wildlife to move through from plot to plot. This will help link different habitats together.

Grow flowers

Flowers look beautiful and bring colour and scent into your garden. Many of them also provide food for insects. Grow as many different types as possible to ensure pollen and nectar almost all year round. Choose single-flowered varieties and include some native species too.

Have a break from weeding

Learn to relax about weeds. The leaves of plants such as nettles, dandelions, groundsel and even brambles are important sources of food for the larvae of many insects, including butterflies and moths. Some ‘weeds’ also flower for a long time, whatever the weather, so can provide nectar and pollen when other sources might be absent.

Gardener at work at Castlefield Viaduct, Manchester

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