How Can I Help? (saving nature in your backyard)
How Can I Help? is a wonderful book of almost 500 answers on how to save nature from gardens to parks, from one of the USA’s top environmental and conservation writers. The author reveals the critical role that native plants play in attracting beneficial insects, and how this is such an important part of gardening worldwide.
Read more on no-dig gardening and humane slug/snail deterrents. If you live with animal friends, read up on pet-friendly gardens.
From reducing urban concrete to leaving leaves and log piles for wildlife, join others to become an empowered and knowledgeable conservationist, from your own backyard!
Author Doug Tallamy is professor of Entomology (insects) and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has taught students about insects for 44 years.
He is founder of the website Homegrown National Park, which encourages everyone to plant native plants, to benefit local insects, birds and wildlife.
Doug Tallamy is the godfather of the native plant movement. The Washington Post
Tips for Wildlife-Friendly Gardens
- Ditch Chemicals and Fertilisers. Bin empty containers and take half-empty ones to the tip, In organic gardens, ladybirds can eat up aphids, birds and frogs will take care of slugs and snails.
- Let Part of Your Lawn Grow Wild. Cutting grass less often lets wildflowers pop up, to feed insects and pollinators. Leave a section of lawn un-mowed in spring and summer.
- Swap Exotic Plants for Native Species. Local plants support wildlife. They offer food and shelter for birds, insects and mammals.
- Add Log Piles and Stone Stacks. These create perfect hideouts, especially in sunny weather or for hibernation. Over time, these piles become homes for beetles, worms, frogs, and slow worms. Leaving fallen leaves and dead branches provide shelter, and enrich soil.
- Create Wildflower Patches or Meadows. These not only add colour, but attract bees, butterflies, and moths. Surprisingly, they need poor soil, so don’t add compost (encourages grass to compete).
- Hedges Instead of Fences. If possible, swap wooden fences for living hedges, these give safe nesting places and act as corridors for hedgehogs to roam at night between gardens.
- Wildlife-friendly ponds are loved by amphibians, birds and insects (ensure they have sloping sides, and avoid netting). Large shallow stones create safe landing spaces for bees and butterflies.
- Safe Havens for Garden Birds. Keep cats indoors at dusk/dawn (avoid wooden posts that claws can climb) and also avoid coloured/tin bird houses (these over-heat and attract predators). Turn off lights when not in use (and avoid facing indoor plants to gardens, to stop birds flying into windows).
