Rewild Your Garden (a haven for birds, bees and butterflies)

Rewild Your Garden is an illustrated guide to bring wildlife back to your garden, often by just leaving things be. In this practical guide, horticulturalist Frances Tophill (a presenter on BBC 4’s Gardener’s World) shows how to plan and maintain a beautiful garden that will attract bees, birds and a throng of unsung garden heroes.

Read more on no-dig gardening and humane slug/snail deterrents. If you live with animal friends, read up on pet-friendly gardens. 

Whether you have a small balcony or a large open space, discover the joys of welcoming natural ecosystems back to your garden.

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).