Patch of the Planet’s 10-Step Nature Gardening Course
If you want easy tips on how to grow a wildlife-friendly garden, look no further than Patch of the Planet’s wonderful self-paced course 10 Steps to a Nature Garden.
This couple blend years of experience on environmental campaigning, ecological design, permaculture and fruit trees, to grow beautiful spaces that you’ll not only adore, but so will visiting mammals to tiny insects!
Read our organic gardening posts. Also read about pet-friendly gardens, if you live with furry friends.
Tips for Wildlife-Friendly Gardens
Here are a few simple tips, to create a nature/wildlife-friendly garden!
- 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 (this 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, but avoid netting and have sloping sides. A few large stones in shallow ponds or bowls, create safe landing spaces for bees and butterflies.
- Safe Havens for Garden Birds. Keep cats indoors at dusk/dawn (avoid wooden posts) and avoid coloured/tin bird houses (these over-heat and attract predators). Turn off indoor lights when not in use (and avoid facing indoor plants to gardens, to stop birds flying into windows).
