Wildlife friendly gardens (advice from the experts)

A wildlife-friendly garden can be beautiful, productive and full of life. Whether you have a small outdoor space or big garden, simple swaps can help birds, bees, butterflies, hedgehogs and frogs.

If you share your home with animal friends, learn about pet-friendly gardens (many plants and mulches are unsafe near animal friends). And use nontoxic humane slug and snail deterrents (organic  gardens should take care of this by attracting birds, ladybirds, frogs and toads).

If you find any creature needing help, contact your local wildlife rescue (or take to the vet if you can’t get through – there is no charge to you).

You can recycle empty toxic liquid bottles with councils. For product inside, take to your council’s hazardous waste department.

Learn the basics of wildlife-friendly gardening

10 Steps to a Nature Garden, from Patch of the Planet, is a self-paced online course with more than four hours of video lessons, practical exercises and an online learning community called Patch Pals.

Created by ecological gardeners with experience in permaculture and fruit trees, the course covers ways to make a garden more welcoming to wildlife, from small insects to visiting mammals.

Use no-dig gardening and peat-free compost

• No-dig gardening (where you use mulch over forks or spades – don’t pass them on to harm other creatures) protects earthworms which do most work for you, and stag beetles (big grubs you find in soil).
• Use peat-free compost (keep fresh compost and mulch: cocoa/pine/rubber away from pets). Move piles before raking to avoid harm to hogs and frogs (avoid bonfires).
• Choose native plants that support local pollinators (avoid ‘plantable cards and gift wrap’ as most contain non-native plants and are pet-toxic).

Make your garden safer for birds

Keep cats indoors at dawn and dusk (when birds are likely feeding) and avoid wooden table  bird tables (that claws can climb up).

Birds are best with their own natural environments (berry hedges and tall trees). It’s important to know what not to feed birds, and how to site and clean feeders and nest boxes. Read more on safe havens for garden birds.

Also read how to stop birds flying into windows (switching off lights and avoiding facing plants to gardens is good, but there are other tips like how to site feeders, and visual markers that can stop bird strike).

Provide water safely for creatures 

Read the post on garden water safety. As basics:

• Choose shallow (non-slippery bowls) with large stones as landing pads.
• Ensure sloping sides for wildlife-friendly ponds.
• Avoid open barrels (drowning hazards for all)
• Choose pet-child-safe water butts.
• Don’t leave out stagnant water (attracts mosquitoes).
• Troughs on farms are hazards, read more on how to help wild owls.

Leave shelter for hibernating wildlife

Leave out leaf litter, log piles and hollow stems for wildlife to shelter (and hibernating mammals can sleep through winter):

• Prickly hedgehogs (need ‘hedgehog highways’ to move between gardens at night). If you have pets, cover up holes during the day, when hogs are asleep). Also cover drain holes and remove litter.
• Sleepy dormice (farmers can plant hazelnut trees, which they fatten up on, to get through their long winter sleep).
• (not-scary) bats! (illegal to disturb unless a bat rescuer). Plant night-scented flowers for nectar. Evening primrose and lavender are listed as non-toxic to most pets (beware conflicting info for rabbits and guinea pigs)
• If knocking down old sheds, check for foxes (make dens underneath) and hibernating bats and hedgehogs. Check hoglets have left home (at least 8 weeks after giving birth, which can be from spring to July).

Use hand tools (carefully) around long grass

These telescopic edging shears have handles that adjustfor people with shoulder/arm problems, and have steel blades shaped to better grip grass. Clean and dry after use, wipe blades with vegetable oil.

Avoid artificial grass (heats up too much) and avoid robotic mowers (slow-moving wildlife can’t escape in time). Read more on organic lawns (also safer for children and pets). 

Avoid strimmers, they cause awful injuries (if used, sweep through grass with a broom gently beforehand, to give wildlife time to escape).

How to dispose of unwanted strimmers

• Don’t recycle strimmers on, they could harm other wildlife. Enter your postcode at  Recycle Your Electricals, they will be made into scrap metal.
• All stores that sell electrical goods must take old ones back by law (even if you are not buying something new). 
• Ensure petrol tanks are empty (use a siphon pump and pour into a jerry can for disposal at hazardous waste -don’t pour down drain). If the strimmer has been sitting for a long time, drain the carburettor by loosening the drain bolt under the float bowl, to remove residual stale fuel, and dispose of safely as above.

Protecting garden fruits (without netting)

Most netting on sale is too large holes (so trap owls to bats to birds). Plus the wrong colours (not seen by wildlife). Instead, fruit tree protectors are made with tiny mesh that is safer to birds and wildlife.

Remove for pollination (this enables bees to reach the flowers, or no fruit will develop). Ensure ties are secure at the bottom to prevent access, and fruit from dropping out that would attract rodents. 

Designed with a sealable opening side, the net lifts and secures over trees and shrubs, to keep out cherry worm, aphids, fruit fly, wasps and birds, and also insulate crops from frost, heavy rain and hail.

The ultrafine 1mm mesh is designed to be used in early spring to protect blossom, and in summer/autumn to protect fruit. Ideal for fruit bushes along with cherry, peach, plum, nectarine, apricot, apple and pear trees. You’ll need two people and two long lightweight poles to lift and drape over trees.

Fruit protector bags are similar, for smaller bushes. Sold in a pack of 10, these breathable bags let air and moisture flow. Again remove for pollination. They have drawstrings for easy closure (ensure ties are properly secure to avoid entanglement). Ideally these should be made with biodegradable twine) 

If you see creatures caught in netting, call your local wildlife rescue (don’t try to remove yourself, you could do more harm than good). Also stow away rotary washing lines and football nets after use (ideally use a Goal Wall).

Urban birds can be deterred by quality spikes (good quality brands) that make landing uncomfortable on buildings, but cause no harm.

Where to recycle garden netting

Cut into small pieces (less than 6 inches) then bundle tightly in a plastic bag and seal with plastic-free tape before safe disposal (ask your council where).

Don’t compost citrus fruit or onion ‘netting’ as it’s plastic. Instead, buy produce loose or use zero waste produce bags ). To dispose of existing fruit netting, cut open holes and place inside a larger sealed bag for disposal (tie a knot in the middle) at supermarket bins (/recycle metal clips). 

Before recycling cans, rinse then pop ring-pulls back over holes (or remove lids fully). Then step on upper cans so wildlife can’t get trapped. Also rinse before recycling glass bottles, to deter inquisitive wildlife.