How to Encourage Wildlife into Your Garden

Whether you are blessed with a large garden or a compact outdoor space, there are small things you can do to encourage our beautiful British wildlife to frequent your garden. You can support species as well as creating lovely sights and sounds for you to enjoy (gardening for wildlife has also been shown to improve health and wellbeing!).

Water

Create a calming, peaceful environment within your garden with a water feature that not only acts as a focal point but also provides much needed water to birds and other wildlife.

While bird baths offer a practical solution, elegant water features are both complementary to the garden, and can satisfy the basic needs of small garden visitors. Place a bench a few metres away and sit back and relax while you watch the wildlife you attract.

No mow 

Did you take part in #NoMowMay? If not, don’t worry, letting your lawn grow a little longer every now and then throughout the year provides wildlife with great resources to flourish and survive. Even better, leaving designated areas of unmown lawn to continuously grow through spring and summer gives grasses time to fully grow and seed, and wildflowers the opportunity to bloom, providing much needed habitats for insects to live and birds to feed. 

It also saves you time and effort too!

Flowers

Planting the right plants and flowers is an essential element to attracting beautiful bees, butterflies and other insects to inhabit your garden and feed from the pollen and nectar. 

Plants such as allium, dahlias and borage offer great amounts of pollen and nectar through the summer and into autumn, but also consider planting crocus and hellebore which are great options for bees in the colder months, should they be around. 

Homes & Food 

Adding small wooden structures within your garden such as bird tables and bird & bee houses provides valuable habitats for garden visitors, and encourages them to return time and time again. Not only will birds and bees enjoy these to rest and feed, but you can peacefully sit back on a garden bench or chair and enjoy them too as they come and go and turn your garden into their home. Placing bread and seeds out on bird tables or in feeders, and fat balls nearby will be sure to invite a flurry of different species. 

We hope we’ve been able to give you a few ideas for attracting some new wildlife into your garden and creating an enjoyable environment for both them and you!