When you are spending time, effort and money renovating a garden, it isn’t always simply for you and your friends to enjoy the space. Designing your garden in the correct way means that you will encourage wildlife into your garden, allowing them to enjoy it, which could mean that you enjoy it even more. What is more, if you make an effort to attract a wide variety of wildlife, you could actually be helping nature. In encouraging animals from minibeasts to birds you are providing for the whole food chain, without spending money on expensive supplements. Here are some of the best ways of encouraging a variety of wildlife into your garden.
Logs
A medium sized pile of undisturbed logs in a dark, damp corner of the garden is a great way of attracting a wide variety of insects. The less you interrupt this area, the more the insects will thrive. In turn, an increase in insects will mean that the number of birds in your garden will also increase. The same outcome can also be achieved through making a pile of large rocks in a similar type of area.
Trees and Shrubs
Even if you have a smaller garden, trees and shrubs are still a method of encouraging wildlife there. Larger trees and shrubs will provide birds with a place to nest. However, even smaller of these plants, providing they bear fruit, will attract badgers, birds and even deer that will feed from them.
Water
Whatever the size of the water feature in your garden, it will attract animals into your garden. Smaller features, such as bird baths, will provide drinking water and a place to bathe for birds. Larger areas, such as ponds will also serve these purposes, but will also attract a variety of amphibians into your outside space.
Hedgerows
Hedgerows will encourage smaller mammals to spend time in your garden, as they will provide shelter from larger predators. Hedgehogs, rabbits and mice are just some of the smaller animals that rely on hedgerows as a place of shelter.
Flowers
Flowers are fantastic for attracting flying insects into the garden. You should really choose flowers that provide pollen and nectar for as much time of the year as possible, ideally from Spring through until mid-autumn. Ivy would make a particularly good choice as it is usually late to bloom and will provide pollen and nectar into early winter. You don’t have to worry about the plants being native to the UK, either. Insects are very rarely bothered about this. The main thing is to avoid too many flowers that are large with blowsy flowers as these often provide little or no pollen and nectar. This means that, while they may look pretty, they will do very little in the way of attracting wildlife.
Do you have any more tips on how to encourage a wide variety of wildlife into a garden? Share your tips in the comments!
