Published 12/06/2023
by Richard Howlett
There is very little that is more relaxing than feeling close to nature. The sights, the sounds, the smells; they all have a zen-like quality to them that work wonders for your mental and physical health.
So, what if you brought a little more of that nature and wildlife to your own back garden?
Here are a few ideas to help you do just that!
This is probably the easiest way to make a noticeable difference to your garden. By putting out an array of feeds and feeders you can attract a lot of different birds to your own green space, and watching them come and go can be very rewarding.
Sparrows and blue tits like to get some seed out of a hanging feeder, whereas robins prefer a bird table. You can also get suet blocks or fat balls to help attract a wider range of birds, and the filled coconut halves prove very popular too.
We all like a well manicured lawn, but our insect friends would much prefer it if you just let it grow wild! One suggestion is to section off one part of the garden that you can just allow to grow wild with grasses, weeds and flowers, and this will allow insect life to thrive and will even attract more bees and butterflies.
You can quite easily get hold of wildflower seeds from garden centres or online, which can be sprinkled into these wild areas so you can sit back and wait to see what grows next Spring.
Bugs might not be your favourite thing to be seeing more of, but they are an essential part of a healthy wild garden, and a bug hotel will give them a great place to nest and thrive.
You can make these as big or as small as you like, depending on what space is available. I have seen people use a stack of wooden pallets filled with an array of scavenged items to create a huge bug paradise, and I have also seen small wooden boxes hung on a fence that create a more modest hotel.
Bamboo attracts bees, pine cones attract ladybirds, and damp wood and sticks are great for woodlice and centipedes.
Solitary bees (those that don’t have a hive) like to nest inside tubes and tunnels, laying their eggs and covering up the end with mud. Bees are essential for helping our crops and wild spaces to thrive, and so we should help them out as much as we can.
You can make a bee house quite easily using an empty plant pot or drinks bottle and packing it with hollowed out bamboo. Alternatively you can drill doles of varying sizes in some wood or logs for the bees to nest in. Find some handy instructions on how to build yours
here.
A pile of logs in a damp shady spot is a perfect shelter for any wildlife passing through. If you fill any gaps with dead leaves, then you might see a visiting hedgehog or toad, as well as all the usual creepy crawlies. Make sure to cut a small hole in your fence at either side of your garden to create a ‘hedgehog highway’.
Have you got any further tips on how to attract wildlife to your garden? Please let us know in the comments below!
