Wildlife Gardening

Do you want to get into wildlife gardening? Not sure how to progress beyond pollinator-friendly flowers and feeding the birds and hedgehogs?

Maybe you are a little put off by the thought that a “proper” wildlife garden is scruffy and uninteresting? Well, it doesn't have to be. It's true that nature isn't too keen on tidiness, but there is a lot you can do by making just a few changes and still have a pretty garden. Every type of creature needs space to feed, breed and rest, from the tiny invertebrates found in soil, to the more charismatic type of animal like foxes and birds - and everything in nature is used by something. Invertebrates known as detrivores eat rotting vegetation and other waste matter. Larger invertebrates, birds, small mammals and amphibians eat the detrivores and other insects.

Larger mammals and birds eat the smaller ones. In return, populations are controlled, seeds are spread, flowers are pollinated, flower, fruit, and eventually die and rot, and dung and guano is produced by the mammals and birds, all of which feeds the detrivores and fertilises the plants. It's a beautiful balancing act which we humans are busy unbalancing. But as gardeners we can really make a difference. Here are a few small but important changes you can make:

• Provide a water source. If it can be a small pond, you'll also be providing breeding space for frogs, newts, toads etc.

• Make space for trees and hedges. They are just so valuable

Judy Staines to nature that I haven't space to name the ways in which they help. Suffice it to say that an Oak tree supports a massive 2,300 species of wildlife! And the important thing is that trees actually become more valuable as they age and begin to decay. Hedges provide nesting and roosting space for birds, and should not be cut between March and the end of August unless you are absolutely sure there are no nests.

• This brings me neatly to dead wood. If you can find space in your garden for a little log pile you can offer a resting and breeding space for countless animals from invertebrates to amphibians, and even the odd wren or robin.