Summer
Wildlife Gardening The garden in summer is busy, as froglets and toadlets leave the pond for the first time, fledgling birds beg for food, and the whole garden buzzes with life. In the sky, swallows, house martins and swifts gather insects to feed their young, and at night bats take their place, foraging among the treetops or swooping low over ponds.
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If you haven’t already, leave an area of grass to grow long, particularly around your pond. Long grass provides the perfect shelter for young amphibians and food for the caterpillars of several butterflies, including the ringlet, meadow brown and speckled wood. Here, you’ll also find beetles and bugs, plentiful prey for a variety
Kate Bradbury is passionate about wildlifefriendly gardening and the author of Wildlife Gardening for Everyone and Everything in association with The Wildlife Trusts.
of species further up the food chain, like hedgehogs. Later in the season, the grasses will seed and you may spot house sparrows stripping them for food. Avoid strimming your grass at all if you can, but if you must, be sure to check for hedgehogs and other wildlife first! Being more tolerant of naturally occurring plants is also important in a wildlife garden. Anything from dandelions to nettles, dock and chickweed, provide food and shelter for a wide range of species. Let them flourish! Or at least leave a few around the edges. It’s also a good time to do an audit of flowering plants in your garden. Fill gaps with flowering annuals such as cosmos
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