If, like the team here at Irrigatia, you love to see your local wildlife paying your garden a visit then making sure your garden is as wildlife-friendly as possible is key. But could you do more to attract even more nature to your outdoor space? We’ve put together our seven top easy-to-follow tips to help you encourage more wildlife into your garden.
Consider your plant choices
The plants you choose for your garden make a huge amount of difference to the wildlife it attracts, so it’s important to consider having a bit of variety when planning your borders and pots. Bee and butterfly-friendly lavender, hawthorn, and verbena are a fantastic for attracting pollinators, but it’s equally as important to consider adding plants with fruit and berries for birds and mammals to enjoy too. Remember too that many double flowers do not supply the nectar and pollen that single ones do.
Start a compost heap
Not only is compost incredibly handy to have on hand at home and a fantastic way to help reduce your household waste, but composters and compost heaps make wonderful habitats for frogs, worms, woodlice and many other insects by providing essential shelter and safety from predators. But take care when digging out the compost, as hedgehogs also like to shelter there!
Improve your garden access
If you want to see more mammals, such as hard-to-spot hedgehogs, in your garden, then make it as easy as possible for them to visit! Leave small gaps in your fences to provide access to your garden. It’s also important to ensure your garden provides enough cover for wildlife – plant up any bare areas in your garden to help provide safe access for smaller animals such as frogs and newts.
Don’t be tempted to make everything neat and tidy
We all have different gardening styles, but whatever yours is, make sure you leave an animal friendly corner or two! If you like a neat and tidy space, or maybe you love your lawn or patio areas, it’s especially important for you to consider leaving some areas untouched in order for wildlife to thrive – leave a corner for leaves and grass clippings, for example. It will encourage more insects to your garden, which provide an essential food source for birds, reptiles and mammals.
Try your hand at becoming more sustainable
At Irrigatia we’re all about gardening in an eco-friendly way, but it’s not just about watering. Avoid pesticides, try to use homemade composts, and choose sustainably-sourced wood for patio furniture – you can even try your hand at ‘companion planting’, whereby combinations of certain plants work together in order to provide natural pest control and improve soil nutrients. Gardener’s World provide a great introduction to companion planting here.
Introduce water to your garden
If you have the space, then consider adding some water to your garden by creating a pond or even a small pool for wildlife. Adding a water feature will encourage amphibians, such as frogs and newts to your garden, and they come with the added benefit of controlling unwanted pests and annoying flies too!
Create a rock garden
If you’re anything like us, you’ll be constantly coming across stone and rubble in your borders. Save up these rocks, however big or small, and pile them up in a quiet corner of your garden to act as a bug hotel. A rockery or rock garden of this sort provides essential shelter to a huge variety of bugs, spiders and mammals such as field mice.