Easy Wildlife Gardening Ideas for your own Garden

In 2023 we created a garden at RHS Malvern dedicated to giving the thousands of visitors to the Spring show simple wildlife garden ideas. Our ‘Wilder Spaces Garden’  won a coveted Gold Award, in addition to Best in Show, Best Construction and the People’s Choice Award, earning national acclaim and featuring on BBC Gardener’s World. The point of the garden was to take wildlife-friendly gardening to a new level, combining beauty with biodiversity. Our aim was to demonstrate to garden lovers what can be done, in a relatively small space to help nature’s recovery and that a garden with nature at its heart does not have to look boring.

Making your Garden Attractive to Wildlife

Our gardens can be busy worlds of wildlife heaving with nature. Take a few simple measures and to attract wildlife and it will follow. It’s not hard to achieve, you just need to embrace the diversity that wildlife brings and most importantly, take a more relaxed attitude!  Tolerating a few weeds is a good place to begin. Some lacy cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris, makes a wonderful back drop to most planting schemes. It may need to be kept in check but it’s an easy ‘weed’ to keep on top of.

Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing‘ is a pretty form of the more common cow parsley, bearing clusters of tiny, cream-white flowers in contrast with its lacy, dark purple leaves. A great addition to a sunny garden border.  

Wildlife Gardening Ideas to Attract Birds

There is so much pleasure to be had from watching the antics of the aerobatic blue tits as they swing upside down from a twig, or the robin perched on the gardener’s spade or the evening song of the blackbird. Food, water and shelter are the chief attractions for birds in a garden and even a small garden can offer all three. A living boundary between gardens, such as a hedge, is not only more visually appealing than a fence but make a perfect wildlife haven without taking up too much more space. A hedge can make a good nest site, particularly intruder-proof hedges such as berberis, holly or hawthorn. If a  fence is essential, clothe it with various climbers to liven it up and provide nesting areas. Plants that produce autumn berries, such as cotoneaster or pyracantha are easy to grow and a magnet for thrushes.

 

 

 

Wildlife Gardening Ideas to Attract Butterflies

Throughout the summer different species of butterfly will visit most gardens seeking food. They are easy to lure by providing plenty of nectar-rich blooms. The aptly named butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii,  is the first choice for attracting vast numbers of butterflies. Butterflies flock to flowers like native bluebells, scented lavender, red campion, cornflower, primrose, bird’s-foot-trefoil and clover. You don’t even need a garden for this wildlife gardening idea, many will grow  in a window box or large pot. Try to include a mix that of flowers at different times of year to support other wildlife.

 

 

Water in the Garden to Attract Wildlife

If you want to make just one addition to attract wildlife into the garden, make it water. Even a small birdbath or tiny pond will be a mecca for birds, insects, frogs and newts. In so many of our gardens at this time of year it’s probably best to let nature takes its course and simply enjoy watching the various visitors. In cold weather, water is important for our all our native birds so as well as laying on food you may want to consider opening a drinks bar. They aren’t too fussy – a simple bird bath will do the trick and they won’t turn their beaks up at an old dustbin lid, just make sure it’s kept clean and unfrozen and enjoy watching them splashing about.

 

 

A Garden Pond

If you have a larger garden, consider creating a wildlife pond or bog garden. A lush bog garden filled with moisture-loving plants will soon be found by toads, hedgehogs and many insects who will use the leaves for shelter. It is thought that some amphibians, such as frogs and newts are now more common in garden ponds than in the countryside. You can build a pond at any time during the year, but if you start in autumn or late winter, it will get quickly get established in summer months. If you place stones, logs and plants around the edges this will create habitats for other wildlife.  Adding a plank of wood as a ramp will help any wildlife that might accidentally fall in. And include a gently sloping ‘beach’ area to give an entrance and exit route. If plants are well chosen, and the pond is kept in a relatively balanced ecological state, it shouldn’t need much maintenance at all.

 

 

Wildlife Gardening Ideas to Attract Bees

Bees provide us with an invaluable service by pollinating our plants so it is vital that we help them in our gardens. There are things every gardener can do. One of the simplest ways is by growing flowers rich in pollen and nectar.  It’s important to grow a range of plants that will provide a continuous flowering period, especially in early spring and late autumn when nectar in the wild is in shorter supply. Make sure to grow single flower cultivars, if you’re not sure, many garden centres provide advice on what plants are suitable for attracting bees so it’s good to ask before you buy. Creating a ‘bee hotel’ s a great way to boost the bee diversity, by attracting the solitary bee species and fun for children to help make.

 

Biodiverse Roof for Wildlife

One of the latest Wildlife Gardening Ideas that has quickly become popular, is to use roof space for planting, even the top of a wooden bin store can become a haven for wildlife to give prolonged foraging for insects. The concept of biodiverse roofs is that a plain, low nutrient material  is used to plant a small selection of hardy plant species which also help bind the whole system together. Low growing herbs, such as thyme, chamomile, prostrate rosemary and chives are ideal plants for a living roof. In addition we used wild strawberries on the roof of our pavilion, which, given time, will seed themselves freely over the area.

Using Re-Cycled Materials for Wildlife

Some of the most unassuming garden features can house thriving worlds of wildlife. For example, old terracotta tiles or a small sheet of corrugated iron, placed flat on the ground in full sun will attract slow worms and toads in summer, as well as other shade-loving creatures. Dead-wood piles in partial shade are very attractive to a range of wildlife, especially if some logs are part-buried for larvae of species like stag beetles to feed, and others are in sun for a few hours each day, where flying insects will bask. Sadly, due to ash die back disease there is no shortage of dead ash wood in gardens, to help wildlife leave old tree stumps to create a natural ‘bug hotel.

By allowing nature to take its course, you can have a beautiful garden, filled with wildlife of all descriptions.