Wildlife Tips
🌿 Welcome More Wildlife into Your Garden
Your garden can be so much more than a pretty outdoor space — with the right ideas it can become a thriving haven for wildlife. From birds and butterflies to hedgehogs and helpful insects, inviting nature into your garden not only boosts biodiversity but also adds sound, movement and life that everyone loves. Here’s how you can make your outdoor space irresistible to wildlife.
🍒 1. Plant for All Seasons
Grow a blend of trees, shrubs, climbers and flowers that provide food and shelter through the year. Think berry-bearing plants like hawthorn, rowan or blackthorn, autumn seed heads and nectar-rich flowers such as lavender and buddleia — all of which offer natural nourishment for birds, bees and butterflies.
🌼 Tip: Having a variety of plants means something’s always in bloom, so there’s food from early spring through late autumn and beyond.
💧 2. Add Water Features
Water is essential. Even a shallow bird bath, a small pond or a gently flowing feature offers drinking and bathing spots for birds, insects and small mammals. If space is tight, a large plant pot, trough or container works beautifully too.
🦆 Wildlife tip: Include a gentle slope or rocks so small creatures can climb in and out safely.
🐦 3. Provide Food & Feeding Stations
Supplement natural sources with bird feeders and feeding stations filled with sunflower hearts, seeds, suet balls and peanuts — these are especially helpful in winter when food is scarce.
💦 Remember: Always keep feeders and water clean to help birds stay healthy.
🏡 4. Create Shelter & Habitat
Not all wildlife comes for food. Many creatures need places to live, nest and hibernate. You can support them by:
Leaving dead wood piles or stone piles for insects and amphibians.
Letting a corner of lawn grow longer to offer cover for small mammals.
Installing bird boxes, bat boxes and bug hotels to create homes.
🦔 Garden advice: Adding a small gap in fencing lets hedgehogs and other mammals travel safely between gardens.
🌼 5. Go Wild (in a Good Way!)
Leaving areas a little “messy” — such as piles of leaves or uncut plant stems in winter — gives insects and other wildlife vital winter shelter and breeding ground. This doesn’t mean your garden is unkempt — just balanced for nature’s benefit.
💡 Bonus: Sow wildflower mixes or create a mini meadow patch to attract bees, butterflies and beneficial insects in abundance.
🌱 6. Garden with Nature in Mind
Avoid pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals where you can — these can harm pollinators and wildlife food chains. Composting garden waste not only improves soil health but also provides habitats for decomposers like beetles and worms.
🌞 Final Thought
Your garden doesn’t have to be huge to be wildlife-friendly. With thoughtful planting, water, food and shelter, you’ll soon notice more birdsong, fluttering wings and curious visitors exploring your outdoor space. 🐦🐝🦔
Would you like help choosing specific plants and accessories to attract wildlife? Just ask — I can create tailored suggestions for your garden size and style!
Resources for Eco- Concious Gardening
There is an abundance of excellent, freely available information for gardeners who want to work with nature rather than against it.
Below is a carefully curated selection of websites, podcasts, organisations and books that I personally use and trust. They provide reliable guidance, inspiration and deeper understanding of wildlife gardening, biodiversity and ecological planting.
All are well worth bookmarking and many can also be followed on social media.
Podcasts Worth Listening To
The Wildlife Garden Podcast
Hosted by organic gardeners Ellie and Ben, this podcast although no longer still being run still offers well-researched, accessible discussions covering everything from plants and pollinators to wider biodiversity topics.
Their light-hearted, engaging approach makes it easy listening — ideal to enjoy while working in the garden — with the added bonus that you’ll finish each episode a little wiser than when you started.
Highly recommended for gardeners at any stage of their wildlife gardening journey.
Wildlife Gardening Websites to Bookmark
The Wildlife Garden Project
www.wildlifegardenproject.com
Founded in 2010 by Laura Turner, The Wildlife Garden Project is a Community Interest Company (CIC) run by a small, passionate team.
The website offers:
Practical articles and tutorials
YouTube videos
Clear advice on creating and managing wildlife-friendly gardens
They also host a Wildlife Garden Directory, helping connect gardeners with local, eco-friendly garden businesses. An excellent and continually growing resource.
Wildlife Garden Forum
www.wlgf.org
The Wildlife Garden Forum is one of the most comprehensive free resources available for gardeners interested in supporting wildlife.
It covers a wide range of topics including:
- Wildlife ponds
- Birds, mammals and invertebrates
- Wildlife-supporting plants
Content is contributed by scientists and highly knowledgeable amateur naturalists. Once familiar with the layout, it becomes an invaluable reference — without the need to purchase specialist books (unless you’re a fellow enthusiast).
NBN Atlas Scotland
scotland-species.nbnatlas.org
Every garden, regardless of size, supports wildlife. Even heavily hard-landscaped spaces provide habitat below ground or attract visiting species.
The National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Atlas Scotland is a superb free tool that allows you to explore which species are recorded in your local area — invaluable knowledge when designing or adapting a wildlife-friendly garden.
You can:
Search by address, postcode or area
Explore groups such as birds, insects or plants
Click individual species profiles to learn about habitats, behaviour and ecological relationships
This resource is continually updated and is easy to dip into or explore in depth. As an ecologically focused gardener, I find it endlessly informative.
Buglife
www.buglife.org.uk
Buglife is the only organisation in the UK dedicated solely to the conservation of invertebrates, including insects, worms, snails and slugs.
Their work includes:
Campaigning against harmful pesticides
Promoting habitat creation across the UK
Raising awareness of the vital role invertebrates play in healthy ecosystems
An essential organisation for anyone serious about wildlife gardening.
Field Studies Council
www.field-studies-council.org
The Field Studies Council produces excellent laminated identification guides covering bees, beetles, butterflies, birds and more.
These guides are:
Affordable
Practical
Far easier to use outdoors than books
Despite their low cost, the quality is exceptional. The suggested donation is well deserved and helps support ongoing educational work.
Plantlife
www.plantlife.org.uk
Plantlife is an international conservation charity working to protect wild plants and fungi and restore natural and semi-natural habitats, from hay meadows to peatlands.
Their gardening campaigns — such as No Mow May, Let It Bloom June and Knee-High July — encourage us to allow our gardens to become richer refuges for wildlife.
The website provides:
Step-by-step gardening advice
Practical management guidance
Inspiration for creating more species-rich gardens
Their Scottish office is based at Stirling University, and the Scotland-specific section of the site highlights local projects and places to visit.
Books for Further Reading
If you’d like to explore wildlife gardening in more depth, these books are excellent additions to any gardener’s bookshelf:
Baines, Chris — Companion to Wildlife Gardening, Frances Lincoln, 2023
Goulson, Dave — The Garden Jungle, Penguin Random House, 2019
Goulson, Dave — Silent Earth, Vintage, 2022
Lowenfels Jeff - Teaming with Nutrients, The Organic Gardeners Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutition, Timber Press, 2013
Lowenfels, Jeff - Teaming with Microbes, The Organic Gardeners Guide to The Soil Food Web, Timber Press, 2006
Lowenfels, Jeff - Teaming with Bacteria, The O, G, Guide to Endophytic Bacteria and the Rhizophagy Cycle, Timber Press, 2022
Nardi, James B - Life in the Soil, A Guide to Naturalists & Gardeners, Chicago 2007
Thomas, Adrian — Gardening for Wildlife, Bloomsbury, 2021
Willis, Kathy - Good Nature, The New Science of How Nature Improves our Health, Bloomsbury 2024