Practical ways to encourage wildlife into your garden

Planting for Wildlife

There are several ways to adjust your planting scheme to benefit your local wildlife. Maybe think about growing native trees & shrubs such as oak, hawthorn, rowan, blackthorn. Lavender, foxglove, heather, primrose, crocus are pollinator-friendly flowers for multi-level habitats, then include layered planting: trees, shrubs, and groundcover 

Water Features

Adding a water feature no matter how small will benefit a wide variety of wildlife.  Ponds encourage frogs, newts and insects, even a birdbath or shallow water dishes are beneficial for birds and pollinators. On a larger scale, how about a natural swimming pool or even a rain garden to manage water and support wetland plants?

Shelter & Nesting

All wildlife needs shelter so maybe let´s not be so tidy in the autumn and leave areas for them to hunker down for the winter.  Log piles, dead hedges or even just leave the dead wood where it lays for beetles, hedgehogs and soil organisms.

Edible Landscaping

Harvesting during the Autumn is always so satisfying but maybe leave some of the fruits, berries, seed heads on the trees and plants for our little friends. Plant an abundance of fruit trees, berry bushes and herbs.

Lawns & Meadow Areas

‘No Mow May’ is a catchy phrase isn’t it? But we at Mossy Rock cannot understand why you would stop mowing for one month and then just as the wildlife is building its home you then grab a mower and destroy it all. We would always encourage you to leave a specific area for the whole year or even forever instead.  Spring bulbs are perfect sustenance for bees when they reemerge in the spring.

With all the best intentions there are a few little things you can do to the benefit of your garden.

• Compost garden and kitchen waste to create fertile soil.

• Mulch beds to improve soil health and moisture retention.

• Avoid chemical pesticides and herbicides to protect insects and birds.

• Cut grass less frequently in wildlife zones.

Have fun helping wildlife, build those insect hotels, join up with your neighbours garden, you can even get hedgehog gates!

• Add rock piles or old pottery for solitary bees, insects, and amphibians.

• Grow climbing plants on walls and fences: ivy, honeysuckle, clematis.

• Create wildlife corridors connecting hedges, trees, and ponds.

• Place logs or stumps strategically to encourage fungi and microhabitats.