Wildlife Gardens
Wildlife Gardens
With just a bit of effort, however small, you can turn your garden into a havan for wildlife.
Attracting Birds to Your Garden
Food To Leave For Birds
- Bird Seed Mix - widely available from garden centres
- Black sunflower seeds - excellent year all round food
- Peanuts - Salted or dry roasted peanuts should not be used
- Meaty tinned dog and cat food - forms a substiture to worms during warm summers.
Foods To Avoid
- Milk - A bird's gut is not designed to digest milk
- Cooked porridge oats - this can harden around a bird's beak.
- Mouldy and stale food - this can lead to food poisoning such as salmonella. If food is being left to go mouldy, you are probably putting out too much food.
Attracting Butterflies
You can easily attract butterflies to your garden by planting lots of flowering plants. Plants that atttract butterflies include:
- Buddleia
- Scabious
- valerian
- Stinging nettles - leave a patch of your garden to grow wild - both the tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies lay their eggs on stinging nettles.
Attracting Amphibians
Garden ponds are being increasingly important for amphibians. As streams and natural ponds become polluted or filled in, amphibians are looking for new homes.
A garden wildlife pond should have:
- A gentlly shelving profile - amphibians need easy access to and from the pond. Amphibians hibernate under logs or vegetation and return to water to breed in the spring.
- Full sunlight - remove any overhanging tree branches.
- High quality water - avoid any pollution from household waste, cars or garages.
- No ornamental fish. Fish will eat the spawn and tadpoles.
Attracting Bugs and Small Animals
Hibernating toads, ground and rove beetles, fungi, newts and frogs can all easily be atttracted to your garden by:
- Leaving a pile of wood or dead tree branches in a quiet part of your garden for hibernating amphibians.
- Letting wood rot naturally in a damp corner to attract minibeasts.
