All year round
Get in to the habit of doing these and you'll make a constant difference to wildlife in your garden.
Butterfly larder
Butterflies don’t just need a nectar cafe. Their pretty, flying, forms are only one stage of their life cycle. Caterpillars need food too.
Cut back on the cutting back
Of all the wildlife-friendly things you can do in the garden, this is the easiest.
Ditch the hosepipe
Watering gardens only accounts for a small percentage of our water use, but it tends to come at the most difficult times, when supplies are already short.
Feed the birds
The best way to encourage birds into your garden is very simple: give them food.
Feed the mammals
Most wild mammals are nocturnal and appear secretive, so you may not know if you’ve ever had them in your garden.
Flowers for bumblebees
Different bumblebee species have different length tongues and this affects the kinds of flowers they can visit for nectar.
Go chemical free
If you’ve used chemicals in the past, this might sound like an invitation to every pest for miles around to shred your garden in days.
Let your lawn grow
Few of us have the patience to cultivate a perfect lawn. Fortunately a more relaxed approach can still produce an attractive result, and help wildlife.
Mulch your borders
Mulch is any covering of the soil to retain water and keep down weeds - but the best is well-rotted manure, garden compost or leaf mould.
Save a species
Save a species? Surely that sort of thing only happens on nature reserves?
Set up a nectar cafe
Many of the prettiest insects are nectar feeders that need flowers for their survival.
Source locally
That tropical hardwood patio table might look good and last for years, but what are the consequences of supporting its production?