Documents: Foreword by Chris Baines, Getting involved, Free leaflets, Wildlife trusts, Wildflower nurseries, Creating wildlife habitats, Wildlife tips, Links, Natural England, Bibliography, Acknowledgments.

General advice on wildlife gardening

These 'tips' offer general advice for gardeners wanting to 'work with nature'. These appear in a classified list below: Birds, Composting, Habitat creation, Invertebrates, Managing lawns, Pest control, Plants, Ponds.

General

• If you turn part of your lawn into a pond, use the turfs to make a grassy bank in the sun - an ideal spot for basking slow-worms.
• There are thought to be 15 million gardens in Britain.
• Gardens cover a larger area in England than all nature reserves combined.
• The use of peat by gardeners is destroying valuable wildlife habitat.
• There are now many alternatives to peat for all garden purposes.
• A log pile in a corner of the garden can be an invaluable wildlife habitat.
• Save water by using butts.
• Avoid using flexible mesh netting (eg pea netting) if grass snakes live nearby as they may get tangled in it and die.
• Mulch your beds and borders with bark or gravel and reduce the need for watering.
• Make a bog garden in an old sink or container.
• A garden sprinkler can use as much water in two hours as a family of four uses in two days - using a watering can around the roots of your plants is more efficient.
• Buy split reed rather than bamboo screens: the reed is sustainably harvested in Norfolk.
• Use water butts to collect rainwater from all roof spaces including your shed and greenhouse.

Birds

• Feeding birds all year round is now recommended by the RSPB; but seed is best in the nesting season - not peanuts.
• Place bird tables and feeders out of the reach of cats.
• Garden bird feeders are known to have attracted 81 different species in 2000.
• Sparrowhawks have to eat too - and they may take small birds from your garden.
• Trellises erected 20cm or so away from walls can provide safe spaces for nesting birds.
• Many bird species can be attracted to nest in gardens with artificial boxes.
• Most small birds will die in their first year: neither sparrowhawks nor magpies have any long-term effect on the numbers of their prey species.
• Experiment with different sorts of food to attract birds to your garden.
• Over-stocked bird feeders can attract rats. Try not to let seed build up on the ground.
• Honeysuckle and ivy provide a valuable nectar source and cover for nesting birds.
• Berry-bearing plants such as cotoneaster and rowan feed winter birds and may even attract exotic species such as waxwing in winter.
• If you have an apple tree, leave a few rotten apples in the autumn for blackbirds.
• Fit your cat with a bell - it gives small birds a chance.
• The berries on many ornamental plants like Amelanchier, and Leycesteria are as attractive to birds as native species.
• Birds need water as well as food - keep it unfrozen in winter.
• Grow hops in a hedge and leave the stems over winter to form a safe haven for sparrows when a sparrowhawk visits.
• Don't put up nestboxes in full summer sun - chicks can overheat and die.
• Smear fat on tree trunks to attract great spotted woodpeckers.
• Leave windfall fruit lying for the thrushes.
• Brush your dog outside, so birds can line their nests with the fur.
• Leave teasels standing throughout the winter to attract goldfinches.
• When teasels have been stripped of seed, smear the heads with fat and wedge in sunflower seeds.
• Some garden birds like dunnocks prefer to feed on the ground, so put seed under as well as on the bird table.
• Siskins are especially attracted to peanuts in orange mesh bags.
• Varieties of rowan and Pyracantha with yellow, pink or white berries are less attractive to birds than those with red berries.
• In a dry spring, moisten a patch of soil for house martins to gather mud for their nests.
• Do not feed birds anything salty - it can dehydrate and even poison them.

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Composting

• Compost all your garden - and uncooked vegetable - waste.
• Compost heaps can shelter slow-worms and grass snakes - be careful when digging them over!
• Don't burn your garden leaves - save them and turn them into leaf litter.
• Most garden compost contains peat - look for peat-free alternatives.
• Don't compost couch grass or bindweed or you may have to resort to weed-killers!
• Partially compost your grass clippings and then use them as a mulch around your plants. This keeps moisture in and weeds out, so you do less watering and less weeding.
• Garden waste can damage the countryside. Don't dump it. Take it to your nearest municipal tip or compost it yourself.
• Get together with your neighbours (or garden society) and buy a shredder between you so you can compost all your woody garden waste.
• Many local authorities sell compost bins cheaply: use several.

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Habitat creation

• 'Painting' yoghourt on rocks will provide good growing conditions for lichens.
• Use unwanted rubble constructively and build a stone and earth mound - great for hibernating newts and even lizards.
• Leave heaps of grass-cuttings in a sunny spot - grass snakes may use them for egg-laying.
• A carefully selected oak log, placed on damp ground to slow down drying out and loss of the bark, will grow an attractive cover of lichens and moss in a year or two.
• Use old logs in rockeries to make habitats for fungi, invertebrates and amphibians.
• Some bumblebees will nest in bird boxes. Don't evict them: they need nest sites too!
• A rotten log by a pond provides an excellent egg-laying site for southern hawker dragonflies.
• Don't throw your garden waste on to areas of wild habitat, especially if it contains non-native aliens.
• Whatever the time of year, check your bonfire pile before burning - hedgehogs may be hibernating (or wrens nesting) in them.
• If you have slow-worms in your garden, keep plenty of rough grass and some rocks and logs for shelter.
• Ivy on trees does no harm to the tree and provides food and shelter for wildlife.
• If you find bats in the loft when doing roof repairs or alterations, inform Natural England. All bats are strictly protected by law.
• Don't collect cobbles and boulders from beaches for your garden. They will support more wildlife left where they are.

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Invertebrates

• Dead wood provides food and shelter to hundreds of invertebrates.
• Try drilling holes in wooden posts to provide homes for solitary bees.
• Blackberry and raspberry flowers are a good nectar source for invertebrates.
• Birch trees have a rich invertebrate fauna and can attract many insect-eating feeding birds.
• Leave hollow, dead plant stems as hibernating sites for insect predators.
• Some garden centres sell ready-made hibernacula for beneficial insects like ladybirds and lacewings.
• Large insects and reptiles love to bask on mulched surfaces.
• Even a small nettle bed may help to attract summer butterflies if it's in a sunny spot.
• Many insects hibernate in grass tussocks: don't 'tidy up' your ornamental grasses until spring.
• A herb garden with thyme, mint, marjoram, rosemary and chives will support butterflies and bees throughout the summer.
• For a 'weed', sycamore is very useful, producing large numbers of a few species of insect to feed the birds.
• Don't destroy fruiting bodies of toadstools - they harbour dozens of rare insects.
• Winter-flowering heather, Erica carnea, is a vital source of nectar to insects roused from hibernation by a warm spell.
• Early-flowering shrubs like Lonicera, Viburnum and gorse are essential for the first bees of the year.
• Night-scented plants like honeysuckle and Nicotiana are very attractive to moths.
• Purple loosestrife is a spectacular wetland plant, as popular with butterflies and bees as buddleia.
• Try to provide both nectar and pollen early (with willows, blackthorn, hazel) and late (with eg ivy, Michaelmas daisy) in the season.
• Don't disturb hibernating butterflies outside. If you wake them, they'll use their reserves and die before the spring.
• If you need to remove hibernating butterflies from the house, put them in a cool dry place, away from spiders' webs.

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Managing lawns

• Maintaining formal lawns consumes vast amounts of energy - reduce their size and replace parts with wildflower meadows.
• Try turning part of your lawn into a wildflower habitat.
• Hay crops grown on lawns provide nectar and pollen for many insects.
• Hay crops on lawns offer seeds for birds, especially if the hay is cut and left to dry. Sparrows, bullfinches and even corn buntings may come in to feed.
• Hay crops on lawns provide cover during the summer for amphibians - but cut the lawn carefully to avoid fatalities.
• Lawn meadows can be a refuge for declining wild flowers.
• Lawn meadows make good spider habitat.
• Allow an old flower-rich lawn to grow a hay crop between May and July for a show of wild flowers.
• Sow new lawns with a wildflower mix, scattering the seed sparingly to avoid grasses out-competing the wild flowers.
• Mow new wildflower lawns in the first year and then let them grow longer for a few months each summer in subsequent years.
• Don't let yellow rattle seed for too long or you will kill the grass rather than reduce its growth rate!
• Cut a hay meadow after it has stopped flowering and revert to mowing it regularly.
• Use yellow rattle to control the growth of your grass and give wild flowers a chance.
• When you let a lawn grow long, start with a narrow strip furthest from your house, and mow 1' or so less each time. This gives a gradual rise in lawn height which is more pleasing to the eye than a sudden transition from short to long grass.
• Allow a clover rich lawn to have a flowery break for a week or two longer. The bees will thank you!
• Lawns facing the sun can attract solitary bees - allow them to nest undisturbed.
• Add fritillaries to your meadow - cheap to buy and easy to grow from seed in a pot.
• If badgers cross your lawn, decking can be used to cover up the signs, whilst leaving their paths undisturbed.
• Red clover, knapweed, bird's foot trefoil, vetches and yellow rattle are excellent food plants for long-tongued bumblebees: grow them in your lawn.
• Bird's foot trefoil and harebells make a stunning combination on a summer flowering lawn.
• You can make a lawn richer in flowers by adding pot-grown plants.
• Collect wildflower seed and grow it up in pots for your adding to your lawn.
• Yellow rattle is a grass parasite and must be sown direct into a lawn. Place seed in loose soil, such as worm-casts, in the summer and firm it down. Let nature do the rest.
• Let the flowers bloom - delay cutting part of your lawn until midsummer.
• When maintaining your lawn as a meadow, mow a margin around so the long grass doesn't collapse into the flower beds.
• If you have a big lawn or meadow, mow a path through it so you can watch the wildlife without trampling.
• Mow any areas you want as paths frequently, to prevent long grass developing and animals sheltering there which may then be harmed by lawnmowers.
• Set the lawnmower a little higher in summer: longer grass loses less water and will not go as brown in dry weather.

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Pest control

• Avoid using pesticides and herbicides as far as possible.
• Slug pellets can kill thrushes and hedgehogs as well as slugs.
• All pest species have natural predators - let nature solve your pest problems!
• Say 'no' to creosote: use pressure-treated timber or less-toxic chemical treatments.
• Work with nature - lavender or marigolds near roses may help to deter aphids.
• By removing pests from your own garden you may simply attract more from nearby.
• Kill unwanted weeds such as docks by inverting a clay plant-pot, with the hole covered, over the shoots.
• Holes in your apples? Use codling moth pheromone traps rather than pesticide sprays.
• Paint something sticky around the trunks of trees to reduce winter moth damage - the females cannot fly.
• Throw waste soapy water over garden plants and gain the added benefit of destroying aphids.
• Hoverflies are beneficial predators of garden pests and are especially attracted to poached-egg plant and Echinacea.
• Create a 'slug pub' ! Dig a small hole, insert a pot with the lip just above ground height and part fill with beer - a great humane way to keep your cabbages and dahlias slug free.
• Plastic bottles with the tops and bottoms removed can protect young plants from slugs and snails.
• Seek expert advice if you need to control rats in the garden. Remember that rodenticides are harmful to wildlife.
• Lacewings eat aphids. Make your own lacewing "hotel" from a plastic drink bottle. Cut off the bottom, stuff the bottle with straw and twigs and hang it up by its top end.

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Plants

• When buying bulbs, make sure they have not been taken from the wild.
• It's illegal to dig up any wild plant without the landowner's permission.
• Try to buy native trees and shrubs which have been grown locally.
• Avoid double varieties of flowers - these are less valuable for insects.
• Hedges of native trees and shrubs provide shelter for wildlife throughout the year.
• Try underplanting your hedge with native bulbs; but buy them from cultivated sources.
• Never discard unwanted garden pond plants - or any garden plant - into the wild.
• Allow plants to go to seed and provide food and shelter for wildlife in the winter.
• Collect fritillary seed from splitting seed pods. Scatter across compost and cover in quarter of an inch of sand. Left in the garden in a quiet spot it will germinate in the spring. Pot up small bulbs after two years and grow on in pots or in the lawn. They should flower after 4-5 years giving a stunning display.
• Avoid Spanish bluebells if native bluebells are in the area: they hybridise.
• When sowing wild flowers try to use local stocks.
• Snapdragons and foxgloves are good plants for bumblebees.
• When you visit the garden centre, choose plants which are obviously attracting bees there.
• If you grow primroses and other wildflowers, try to avoid disturbing the soil around them - it increases the chances of their seedlings appearing.
• Try these colourful wildflowers for borders - ladies smock, devil's bit scabious, greater knapweed and dyer's greenweed.
• Leave your sunflowers, cosmos and lavender to set seed: goldfinches love them!
• After ladies smocks have flowered, don't cut back the stems - they may be used by orange tip butterflies.
• If a tree is getting too big for your garden consider pollarding or coppicing it. Add the dead wood to a log pile.
• Even Leylandii cypress (in moderation!) has its value: dunnocks nest in the dense foliage and Blair's shoulder-knot moth eats it.
• Single-flowered cultivars of garden plants like Kerria and rose provide more nectar and pollen than the multi-petalled forms.
• Ivy is fundamental to garden biodiversity, providing abundant shelter and late-season nectar and berries.
• The bark of sycamores supports more types of lichen than any other tree.
• Say 'no' to mop-heads - they are sterile! Only lace-cap hydrangeas and guelder rose will provide pollen and nectar.
• Work with nature to save water. In a dry garden, grow useful and attractive drought-tolerant plants like geraniums and stonecrops.
• Check out the Flora Locale website for a source of locally sourced plants near you.
• If you have a verge outside your house, ask the local council if you can plant it with a few native trees: buy these very cheaply as whips and they won't need staking.
• Primroses will set seed very easily in lawns: remove the seedlings and grow them on in pots.

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Ponds

• Put inverted jam jars over young plants at night to protect them from slugs. But remember to remove them in the morning!
• The easiest wildlife habitat to create in a garden - and one of the most valuable - is a pond.
• Make sure your garden pond has gently sloping edges: hedgehogs can easily drown if they can't escape from water.
• Garden ponds provide an ideal haven for frogs.
• There are 25,000 garden ponds in Sheffield!
• Frogs, toads and slow-worms eat slugs - so do hedgehogs.
• Fish eat frog tadpoles: if you want frogs, avoid fish in your pond.
• Toads can survive in ponds with fish: fish find them distasteful.
• Smooth and palmate newt larvae will survive with fish - if there is plenty of aquatic weed cover.
• No room for a pond? Provide a birdbath!
• Why not make a rockery from the earth displaced when you dig your pond?
• Try to avoid filling your pond with tap water - why not divert water from your roof instead?
• Tap water can be enriched with nutrients and may make your pond thick with algae. Run-off from garden fertilisers is most often the cause of algal blooms.
• Even a very small pond can attract much wildlife.
• Clear out your pond in stages - not all at once.
• Site your pond where it gets maximum sunlight and least leaf litter.
• The more different depths you can get in your pond, the greater its value to wildlife.
• Sticklebacks and other fish will eliminate great crested newts from your pond.
• Make sure your pond has a good variety of native pond plants - marginal, submerged, and floating.
• Look at your pond at night with a torch to see species that normally hide away in the day. But be careful not to tread on newts coming out of the pond!
• Remove surplus aquatic weed and leaves from your pond to avoid frogs asphyxiating during frosty weather.
• Keep part of your pond free of ice for part of each day during the winter.
• Natural ponds often dry down in late summer in the wild, when sheep and cattle eat the fen vegetation. An autumn cut replicates this, benefits low fen species, and makes the pond tidier over winter.
• A shallow edge to a pond gives warmer water: better for tadpole development.
• A fenny margin to your pond provides pupating habitat for water beetles.
• Don't worry if your pond level drops in the summer. The 'draw down zone' is also a good wildlife habitat.
• A soil-filled margin around the edge of the pool will disguise ugly liners as water levels fall.
• Don't have grass along the margin of a pool if you want to avoid creeping grasses and clovers invading your marginal plant areas.
• Add a touch of the spectacular! Scatter common spotted and marsh orchid seed in your marginal plant containers. They may flower within 5-6 years.
• Don't worry if your frogs get overcrowded. Removing spawn simply reduces competition and can result in even more frogs in the long term.
• Over time, large newt populations may build up, reducing the size of your frog population.
• Get permission from a friendly land-owner and collect aquatic weeds from wild ponds or ditches, especially where these are about to be cleared.
• Rootless cuttings of native aquatic plants can establish very easily.
• Avoid non-native water plants, especially, Crassula helmsii, Azolla filiculoides, Hydrocotyle ranunculoides and Myriophyllum aquaticum. These may be sold under a variety of English names in garden centres.
• New ponds often get clogged with algae in the first year. Don't panic!
• Aquatic plants will out compete algae in new ponds after a year or so.
• Water crowfoot is a colourful early oygenator that competes with algae for nutrient. It needs a part of the pond that dries down in summer to maintain itself from seedlings.
• Try not to remove algae from ponds in early summer - it can contain newt eggs and larvae.
• Don't plant reeds or reedmace (bulrushes) in a small garden pond - they are very invasive.
• Good colourful pond plants include marsh marigold, purple loosestrife, lesser spearwort, water mint, ragged-robin, water avens and pond sedges.
• Avoid adding duckweed to a new pond. It can completely cover the surface.
• Allow mosses to grow over a marginal planting basket. Over time, they make it look like an attractive natural hummock, rather than an artificial feature.
• Baskets for marginal pond plants make an excellent sowing medium for marsh orchid seed.
• Two ponds are better than one! A deeper one with fish, and a shallower one for wildlife can give you the best of both worlds.
• Frogs like to spawn in shallow water. Make sure your pond has a shallow sunny margin.
• Ground cover around a pond provides shelter for young amphibians.
• Great crested newts lay eggs on plants with broad leaves - water mint, water forget-me-not, curled pondweed, water soldier, etc.
• A carefully constructed concrete pond can be more robust than one with a liner and looks less unsightly than an exposed black liner when the water gets low.
• Try to keep trees from shading your garden pond. They make them cold and add unwanted leaves in the autumn.
• The many species of British pond weed (like those in the Potamogeton, Ceratophylum and Ranunculus families) provide a wider variety of interesting aquatic plants than the restricted range on sale at garden centres.
• Organic barley straw can help to keep your pond free of algae.
• When buying water plants, check the pots for unwanted passengers like water fern (Azolla filiculoides) and New Zealand Pigmyweed (Crassula helmsii).
• Slabs around a pond can provide hibernation sites for newts.
• The best way to keep a pond oxygenated and free of weed is to fill it with native pond plants.
• Create a bog garden at the same time as you dig your pond and you will double its wildlife value.
• Rainwater contains far fewer nutrients than tap water. Top up your pond from rainwater collected in water butts.
• Some leaf litter in a pond is important for litter invertebrates like water hoglice, or the rare southern damselfly.
• When clearing out plants from a pond, leave them to drain by the side to allow the animals living on them to crawl back into the pond.
• Never remove more than a quarter of pond vegetation in any single year.
• You don't need to provide food for tadpoles - they feed on algae and other materials occurring naturally in your pond.

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