A little wildlife to encourage friends of garden

[veg4681]

Have you got tips on how to create a little wildlife wonderland in our own garden or lottie to encourge all the friendly creatures (beetle, centipede, frog, ladybird etc) to prey on unwanted garden pest. Also use wildlife heaven as man made traps for pests.

[SueA]

Most important is a wildlife pond. It doesn't matter how small it is , just a bowl of water sunk into the ground is a start & will attract frogs, provide drinking water for birds etc. Log piles are good too for beetles & insects, homemade or bought insect & bee houses & a little bit of the garden left rough. My pond is tiny & in a raised bed but still I've managed to attract 2 frogs to it & hopefully they'll repay me by eating some of the numerous slugs & snails!

[Headfry]

Don't be to tidy in your garden, leave some seed heads over winter, leave some of the fallen leaves on the borders.

[Paul Wagland]

A pond is definitely the place to start. Make it with a shallow edge (like a beach) so animals can get to the water easily.

I have one end of my lottie uncultivated, just long grass, logs and water. A bit of corrugated iron is good to, for voles and shrews to live under.

[jeannine]

It's good to try to have lots of different plants in flower at different times so there's a supply of nectar for different bees.

If that seems complicated to plan, just use it as an excuse to buy a new plant, in flower, every month and then you're job done!