Helping to preserve and look after the wildlife in your garden is something we should all be doing a lot more of as habitats become more and more precarious for nature’s critters. The good news is that there are loads of things you can do to boost the population in your garden and become a safe haven for wandering wildlife.
Embrace your inner David Attenborough or Michaela Strachan and take a look at some of our tips that you can use to help and observe wildlife from your garden room.
Log Pile
Building a log pile in your garden is the perfect way to encourage all sorts of creepy-crawlies to set-up home. Insects are an integral food source for wildlife and they are also a great way for your plants and soil to thrive. Log piles are a brilliant source of bio-diversity and a way for small mammals and amphibians to seek shelter too and feast on insects. If you build a tee-pee sized log-pile, this is especially attractive to hedgehogs.
Fallen Leaves
You might be inclined to keep your garden super spotless and untouched, but you’re fighting a losing battle with leaves at certain times of the year. Why not leave a few fallen leaves in a damp and darkened corner or your garden and the natural decay of the leaves will attract frogs, toads, newts and slug-eating centipedes.
Fence-friendly
Making your garden completely enclosed and fencing off everything can be a real detriment to wildlife that needs to wander and search for food. This is especially bad for hedgehogs, who wander miles in one night and like to scurry through gardens. You can make a small hole or gap in a fence, no bigger than a cd-size and hedgehogs will happily scavenge their way through and the gap won’t be big enough for badgers and foxes…unless you want them to come in too, of course – up to you!
Pondlife
Creating a pond in your back garden is one of the best ways to kick-start the eco-system near your garden room. It’s such a useful element for wildlife and having shallow edges means that it’s easier for wildlife to access. Make sure it’s safe, clean and has plenty of sheltering with plants for wildlife to chill out in. It’s really important to keep your pond clean and a eco-friendly way to do so is with barley straw pond cleaners that control algae.
Perfect Plants
If you’ve got fencing or walls in your garden then planting roses, honeysuckle or clematis is a great way to provide some new forms of sheltering and habitats for your wildlife. Big gardens are perfect for growing trees and Oak trees are fantastic for all sorts of creatures, big and small and a Malus ‘Red Jade’ grows tasty apples for your wildlife to feast on. Bees numbers are declining, so doing everything you can to stimulate the population is fantastic – grow hardy salvia, redbeckia, lavender and nepeta to provide attractive pollen.
Bird-friendly
Bird-feeders and bird boxes are much-needed sources of food and shelter for your bird population. If you’ve got a pet dog or cat then using their discarded fur is really helpful for bird’s making nests. Take some of the fur and attach it to your washing line with a peg – birds will swoop down and take bits of the fur to create a warm, snug nest for their little ones.
We love nature and a garden room is ideal for spotting wildlife and housing supplies. You could even set-up a camera to keep an eye on night-time wanderings. Get in touch with our team at Bridge Timber for more info.