How to Save Britain’s Withering Wildlife with Your Garden
So much of Britain’s wildlife is in decline, and combating this requires action on many fronts. Conservation charities, such as the RSPB, are fighting for environmental wellness on multiple platforms, but what can you do? Your garden has an important role to play in the wellbeing of all kinds of threatened wildlife, from hedgehogs to house sparrows to toads. That is not to say that you have to let your garden become a jungle of weeds. With care and thought, you can help wildlife without compromising everything else you want your garden to be.
Desert the plant desert – I guarantee that you have a “plant desert” in your garden somewhere. Do you have patio or decking? A bare fence or wall? A shed or garage roof? Go a little greener in any of those spaces and you will help wildlife to thrive.
Wet and wild – Getting as much water as possible into your garden will do wonders for the wildlife. Invest in a birdbath or even a pond and you will give a home or place to drink and bathe to many creatures.
Pick perfect plants – Plants vary in their value to wildlife, although almost all plants will at least do some good. However, the best plants to grow are the ones that just can’t stop giving, be it in pollen, nectar, seeds, berries, or tasty foliage.
Mix it up – Offer different rooms for different guests (which a practice is known as spatial diversity). With different trees, shrubs and flower-rich borders, you can have damp, shady retreats and sun-baked hotspots both in the same garden. Allow some of your lawn to grow longer than the rest. It may sound a little aesthetically unappealing, but you can make it look amazing if you creatively dissect and outline it with mown pathways.
Keep it natural – Using anything on your garden that removes links in the food chain, such as insecticides and herbicides, will have a damaging knock-on effect all along it.
Give good grub – Decaying plants, be they wood, bark, leaves or flowers, form the basis of garden fertility and of much of the web of life. You can provide warm, damp, food-filled hideaways for a whole host of creatures with compost heaps, log piles, leaf litter and bark mulches.
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