Encouraging wildlife into your garden It's lovely when you see a hedgehog crawl out from beneath a pile of logs, or a bat emerge from your self built bat house just after dark.
By encouraging wildlife into your garden it not creates a feeling of happiness but also continues to provide important habitats for animals.
Below are some tips and ideas to keep up the wild side of your garden.
Planting trees is the most apparent means of creating habitats for mammals and birds; by planting native tree species this will provide food all year round for insects and birds.
The tree will offer shelter depending on its size all types of creatures will benefit, and quite often create their home beneath or within the tree.
Planting shrubs that produce flower, berries and seeds at different times over the year will not only make your garden colourful and fruitful but also provide a tasty treat for insects.
Build a pond, OK so not necessary build one, but make one, if your garden is relatively small like mine you can always use an old sink or bath if your lucky enough to have one lying around, place the makeshift pond into the ground with one side sloped down to make it accessible for creatures to climb in and out off, the damp bogginess will beckon frogs, toads, newts and dragonflies.
Add some small rocks around the pond for cover.
Bird and bat boxes are great for supplying shelter and safety, out of harms reach from ground crawling predators.
Place your box at least 2m off the ground on a tree or wall and enjoy watching them.
Bats will go where there is food so by building a pond, planting a hedgerow or planting night-scented flowers will all contribute to attracting bats to your garden.
Bird tables become very popular to birds during winter when they find it harder to find local foods, place sunflower seeds, unsalted peanuts, or chopped fruit onto a feeding station in your garden, it may take a few days for the birds to take to the food, but when they know its there the feed will be eagerly taken.
If you have the space then try and leave a section of your garden over grown and undisturbed, place a few logs in there, and leave them to rot, hedgehogs are likely to see this kind of environment as a perfect home for hibernation.