Design your wildlife-friendly garden

Gardening with wildlife, woman looking at flowers

WildNet - Tom Marshall

Get creative with your space

If your garden is wildlife-friendly or you are following any of these actions - why not apply for our 'Wildlife- friendly Garden Award'?

Find out more

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How to create a mini pond

Even a small pond can be home to an interesting range of wildlife, including damsel and dragonflies, frogs and newts.

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How to build a pond

A wildlife pond is one of the single best features for attracting new wildlife to the garden.

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How to make a hedge for wildlife

Hedges provide important shelter and protection for wildlife, particularly nesting birds and hibernating insects.

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Grow wildlife-friendly herbs

Planting herbs will attract important pollinators into your garden, which will, in turn, attract birds and small mammals looking for a…

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How to create a vertical garden

Gardening doesn’t need to be restricted to the ground - bring your walls to life for wildlife! Many types of plants will thrive in a…

How to grow a vegetable garden for wildlife

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How to grow a wildlife- friendly vegetable garden

Learn about companion planting, friendly pest control, organic repellents and how wildlife and growing vegetables can go hand in hand.…

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How to grow a wild patch or mini meadow

Whether it's a flowerpot, flowerbed, wild patch in your lawn, or entire meadow, planting wildflowers provides vital resources to…

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The best plants for bees and pollinators

Set up a ‘nectar café’ by planting flowers for pollinating insects like bees and butterflies

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How to build a bug mansion

Build your own bug mansion and attract a multitude of creepy crawlies to your garden.

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How to make a shrub garden for wildlife

Woody shrubs and climbers provide food for wildlife, including berries, fruits, seeds, nuts leaves and nectar-rich flowers. So why not…

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How to make a bog garden

Instead of draining, make the waterlogged or boggy bits of garden work for nature, and provide a valuable habitat.

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How to make a gravel garden for wildlife

Surfaced spaces needn't exclude wildlife! Gravel can often be the most wildlife-friendly solution for a particular area.

What to avoid in your garden

Avoid pesticides & slug pellets

The creatures we thing of as pests are often a valuable food source for other wildlife. While raising it’s chicks in spring a blue tit will need to find thousands of caterpillars, larvae and aphids, many of them garden ‘pests’. Aphids, or greenfly, are the main food of the larvae of hoverflies, lacewings and ladybirds. Slugs are fed on by ground beetles, centipedes, frogs, toads and hedgehogs. In a wildlife garden with a wide range of predator species the populations so-called pest species rarely increase so they become a problem.

If slugs or aphids become a problem there are non-chemical means of control, such a pinching off the tips of broad beans infested with blackfly, or using barriers against slugs.

Avoid chemical weed-killers

Chemical weed-killers are poisons, and may be toxic to more than just the target plant. If carelessly applied they can kill nearby ornamental plants. Weed-killers are also toxic to animals, including humans. In many cases we do not know the full effects, but they may lead to long-term harm to human health as well as to wildlife.

There are many other ways to control plants growing where we don’t want them, such as regular hoeing, hand weeding, growing ground-cover plants and use of mulches.