How to Plant a Wildlife-Friendly Garden
All our gardening posts on this site are wildlife-friendly! But this post goes a bit deeper, looking at how and why it’s important to make your garden a safe haven for birds and wildlife of all kinds!
Use no-dig gardening (and avoid netting) to help wildlife (and ensure ponds have sloping sides). Also read our post on pet-friendly gardens.
Patch of the Planet’s 10-Step Nature Gardening Course
If you like growing food or flowers but also want to help our native birds and wildlife, then download Patch of the Planet’s self-paced course 10 Steps to a Nature Garden. By a couple of ecological gardeners, who know everything there is to know about pollination, insects and wildlife-friendly gardening!
Before running their permaculture and wildlife-friendly gardening courses in Wales, this couple used to design ecological gardens for clients in England.
The couple blend an experience of environmental campaigning with extensive knowledge of fruit trees and orchards (one is the brother of environmental/spiritual writer Paul Kingsnorth).
Between them, there’s nothing they don’t know about growing a beautiful garden, and protecting all the life that lives within it, from native mammals to tiny insects!
Use no-dig gardening (and avoid netting) to help wildlife (and ensure ponds have sloping sides). Also read our post on pet-friendly gardens.
Tips for Wildlife-Friendly Gardens
Here are a few simple tips you can use from today, to create a nature/wildlife-friendly garden!
Let Part of Your Lawn Grow Wild
Cutting the grass less often lets wildflowers pop up, to feed insects and pollinators. Leave a section of lawn un-mowed in spring and summer (even a small area can help local wildlife). Read our post on organic lawns.
Swap Exotic Plants for Native Species
Local plants support local wildlife better than foreign ones. Choose wildflowers, shrubs, and trees that grow in your area. They offer food and shelter for birds, insects, and even tiny mammals.
Add Log Piles and Stone Stacks
Logs and rocks create perfect hideouts for bugs and small animals. Place a pile of sticks or logs in a shady corner, or stack stones in a sunny spot.
Over time, these piles become homes for beetles, worms, frogs, and slow worms. Watching them brings a new charm to your garden.
Make a Small Pond or Water Feature
Water draws in frogs, newts, birds, and insects. Ensure they have sloping sides, for easy entry and exit for wildlife. And place a few large stones in shallow ponds or bowls, to create safe landing spaces for bees and butterflies.
Avoid tap water with chemicals – a child/pet-friendly water butt that recycles rainwater is best. Read our post on wildlife-friendly ponds.
Create Wildflower Patches or Meadows
Wildflower patches add bright colour and attract bees, butterflies, and moths. Clear a piece of grass, then scatter a mix of native seeds. Avoid pet-toxic wildflowers, if you live with animal friends.
Wildflower meadows need poor soil, so don’t add compost (this encourages grass to compete). Cut back yearly in late summer.
Leave Leaf Litter and Deadwood
Don’t clear all dead leaves in autumn. A layer of fallen leaves is shelter for hedgehogs, frogs, insects, and worms. Dead branches left lying enrich your soil as they rot and provide insects with nesting spots.
Also read our post on how to make your own compost (this is important, to avoid over acidic heaps that could harm compost creatures).
Hedges Instead of Fences
If possible, swap a plain wooden fence for a living hedge, using native shrubs like hawthorn or hazel. Hedges give birds safe nesting places and act as corridors, letting animals travel safely from garden to garden. Plant your hedge in autumn or early spring for the best results.
If you have to use wooden fences, read our post on how to help endangered hedgehogs (includes tips on ‘hedgehog highways’ that let our spiky friends move safely from garden to garden at night).
Ditch Chemicals and Fertilisers
Pesticides and weedkillers can harm bees, butterflies, and birds. Let nature handle unwelcome visitors (ladybirds will handle aphids, and many birds and wildlife eat other creatures. Also read our post on kind slug and snail deterrence.
You can bin empty chemical bottles. For half-full ones, your council depot can advise on how to dispose of (usually at the tip’s toxic waste disposal).
Create Safe Havens for Garden Birds
Read our post on creating safe havens for garden birds. This includes:
- Keep cats indoors at dusk and dawn, when birds are likely feeding (avoid wooden posts on bird tables that they could climb up).
- Never give garden birds stale, mouldy or crusty bread (nor buttered bread, as fat can smear on feathers, affecting weatherproofing and insulation).
- Never use brightly-coloured or tin bird houses (can overheat and attract predators).
- Turn indoor lights off when not in use (avoid facing indoor plants to outside gardens). Read more tips to stop birds flying into windows.
Books to Help Grow a Wildlife-Friendly Garden
Second Nature is the story of how a gardener created a wildlife oasis from a patch of untended ground, with help from her husband and friends. Tucked away in a hidden valley, this place is now buzzing with wildlife due to perennials, trees, herbs, vegetables and a meadow.
The space teems with life: owls and blackbirds, bats and mice, butterflies and bees – all drawn by pollen-rich flowers, ponds and nesting sites.
In this book, Susie takes us through the planning and construction of how she designed the garden, and how it blends harmoniously with the surrounding environment. From plants to shelters and habitats, every element reflects her commitment to sustainability.
This account is sure to inspire and provides practical advice, as well as a sense of her deep appreciation for the natural world. And the transformative power of building an outdoor sanctuary, for all species to thrive.
Susie White is a garden and travel writer, wildlife photographer and lecturer. She also created Chesters Walled Garden on Hadrian’s Wall (Northumberland). Other interests include upland hay meadows, archaeology and the landscape/walks of the North Pennines, Northumberland and Lake District.
Rewild Your Garden is an illustrated guide to bring wildlife back to your garden, often by just leaving things be. In this practical guide, horticulturalist Frances Tophill (a presenter on BBC 4’s Gardener’s World) shows how to plan and maintain a beautiful garden that will attract bees, birds and a throng of unsung garden heroes.
Whether you have a small balcony or a large open space, discover the joys of welcoming natural ecosystems back to your garden.
Planting with Nature is a beautiful book on how we can support local wildlife and tackle the climate crisis, through gardening. The book includes tips on planting nectar-rich borders, native hedgerows, trees and wildflower meadows, plus rain gardens, green roofs and ponds.
Together with providing homes for birds, mammals, amphibians, bees and insects, you’ll find new ways to grow food, and make your own compost.
Birds and native wildlife have lost so much of their natural homes – hedgerows to wildflower meadows. By growing new natural replacements, this is the best help we can give to native wildlife, including endangered species like hedgehogs, dormice and bats.
How Can I Help? is a wonderful book of almost 500 answers on how to save nature from gardens to parks, from one of the USA’s top environmental and conservation writers. The author reveals the critical role that native plants play in attracting beneficial insects, and how this is such an important part of gardening worldwide.
From reducing urban concrete to leaving leaves and log piles for wildlife, join others to become an empowered and knowledgeable conservationist, from your own backyard!
Author Doug Tallamy is professor of Entomology (insects) and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has taught students about insects for 44 years. He is founder of the website Homegrown National Park, which encourages everyone to plant native plants, to benefit local insects, birds and wildlife.
Doug Tallamy is the godfather of the native plant movement. The Washington Post
