How to Attract More Wildlife to Your Garden
Having a garden is great for attracting local wildlife, such as birds, animals and insects. No matter what the size of your garden, you can do small things to help encourage wildlife to help them thrive. In this article, we take a look at several tips for attracting wildlife to your garden.
Keep it wild
One really easy way to encourage wildlife is to keep your garden wild or at least some aspects of it. If you have a very large garden, you can dedicate a particular area to growing native wildflowers, which are great for insects. Alternatively, you could let your grass grow a bit longer before cutting it or keep a small patch uncut. For some, this might look untidy, but when designed properly, a wild garden can be very attractive, practical and great for the local wildlife.
Avoid chemicals
Chemicals are often used on patios to remove weeds and keep the area looking clean and tidy. They might be convenient, but they can cause problems for the wildlife living in your garden. If you want to remove weeds in your patio, try to avoid chemicals and manually remove them instead. This will take longer, but you will help to keep the wildlife in the area safe from being poisoned, which could lead to death. In addition, it's also much safer for pets to avoid using chemicals in your garden.
Add water to your garden
In the summer and throughout the winter, many animals find it hard to locate a source of water. To attract more wildlife to your garden, you can add a water source; this could be in the form of a fancy water feature or something more simple such as a water bowl. If you want to create a relaxing atmosphere in your garden, the sound of running water can help you to achieve this. A beautiful water feature is a great addition to any garden. If you don’t want to install an expensive water feature but would like to ensure the wildlife has water to drink, you can use a bowl. Just make sure you clean the water regularly, keep it fresh all year and provide a way for small animals and insects to escape, such as a ramp or rocks.
Get a bird feeder or table
Birds are fantastic to watch and encourage in your garden. One easy way to do this is to get a bird feeder or bird table. You can place food on the bird table or in the feeder to attract a range of local birds. When using a bird feeder or table, always make sure it's placed in an area where birds can easily escape if they sense danger. If you want to create an extra special place for birds, you can speak to garden designers in Harrogate or your particular location. They can give you some fantastic ways to encourage birds without the common mess associated with classic bird tables and feeders.
Buy or make a wildlife home
You can buy or make a wildlife home to give the birds, butterflies, and hedgehogs somewhere safe and cosy to sleep. Many garden centres and online shops sell a range of different wildlife homes that you can buy ready-made. Each will have different instructions about where it is best to keep the home and what you can do to attract wildlife to use the home. By placing one or a few of these in your garden, you can attract lots more wildlife. If you’d prefer, you can also make a wildlife home with a few DIY skills; this can be a great summer project for you and your family. There are lots of DIY wildlife home videos you can follow online to help you through this process.
Attracting more wildlife to your garden doesn’t need to be complicated; you can do this by letting your plants and grass grow, adding a source of water, avoiding using chemicals, getting a bird feeder or table and buying or making a wildlife home. Even doing just one of these things in your garden is a great way to help and attract the local wildlife.