Clever Tricks that Turn your Garden into a Creature Magnet.

{Partenered} With agriculture destroying so much of the countryside, it’s often up to city dwellers to do their bit to provide a habitat for wildlife. Gardens are, in many ways, a bastion of tranquillity for creatures, away from all the herbicides, pesticides, and traps. How you manage yours can make a big difference to the level of wildlife in your local area.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at what you can do to attract wildlife to your garden and make it an oasis.

Put Some Holes In The Garden Fence

The primary purpose of your garden fence is to mark out your property so that there is no confusion among the neighbours. However, you don’t need to put it on lockdown, plugging every single hole. Leaving the odd hole here and there is extremely helpful for creatures, especially hedgehogs. During the night, they’re free to move around looking for food and don’t have to confine themselves to one particular area.

Make Your Own Compost

There’s no reason to throw out your old vegetable clippings or leaves. By throwing them on the compost heap, you give them a chance to break down into soil that you can then use to supercharge the growth of plant species in your garden.

Compost is also a valuable habitat all by itself. Worms, slugs, beetles and even snakes all love it. Just be careful you only throw out raw vegetable clippings. Anything else will attract rats.

Add A Pond

Water is essential for all life on Earth, so it should come as no surprise that adding a pond to your garden can help make it infinitely more hospitable.

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Ponds don’t have to be large or expensive - they just need to be accessible. Make sure that yours has a shallow gradient so that newts, frogs and voles can hop in and out. If possible, connect the pond to a stream so that the water circulates regularly and remains fresh.

Start A Meadow

A wildflower meadow can be a beautiful addition to your garden, as well as a haven for animals.

The great thing about meadows is that they’re incredibly easy to create. You just let your grass grow. Before long, seeds will arrive, populate the grass and send up new shoots. If you follow the right management practices, you’ll have dozens of different species of flower popping up, providing ideal conditions for insects, butterflies and some birds.

Buy A Squirrel-Proof Bird Box

Birds have a high metabolic rate. They need it. Their small size means that they lose heat rapidly in the winter.

Bird boxes and feeders are a great solution. They contain fat-rich seed mixes that provide the fuel that the birds need to stay warm. Without them, they might struggle to make it through the winter.

Unfortunately, squirrels are fond of these foods too, so make sure you buy bird feeders which offer specific anti-squirrel tampering. They can perfectly well live on all the acorns they bury in the ground.

Take A More Relaxed Approach To Weeds

Dandelions, buttercups, and nettles weren’t always seen as weeds. In fact, some of these species were once prized as a source of food. (Dandelion and burdock, anyone? )

What’s more, so-called weeds are also crucial for attracting wildlife. They provide a source of both food and shelter - something that is in short supply on a regular lawn.

Weeds also have a habit of flowering, whatever the weather. Thus they provide a reliable year-round source of food if times get leaner.

Create An Insect Habitat

Insects might not be the most exciting creatures to visit your garden, but they’re among the most impactful. Insects provide your garden with a host of critical behind-the-scenes services that help to make it a more livable place for other wildlife.

Making an insect shelter is easy. Often just a pile of twigs and leaves will do the trick. Just be warned: spiders might decide to move in!

Add Climbing Plants To Your Walls

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Climbing plants are essential in the garden for numerous reasons. Not only do they make all your walls look attractive, but they can also provide a source of pollen to other plants.

Ivy, for instance, is a particularly important climber and found practically everywhere in the world. It’s pollen and flowers complement other species in your garden while, at the same time, providing necessary shelter from the weather.

Would you like your garden to be more friendly to nature? If so, then try out some of the ideas we’ve discussed here.