Wildmonths

There's nothing nicer than having wildlife in your garden and there are a number of ways that you can encourage it.

Birds.

Birds can be tempted into the garden by supplying them with suitable food, such as the wild bird food that you can get from a pet food shop and peanuts, never use salted nuts. You can mix the seeds and nuts with melted lard and pour it into half a coconut shell, if you put a coconut out make sure it's fresh because birds cannot digest dried coconut and young birds cannot digest either so best not to put coconut out at all in the spring.

Put up a bird table but make sure its cat proof ! Also feeders, there are a lot of different types of feeders available either for nuts or seeds that can be attached to a bird table or from a branch but again make sure its out of reach of cats. If you have squirrels in your garden then get a feeder that's made to stop them getting at the nuts or they will finish them off before you know it! When you put food on the table make sure its broken down into small pieces or the larger birds such as crows will take it leaving very little for the smaller birds.

Also don't forget to put some water out for them to drink and bathe in.

When you start feeding birds make sure you are consistent because they will start to rely on what you put out also the number of birds in your garden will increase and if you stop there wont be enough natural food to support the numbers.

Also you could grow trees that have berries that birds like such as holly, mountain ash, hawthorn, elderberry, ivy etc. For seeds to attract finches plant sunflower, field scabious, greater knapweed, musk thistle and teasel but you have to let them go to seed.

For providing shelter and nesting sights for birds evergreen trees and ivy are ideal.

You could also put up nesting boxes, its a real pleasure to watch a family of say blue tits being raised in your garden but make sure its safely out of the way of cats!

Butterflies and insects.

To encourage more butterflies, bees and other insects into your garden you need to plant flowering plants such as buddleia and honeysuckle to attract them. Also Cotoneaster horizontalis, foxgloves, eryngiums and lavender are good for insects.

Another idea is to leave a few pieces of wood like thick branches or logs with bark on in a corner, insects and other bugs love to live under the bark.

Animals.

You can encourage animals by leaving part or a corner untidy, a pile of leaves for a hedgehogs to hibernate in, an overgrown patch of the garden for smaller animals. If you have a pile standing for a bonfire please check it for hibernating hedgehogs before lighting it.

Make a pond with plants such as reeds along one side and a sloping side so that frogs and newts can get in and out also birds can bathe and drink there.

We talked about bird nesting boxes but you could also put up a bat box for them to sleep and hibernate in.

Overall your making your garden into a little bit of countryside so if you think of what that's like, meadows, woods, hedgerows, ponds etc then you can see what wildlife likes.

One thing to remember is that wildlife and pesticides/slug pellets are not compatible in the garden!