Five Steps You Can Take to Make Your Garden a Wildlife Haven

Published on: 29 Apr, 2021
Updated on: 2 May, 2021

What’s going on in your garden? You can help Surrey Wildlife Trust with their online survey whether you’re a complete beginner to an advanced gardener, and in just a few minutes find out how your garden scores for wildlife.

The survey, backed by Frances Tophill, author and BBC Gardener’s World presenter, measures gardens on five essential features, food, shelter, water, connectivity between gardens and natural solutions. Every type of garden, small to large, can help restore wildlife in their street.

Image BBC

Frances said: “The survey shows just how easy it is to encourage more wild and wonderful creatures into gardens. If we do a little bit less in our gardens, we can do so much more for declining insects and wildlife.

“Less mowing, less weeding and more thought about how our gardens connect to the wider landscape can help wildlife thrive.”

Even a pond the size of a bucket will attract wildlife – Photo Surrey Wildlife Trust

The number one tip is to just add water to your garden. The next is to leave a patch to grow wild with weeds and long grass. Helping in #NoMowMay is one of the best things gardeners can do to help wildlife flourish.

Give the lawn mower a rest for a month and the longer grass will soon become a rich habitat for insects and spiders which all kinds of birds will love too, hopping around to find tasty insect snacks.

Insects can be fascinating like this long-winged conehead cricket that can be found from July. Its soft, hissing ‘song’ is barely audible to humans. – Photo Rachel O’Hara

Claire Gibbs, award-winning principal ecologist at Surrey Wildlife Trust and judge for Gardener’s World Garden of the Year Awards for 2021, said: “New this year in the survey is a whole section on connectivity, focusing on the importance of wildlife moving within your garden and neighbouring gardens to travel down entire streets.

Bug hotels can certainly help sustain our insects – Photo Surrey Wildlife Trust

“Creating street-wide wildlife groups to encourage wildlife gardening and maybe some wildflower sowing on road verges is fun and builds a great community spirit.

“Everyone will enjoy the beautiful array of flowers and even more importantly it will enable wildlife to move and thrive.”

There are more than 20,000 hectares of gardens in Surrey, 12 per cent of the county. This is more than all of Surrey’s nature reserves put together, so gardens are vital to helping restore wildlife across our county.

And the importance of diverse, healthy hedgerows is now well understood – Photo Jon Hawkins

The Trust’s wildlife gardening survey can be shared on social media and WhatsApp groups to encourage family, friends and neighbours to welcome more wildlife to their streets.

Why not share seeds, cuttings, wildlife gardening tips or even create a wildlife gardening group in your street?

A red-tailed bumblebee, this social bee is important in pollination – Photo Jon Hawkins

Take the survey at www.surreywildlifetrust.org/wildlife-gardening-survey and download your free beetle and action for insects guide.

Surrey Wildlife Trust is offering an opportunity to find out more about wildlife gardening online, by email and also with a programme of free online talks. For more information visit www.surreywildlifetrust.org/events