Ten top Tips for looking after wildlife in gardens

The Rangers Ten Top Tips:

• Have some water for wildlife - just providing a bird bath is good,
  creating a pond is even better!
• If your garden is suitable, plant a native British tree or shrub such as hawthorn, holly or rowan to provide shelter and food for birds and other animals.
• Grow some native flowers in your garden to help local wildlife - you can use the Natural History Museum's Postcode Plants Database website to find out which plants and animals live in your area.
• Put up nest boxes for birds or bats on trees and fences - or have a special nest box for bees in your garden.
• Put out food for the birds - seeds in feeders, or on a bird table.
• Make a compost heap. If you still need extra for your garden, don't buy compost with peat in it - this comes from peat bogs, which provide a home for lots of wild plants and animals that are often harmed or destroyed by the removal of peat.
• Choose garden plants that provide food or shelter for wildlife, such as buddleia, sunflowers, clematis, cotoneaster, lavender and other herbs.
• Collect rainwater in a water butt, mulch your flowerbeds, and grow plants that are drought tolerant.
• Don't tidy up your garden too much - old plant stems and log or leaf piles make cosy winter quarters for helpful animals such as ladybirds and hedgehogs!
• Avoid using pesticides and chemical fertilisers - going organic is better for wildlife, and for you!

Pests and Wildlife Ponds

• Mosquitoes can breed in significant numbers in very stagnant ponds and ditches found in woodlands and wetlands. It would be very unusual for a garden pond or bird bath to produce enough mosquitoes to be a nuisance and currently the UK is not a malaria region.
• If you are considering having or have inherited a neglected pond in your garden there are websites, books and organisations that provide guidance on installing and maintaining wildlife ponds such as the rspb website which we would recommend for advice, however, please feel free to contact Braywick Nature Centre for advise on managing wildlife gardens.
  

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