Little Green Space
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Little Green Space |
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| Ten ways to create your own little green space. Do just one, two ... or all ten! |
| Feed the birds. A few feeders in your garden will attract a variety of different birds. Try peanuts for blue tits, nyger seed for finches. For more on attracting birds to your garden, click here. |
| Plant a butterfly garden. Butterflies and bees love buddleia, sedums, lavender, thyme and field scabious. Many of these plants are easy to grow and need little maintenance. And what could be nicer than sitting in your garden on a sunny day, watching the butterflies? |
| Build a pond. This is one of the best things you can do to attract wildlife as ponds are a disappearing habitat in Britain. Frogs, toads, newts, dragonflies and damsel flies will take up residence within a few months of a pond appearing. Added bonus: frogs and toads keep garden pests like slugs under control. |
| Make a log pile. This one's easy. Get hold of some logs, pile them up in a corner, and leave. Little creatures will move in. Log piles are especially good for invertebrates like ladybirds. |
| Plant a tree. Big trees: oak, beech, ash. Small trees: holly, hawthorn, rowan. Trees that give you food: apple, plum, pear. All are fantastic for wildlife! |
| Put up a nesting box. Within ten years a nesting box can provide shelter for 100 baby blue tits. Or, at the other extreme, if you have space, try a barn owl box. |
| Leave an area of your lawn uncut. 1.5m of uncut grass provides enough oxygen for one adult for one year. And it doesn't take so long to mow the grass. It's a no-brainer. |
| Plant a hedge. This requires a bit more effort, but hedges are so good for wildlife. They provide pathways and shelter for small mammals, and thrushes, dunnocks and finches will use the hedgerow for nesting. Berries provide food in the winter. Hawthorn, buckthorn, and holly are all good hedging plants. |
| Start a compost heap. Insects love them, and if you make or buy an open, wooden container, birds and toads can get to the insects. Plus compost heaps are good for the environment - less waste matter goes to landfill, which means less greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. |
| Leave a "messy" area. Find a corner. Put in some branches or twigs, and maybe a pile of leaves. Leave it alone. Let the nettles grow. Hedgehogs love this sort of environment, and hate to be disturbed. If you don't like the look of it, put up a trellis and grow honeysuckle over it. |
| All these ideas are great for wildlife, but they are great for people too. Enjoy your wildlife garden! |