Anyone here make an effort to attract wildlife- small or large- into their garden? What sort of things do you do + what critters do you get in your garden?
Well I don't know a whole lot. One of the most important things you can do is fill your garden with native plants. Native flowers, weeds, and trees. These can support wildlife much more than nonnative plants. Secondly, a well managed pond can host fish, amphibians and many many invertebrates. As a result, this will attract larger animals such as owls, bats and hedgehogs. You're in the UK, so you have the potential to attract frogs, badgers, foxes, bats, hedgehogs, owls, loads of insects and birds. A great way to attract insects is to place piles of deadwood in quiet corners of the garden. These act as shelters where they can nest and hibernate safely throughout the winter. For attracting wildlife you gotta start at the bottom of the food chain and work your way up. So first work on attracting invertebrates and a wide variety of beneficial plants, and as a result, the larger animals will follow.
I used to cultivate my garden, but now I let nature have her way, so just about everything that grows there was brought by the wind or the birds and their droppings. We've had hedgehogs visiting for years, they keep slugs and snails down, and in dry summers I put out some dog food and water. We back onto allotments so their wanderings take them there, and it's also a hunting ground for owls, we can hear them at night. I hang out bird feeders and they attract all varieties, especially blackbirds. Last year they built in the elder, and this year chose the berberris, that's a real prickley bush sort of like holly. The trees bring insects and they in turn bring bats every evening. Logs are great for ground dwellers, wood lice and centipedes love 'em and instead of clearing leaves in Autumn I put them under bushes as mulch, so when the ground hardens with the frosts there's always a meal for the birds when they turn them over. Well, that's some of what I do, I'm sure there's loads of ideas out there. Good luck!
I work hard at planting the plants that attract ( feed ) beneficial insects. For many years I've been planting more and more in all 3 gardens. All are perennials or self re-seeding annuals. I try to add a few ( even just 2 or 3 ) new ones each year, and over time, it adds up. Helps the good bugs, who eat the bad bugs, so I don't have to. I've found that the flowers and all also help me be happier. So they also help the critter in the garden named - me. Peace, poor_old_dad ps.: Oh, yea, I've put up a lot of martin, blue bird and bat houses too.
