How to make a wildlife-friendly garden

Gardens, balconies, window boxes and even roadside verges form a patchwork of habitat that matters for wildlife — especially as natural habitats shrink. Making your space wildlife-friendly doesn't mean letting it run wild; it means making a few choices that give plants and creatures what they need.

Why pollinators and biodiversity matter

Around three-quarters of the world's flowering plants — including most of the fruit and vegetables we eat — depend on insect pollinators to reproduce. Bees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths and beetles all play a role. Many pollinator populations have declined significantly in recent decades, driven by habitat loss, pesticide use and changes in farming.

Gardens and urban green spaces are genuinely important in this picture. They can provide food, shelter and nesting sites that are in short supply in intensively farmed landscapes. A single garden won't fix the problem, but gardens collectively cover a significant area in many countries — enough to make a real contribution.

Plant for pollinators

The single most impactful thing you can do is grow flowering plants that provide nectar and pollen across as long a season as possible.

• Choose single-flowered varieties. Double flowers look lush but often have little or no accessible nectar or pollen. Single-flowered roses, dahlias and marigolds are far more useful to insects than their showier double-flowered counterparts.
• Favour native and near-native plants. Plants that evolved alongside your local insects are often the most valuable, because the insects have co-evolved to use them. In the UK, for example, native wildflowers like ox-eye daisy, knapweed, teasel and foxglove support a wide range of species. Ask a local nursery or native plant society what grows naturally in your area.
• Cover the whole season. Aim for something in flower from late winter (mahonia, hellebores, crocus) through to late autumn (ivy flowers, sedum, asters). Many gardens are rich in summer but empty in spring and autumn when pollinators need food most.
• Good choices for pollinators across a variety of climates include: lavender, borage, comfrey, catmint (nepeta), alliums, echinacea, verbena bonariensis, phacelia, cosmos, sunflowers, and flowering herbs (thyme, marjoram, sage). Buddleia (butterfly bush) is excellent for butterflies though it can become invasive in some regions — check before planting.
• Avoid heavy pesticide use on or near flowering plants — see below.

Provide water

Wildlife needs water to drink and bathe, and it's easy to provide.

• A shallow dish or tray of water with a stone or two for insects to land on is the simplest solution. Keep it filled and clean it every few days to prevent mosquito larvae developing. Place it at ground level for ground-dwelling creatures, or raised for birds.
• A small pond is the most transformative single thing you can add to a garden — even a half-barrel pond. A pond with gently sloping sides or a ramp allows frogs, hedgehogs and birds to enter and exit safely. Avoid filling it with tap water if you can; let it fill with rain.
• If you have a pond, avoid adding fish to a wildlife pond — fish eat tadpoles and invertebrates that many other species depend on.

Shelter and habitat

Food is only part of what wildlife needs. Shelter for nesting, overwintering and sheltering from predators matters just as much.

• Log piles and dead wood are among the most valuable habitats you can create. Stack some logs in a shaded corner and leave them. Beetles, fungi, centipedes, slow worms and hedgehogs all use them.
• Hedges provide nesting sites and protective cover for birds, insects and small mammals, and often support more wildlife than a fence. A mixed native hedge is particularly valuable.
• A patch of long grass hosts grasshoppers, beetles, spiders and the larvae of many butterfly and moth species. Even leaving a strip along a fence line uncut makes a difference.
• Bug hotels and insect boxes — bundles of hollow bamboo stems, drilled wood blocks or stacked pinecones — provide nesting sites for solitary bees and other insects. Place them in a sunny, sheltered spot facing south or east.
• Bird nest boxes help species that nest in cavities, including tits, sparrows and wrens, that may struggle to find natural sites in tidy gardens and modern buildings. Different species prefer different entrance hole sizes and box heights — check guidance for species in your area.
• Leave some leaf litter. A pile of autumn leaves in a corner provides overwintering habitat for hedgehogs, frogs and many insects. It also breaks down into useful leaf mould.

Skip the chemicals

Pesticides are one of the most direct ways gardens harm wildlife, and reducing or eliminating them is one of the most effective changes you can make.

Alternatives to chemical pest control:

• Pick slugs and snails by hand at night or after rain and relocate them to a wilder area.
• Use copper tape, crushed eggshells or wool pellets as physical barriers around vulnerable plants.
• Encourage natural predators — hedgehogs, frogs, ground beetles, birds and slow worms all eat slugs and other pests.
• Tolerate some pest damage. A garden with no nibbled leaves is a garden without caterpillars — and therefore without butterflies and the birds that feed on them.
• Time sowings to avoid peak pest pressure, and grow robust plants in good soil (stressed plants are more vulnerable).

Let it be a little messy

The tidiest gardens are often the least useful to wildlife. A few deliberate acts of "creative neglect" go a long way.

• Leave seed heads standing through winter. Many birds feed on seeds from plants like teasel, sunflower, echinacea and ornamental grasses through the cold months. They also provide a structural beauty in frost.
• Don't cut back herbaceous perennials until late winter or early spring. The hollow stems of many plants provide overwintering sites for solitary bees and other insects. Leave them until temperatures are consistently above freezing and new growth is appearing.
• Allow some "weeds" to flower. Dandelions, clover, nettles, thistles and bramble are among the most valuable plants for wildlife. Even if you don't want them everywhere, a patch in a corner or at the base of a hedge supports a wide range of species — nettles alone are the larval food plant for several butterfly species.
• Compost plant material rather than binning it — or leave small piles of prunings to break down naturally in a less visible corner.

Small-space and balcony options

You don't need a garden to contribute to local wildlife.

• Window boxes and pots of single-flowered, nectar-rich plants make a genuine difference for passing bees and butterflies. Lavender, herbs in flower (thyme, marjoram, sage), marigolds, nasturtiums and cosmos all work well in containers.
• A small dish of water on a balcony, with a stone for landing, will be found and used by insects on hot days.
• A small bee hotel — a bundle of hollow bamboo stems or a drilled block of untreated wood — can be hung on a sheltered, sunny wall and will attract solitary bees and other insects. Replace or refresh the tubes every few years.
• Even a window box can support a few flowering herbs that provide both food for pollinators and useful ingredients for your kitchen — lavender, thyme, marjoram and chives all work well.

Wildlife garden checklist

• Plant nectar-rich, single-flowered plants covering spring through to autumn.
• Include at least a few native or near-native species suited to your local climate.
• Put out a shallow dish of water with a landing stone — keep it clean and filled.
• Create a log pile or leave some dead wood in a quiet corner.
• Set up a bug hotel or bundle of hollow stems in a sunny, sheltered spot.
• Stop or reduce pesticide and slug pellet use in wildlife areas.
• Leave seed heads standing through winter and cut back perennials only in late winter.
• Allow a patch of long grass or flowering "weeds" somewhere in the garden.