Wildlife gardening

With the wider countryside fragmenting and climate change taking its toll, gardens are becoming increasingly vital. While an individual garden may be small, up to a quarter of a city’s area is made up of gardens. So, when viewed together they form a large patchwork which bridges together urban green areas with nature reserves and wider rural landscapes.

In London, surely the most built up area in the whole country, there are over three million gardens covering more than 90 acres. This is a large area that holds enormous potential for providing a habitat for wildlife. The 16 million gardens across the UK provide corridors for wildlife to move freely from one environment to another and come to represent a vast living landscape.

Gardens are not just beneficial for animals, they are essential. Stag beetles, song thrushes, house sparrows and hedgehogs are all in decline in the UK, but these species can benefit enormously from sympathetic management of gardens. And by managing our gardens for wildlife, we can encourage tremendous diversity and create countless habitat opportunities.

It is not just the wildlife that is under threat. Green gardens are in decline too, as people have continued to pave over them. Not only does this deprive creatures of habitats but it also creates serious problems resulting in flooding and potentially making our cities hotter.

The most rewarding aspect of wildlife gardening is that it is hugely beneficial to the biodiversity around you and at the same time extremely good for your own well-being and health. So give it a go and watch the wildlife bring colour, energy and brilliance into your garden.

Download one of our wildlife gardening related publications below:

Visit our 'Wild about Gardens' website.