Enjoy your own wildlife garden this Autumn

Here’s a challenge from the RSPB to the readers of Glossop Life, get off your couch, turn off the telly, ignore the weather and prepare the garden for birds and other animals this autumn by constructing your very own wildlife B&B. Full board and luxury lodgings for wildlife can be surprisingly cheap to provide, it’s not just the birds and animals that will benefit, it can be a very rewarding past time.

“There’s nothing like a morning brew watching the birds in my garden,” says Moira Shelton from Simmondley, “This year alone, I’ve spotted bullfinches, song thrush, and they’re getting rare now, all kinds of tits, including my favourites, the longtails, and then every now and then, a wonderful great spotted woodpecker, and I’ve even had a pheasant”. Another reader said, “The more effort you put in, the more enjoyment you get out of it. We have had badgers, foxes and hedgehogs coming into our garden. I don’t really encourage the foxes but they come anyway, and the badgers arrive at the same time every night and we can feed them with the patio doors open. They eat up and vanish into the night. As for birds, we have had thirty different species in our Glossop garden, the highlight being a flock of amazing waxwings feeding on our rowan berries last winter.”

A good wildlife garden is more than just a corner of a garden left to go wild. Whether you are creating a new wildlife garden, or have an established one, think of it as a nature reserve and you are the warden. Soil type, drainage and climatic conditions play a big part in what can grow in your garden. The way it has been managed in the past also influences what lives there. If it has been intensively managed, or has less green space and more concrete, it is likely to support less wildlife.

If you are creating a new garden, look at what grows locally in the wild and in other gardens for ideas. You cannot force plants to grow where they don’t want to, so look to see what flourishes where in your garden. If you find something growing naturally and wish to keep it, leave it where it is instead of trying to move it.

The dilemma of finding what will grow where will largely have been solved if you have an established garden. Major changes are harmful, so work with what you have. If any major pruning or removal is necessary, undertake it over several winters to give wildlife time to adjust.

Key habitats

Provide as many habitats as possible, but avoid cramming too much in and focus on what can be done well in the space you have. A lawn, trees and shrubs, flowers and water are key habitats. Look to create smaller microhabitats within these. Here are a few examples:

•  Long grass provides habitat for egg laying and over wintering of caterpillars and leather jackets. Blackbirds and starlings search for leather jackets (cranefly grubs) in short grass.
• Different species of tree and shrub and flowering plants provide nectar and other food sources through the year.
• Rotational shrub cutting creates different structures and ages of growth, benefiting different wildlife at different times.
• A water feature with different depths is great for wildlife. Shallow areas are used by bathing and drinking birds, emerging dragonflies and somewhere for amphibians to lay eggs. Deeper areas help aquatic insects survive cold spells and are good places to watch newts swimming.