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Welcoming nature into your garden

If you are lucky enough to have your own outdoor space, be it a garden, paved yard, balcony or window box, it is always possible to make it more enticing to nature. Welcoming nature into your outdoor space can be a wonderful way to help wildlife and connect to nature through wildlife encounters. This can in turn give us a real positive boost to our own wellbeing.


A bee pollinating a flower

Urban areas are nature-poor, but gardens, despite not being natural habitats, can give wildlife a helping hand in built-up areas by giving species of birds, insects, mammals and other creatures opportunities to find food, water and shelter. Gardens can be important stepping stones and corridors for helping nature in urban areas and makes built-up areas more liveable for us. Nature in cities gives us multiple benefits in addition to boosting our wellbeing, so it is good to do our bit to help it out where we can.

 

Welcoming nature into your garden need not be costly. Here are a few cost-free ideas to help encourage nature into your garden. Leave a corner, or better still an edge of your garden to go wild to develop a corridor for wildlife. Being generally less ‘tidy’ around the garden can have its benefits for wildlife. Invertebrates and other creatures can benefit from having some leaf litter lying around. The same for woody material. Rather than chucking this into the garden waste, consider having a corner of the garden for a pile of dead wood which can make a great habitat for invertebrates. Choosing not to use chemicals in the garden such as pesticides will also help to encourage wildlife in. Chemicals can have a devastating impact on pollinators and other invertebrates which then impacts the whole food chain of animals that feed on the invertebrates.

 

Whether you have a garden, just a few pots, or only a window box, here are some low cost ideas for improving your outdoor space for nature. Generally speaking the more variety of plants you have in your outdoor space the more attractive it will be for wildlife. Choosing to plant flowers that are especially beneficial to butterflies, bees and other pollinators over other varieties, is a good first step. Raising your own flowers from seed is a more affordable way of doing this, and seed packets often indicate on them if the flowers are bee or butterfly friendly. Sowing native wildflower seeds is a great option, but it is always best to check the seed is of local provenance first.

 

Feeding and providing water for birds is a great way of very quickly attracting wildlife into your outdoor space. If you place a bird feeder or bird bath so you can easily observe the birds from a window, you will be able to enjoy watching them more easily without disturbing them. 

 

There are so many possibilities for welcoming wildlife into your outdoor space. Why not plan to make a few positive steps for making your outdoor space more attractive for wildlife this spring?



'The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.’ – Alfred Austin




‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.’ – Audrey Hepburn

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