Love Garden Blog

Would you like your garden to provide a home for wildlife? If so, you will need to select indigenous species matched to your local climate. With native plants to provide shelter, light and shade, wildlife species will be attracted to your garden. Insects, birds and small mammals will make it their year-round home. Plants with berries, fruits and seeds will lure birds. Flowers with nectar and pollen are a magnet for butterflies, bees and other insects.

A wildlife garden provides the exact surroundings to generate insects, seeds and fruit for the nutrition of birds and other denizens of nature. You will need to integrate evergreen bushes and trees, wildflowers, annuals and fruit-bearing plants in a planned environment to provide an annual food supply.

The type of birds you wish to attract will have an implication for the type of trees you plant. Some birds prefer a dense grouping of trees whilst others prefer open land. It is necessary to realize the nesting habits of each bird species. Different species of birds like to feed in their own individual manner. Some like clinging to bird feeders, others like tables and some choose to eat on the ground.

When it comes to garden and plant maintenance, you must keep in mind the wildlife existing there. If flowering plants are cut back too early, for example, birds will not be able to eat the seeds.

If you would like toads and frogs to inhabit your garden, you will need to provide them with a shaded pond about two or three feet deep. This pond needs shallow edges so frogs can jump in and out easily. One of the shallow edges should taper off into moist vegetation to provide them with food and shelter. Native pond plants such as water violets and marsh marigolds do well in ponds. One of the positive side effects of having frogs in your garden is that they eat the insect pests that annoy or destroy other things. They will happily consume moths, mosquitoes and their larvae, snails, slugs, flies, beetles and cockroaches.

Small mammals are quite self-sufficient but should you try to lure more of them into your garden, it is possible that less desirable rodents may decide to move in too!
The most important factor is to design the right setting for the wildlife you wish to invite to your garden. Taking the dimensions and composition of your garden into account, consult your garden centre as a first step. Then, with careful planning, you will be able to truly enjoy the wildlife in your garden.