As every nature-lover knows, your own back garden can provide a wonderful opportunity for watching wildlife, offering you the chance to get close to some of Britain's most secretive and fascinating creatures on an almost daily basis. Packed full of useful hints and tips, WildlifeGardener contains unique content that has been specially written for the site by experts and which is designed to help you attract wildlife into your garden.
Few things are such an effective wildlife magnet as a pond. From the likes of frogs and damselflies looking to set up home, to birds and badgers visiting for a drink, add even a small stretch of water to your garden, and all manner of creatures will soon be stopping …
Wildlife gardening has never been more popular and with so many species of British plants and animals finding their natural habitats increasingly threatened, this burgeoning interest in back garden nature reserves couldn’t be more welcome. A proper wildlife garden, however, calls for a little bit more than just letting a …
As winter approaches, we tend to start thinking about the birds, but more often than not, we don’t give a great deal of thought to garden mammals. It’s partly an ‘out of sight out of mind’ kind of a thing; on the whole birds do tend to be a lot …
Winter can be hard on birds. Finding food at this time of year is difficult enough even if the weather stays fairly mild, but when the temperature plummets and there’s snow on the ground, life very quickly becomes a real challenge for our feathered friends. It’s probably just as well …
It’s great to hear you’ve bought yourself a bee box; all around the world, bee numbers seem to be declining and although there are some possible explanations – including disease, habitat loss and pesticides – nobody seems entirely sure what’s going on. Bottom line – the more help these beneficial …
I’m sorry to hear that you’re finding things increasingly difficult, especially since gardening seems to mean such a lot to you and you’ve evidently invested a lot of time and effort into keeping your pond in good condition. The short answer is that what you’re thinking of doing can certainly …
Woodpeckers are beautiful birds, but sometimes they don’t entirely endear themselves to the wildlife gardener. Whether they’re simply trying to excavate a nest box in accordance with generations of instinct, or, as is distressingly often the case with the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) mounting an assault to get at …
I wouldn’t like to swear to it, but I think the two on the lamppost-like structure in your photo are Long-Tailed Tits ( Aegithalos caudatus) – a fairly little-known, but not uncommon, British resident distinguished by the lengthy tail which gives it it’s common name. Noisy Chaps and Undulating Fliers …
Frogs can live to be more than six years old and it could well be that they have simply died of old age. Also, female frogs can occasionally be drowned or die from sheer exhaustion due to the frenetic activity of the breeding season. Of course, they may simply have …
Whilst eucalyptus trees are native to Australia, many UK gardeners successfully grow them too and it is said that they are effective in deterring mosquitoes. However, there are numerous native species which grow here in the UK that are also recommended by other gardeners. Mint is commonly used as a …