Our WildSpace by Rachel

On the first night we moved into our home, we sat out on the patio and a hedgehog wandered into the garden. We sat watching it, amazed and I knew then I wanted to create a garden that would encourage and enhance the lives of all wildlife around us. I have a typical young family’s garden; a lawn littered with toys, a large patio with a seating area, a BBQ and Wendy house. But amongst the chaos there are also hedgehog houses, solitary bee hives, bird feeders and bird baths, nest boxes, container ponds and trail cameras.

I’ve created flower beds using plants that will provide the most benefit to pollinators. Plants like Yarrow (achillea) are really hardy, come in a variety of colours, spread well and can be split in the autumn and moved around the garden for free plants. Yarrow, when in bloom, is always covered in bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Wallflowers are a brilliant plant as they’re one of the first to bloom in spring, when the bees first start emerging and looking for food. Hellebores flower through the winter, providing a valuable food source for any winter-flying pollinators. I still enjoy the classic garden roses, but have chosen open-centred varieties.

I mow the lawn as little as possible, this has provided a habitat for grasshoppers and crickets to emerge, which in turn provides food for the birds. Goldfinches will hop amongst the grass eating the seed heads. I’ve let plants naturalise amongst the lawn, such as dandelions, clover and daisies. Meaning we don’t have a big blank space with no food for the bees.

When planting, I also think about the birds, I’ve added teasel which will hopefully flower next year. I replaced an old conifer hedge with pyracantha, providing berries and a safe space for birds. We were lucky to have a blackcurrant bush already in the garden, so have left that for the birds to enjoy. Holly and ivy creep over the fence which also provide valuable food and habitats for birds and other creatures. I’ve planted a crab apple sapling which I’m hoping will provide lots of fruit for birds and potentially attract other mammals, like mice, voles, foxes or badgers.

Adding water to a garden when you have young children can sometimes be tricky. But there are many ways to add a safe water source. A simple dish of water on the floor filled with pebbles will be enough to help the bees in hot spells. I have multiple bird baths on stakes and pedestals around the garden that the children can’t reach. I have a larger pond in an area that the children can’t get to.

I use trail cameras to see what goes on at night. Through spring I watched a hedgehog build a nest in one of our hedgehog houses. I also caught some fights amongst the males in breeding season. We also get the odd wood mouse following behind them, picking up the crumbs.

I’ve added numerous nest boxes but none were as successful as the garage roof, which came to be known as the blue tit maternity ward as it housed three blue tit families over spring. We also had starlings nesting in the eaves of our house. I’ve invested in a swift box and a bat box to add to the house for next year. Given time I’m hoping more and more wildlife will find us and make a home here.

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