Wildlife in the Garden
I experience great joy when I see wildlife in the garden.
I welcome the birds and insects, mammals and reptiles. I personally
love to see all the wildlife in the garden. I deliberately
set out to create an environment that will attract them into
the garden and hopefully to live there. I welcome foxes, weasels
and stoats, hedgehogs, badgers, squirrels and deer and, yes,
I welcome all amphibians and reptiles as well.
The best way to begin attracting wildlife into your garden
is to create a pond. All animals, birds, reptiles and amphibians
need water and will often live as near to a water source as
they can. Once you have created a water source, think about
creating a habitat. As with everything in the garden, nature's
best at this, but you can encourage nature. Let the brambles
grow in a clump. Brambles will grow quickly and offer safe
cover for wildlife. The brambles will also provide you with
blackberries and raspberries. Also, allow an area of grass
to grow tall. This will also provide safe cover and tall grass
will add to the beauty of your garden and provide a food source
for birds and small rodents, which will in turn attract owls
and other wonderful predators. If you are feeling extra generous
and motivated, be creative and build dens for various creatures
to live in. You can research the wide variety of dens, burrows
and places creatures live in and create something that the
creatures can modify to better suit themselves. A good idea
to start you off with is old tree stumps and trunks. Rotting
tree stumps with be home to a host of insects, which will
attract all sorts of creatures including mammals. Also tree
stumps will hollow out and offer great refuge for weasels,
stoats and hedgehogs. All you have to do is place a tree stump
in the garden and leave it. Once nature has regrown around
that structure, creatures will move in and make these places
home. Wildlife is very good at sensing whether they are welcome
or not...
