Introduction to 'Wildlife Gardening'

Wildlife Gardening is a rapidly expanding hobby, thanks in part to TV gardening programmes and wildlife programmes such as 'Bill Oddie Goes Wild', and an increasing mainstream appreciation of environmental issues. The focus of wildlife gardening is on attracting wild animals and growing native wild flowers. Cultivated and exotic plants that are useful to native wildlife are also grown.

Taken together, gardens forms a massive patchwork of land across these islands. They are a refuge away from roads, construction and farmland - all of which usually pose dangers to wildlife. Unlike most land, we can choose what we do with our gardens, providing us all with a fantastic opportunity to do something positive for native animals and plants. If enough people pledge to garden for wildlife in urban areas, 'wildlife corridors' are formed as wildlife-friendly gardens merge. Wildlife can then move safely between natural habitats that would otherwise be isolated by roads, buildings or a lack of suitable vegetation. We can make sure wildlife doesn't get poisoned en route by avoiding garden chemicals and we can offer homes, breeding grounds, food and water.

Wildlife Gardening adopts Organic Gardening principles and the two areas overlap considerably. In particular, in the wildlife garden we seek environmentally-friendly alternatives to pesticides, fungicides, weedkillers and artificial fertilisers, and we try to work with nature rather than against it, always conscious of the amount of control and human interference we exert.

For a more detailed introduction please see the free ebook entitled 'Introduction to wildlife gardening'. Click here.

This part of the website will tell you about many of the animals and plants we can find in our gardens.