It often seems as though the number of green spaces that are available for wild animals and insects to live in is decreasing. With more and more houses being built, there are fewer spaces that are truly wild. It’s not all doom and gloom, though.
You can do your bit by creating a garden that is designed with nature in mind. You’ll be doing your bit for the environment, and you’ll get to enjoy watching your yard fill up with insects and animals.
Encourage wildflowers on your lawn
The rise of the manicured lawn isn’t great news for bees and other insects. They need the flowers and weeds that grow in slightly longer lawns to gather nectar, which allows them to feed themselves and the rest of their hive.
The bee population is incredibly important for the fertilization of plants, including the vegetables that we eat and the grains that feed livestock. Without bees, we’d be in trouble!
If you really want to have more bees helping with your flowers, you might need to have a designated area for their hives. Not only do you provide shelter and a thriving environment for lovely honey bees, but you also reap benefits from it. Bees are excellent pollinators and produce valuable products that you can enjoy.
If you want to encourage bees to visit your lawn, one thing you can do is mow it less often. Mowing your lawn every four weeks means that there is a chance for flowers to grow. It also means you have to do less mowing, which is never a bad thing.
Another thing you can do if you are laying a lawn is to use wildflower turf, which has been created specifically to promote the growth of bee and insect-friendly wildflowers.
Build a bug hotel
Building a bug hotel is a great project to tackle as a family. Using old bits of wood and other garden odds and ends, you can create a shelter that bugs will love, as well as toads and hedgehogs.
By helping bugs to survive, you are also helping birds and the other animals that feed on them, so even if you don’t like bugs all that much, it’s a great thing to do.
Leave gaps in your fence
Leaving a gap in your fence is a good idea because it allows wind to blow through, which means your fence is less likely to be blown down in high winds. It also means that creatures like hedgehogs are able to travel more easily, which enables them to find the food and shelter that they need in order to survive.
Create a compost heap
Compost is great for your garden, and it’s also great because it gives slow worms, woodlice, and other insects a place to live. Using compost as a fertilizer will provide your plants with the extra nutrients that they need in order to thrive, and it also means that you won’t need to use any potentially harmful chemical fertilizers.
A compost heap is also a great way to reduce the amount of rubbish that you send to landfill, as any uncooked food waste can go on the compost heap. Try keeping a small compost bin in your kitchen for food waste, and then tip it out on the main compost heap in the garden when you’re ready.
