Bring in wildlife

Wildlife

Browse 59 guides Open Plant Finder

Make space for birds, bees, hedgehogs and useful insects. Create habitats that work in British gardens.

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Useful advice, organised around your next job

A wildlife-friendly garden needs food, water, shelter and safe access. These 59 guides explain how to provide each one in a British garden. Start with a small change, such as a water source or gap under a fence. Then add suitable plants and habitats. The topic routes below help you focus on a species or project.

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Quick routes into the questions gardeners ask most often.

Attract Garden Birds

Add food, cover and water in the right order.

Bee-Friendly Plants

Choose flowers with nectar that bees can reach.

Help Garden Hedgehogs

Create access, remove hazards and offer safe shelter.

Build a Wildlife Pond

Create a useful habitat without overcomplicating the build.

From the library

The latest wildlife guides

59 guides in this section

Blob of white frothy cuckoo spit on a lavender stem in a UK garden

Wildlife 18 August 2026 7 min read

Cuckoo Spit: What the White Froth Is

That white froth on your lavender is cuckoo spit, made by a harmless froghopper nymph. What it is, why it does no harm and why you can leave it be.

Orange harlequin ladybird with many black spots, brown legs and a cream patch with black markings behind its head

Wildlife 18 August 2026 7 min read

Harlequin Ladybird vs Native Ladybirds

How to tell a harlequin ladybird from a native 7-spot or 2-spot: check the legs, size and the black M behind the head, and what to do if they come indoors.

Common green shield bug with dark brown wing tips resting on a bramble leaf

Wildlife 13 August 2026 7 min read

Green Shield Bug: Friend or Foe?

Found a green shield bug on your beans? Here's how to identify the harmless native, why it turns brown in autumn and how to spot the southern green one.

Bumblebee drinking from a shallow terracotta saucer of water filled with stones on a mossy garden wall

Wildlife 15 July 2026 10 min read

Bee Bars: Does Sugar Water Help Bees?

Do bee bars of sugar water help bees? Why a standing sugar dish does more harm than good, when one drop is fine, and the water dish that does help.

Blackbird splashing in a stone pedestal bird bath on the lawn of a suburban UK garden

Wildlife 10 July 2026 10 min read

Bird Bath Placement and Cleaning Guide

Where to put a bird bath, how deep to fill it and how to keep it clean and ice-free, so birds use it all year without spreading disease.

Turf-covered hibernaculum mound with two entrance pipes and flat stones in a suburban wildlife garden

Wildlife 10 July 2026 10 min read

How to Build a Hibernaculum (Wildlife Refuge)

Build a hibernaculum where frogs, toads, newts and slow worms can sit out winter. Where to put it, what to fill it with and how to build it, step by step.

House martins flying to mud nests under the eaves of a brick house, with chicks peeping out

Wildlife 10 July 2026 9 min read

House Martins: Attract Them and Nest Care

How to attract house martins to your UK home with grouped nest cups and a spring mud patch, plus living happily and legally with an active colony.

Robin with an orange-red breast perched on a mossy wooden post among pink garden flowers

Wildlife 9 July 2026 10 min read

Attract Robins: 7 Steps for Any UK Garden

How to attract robins to your garden: soaked mealworms on a low tray, an open-fronted nest box in cover, shallow water and a freshly dug border.

Large grey-brown elephant hawk moth caterpillar with eye spots on a fuchsia stem

Wildlife 8 July 2026 8 min read

Elephant Hawk Moth Caterpillar: Harmless Giant

Found a huge brown caterpillar with eye spots? It's an elephant hawk moth caterpillar, harmless to people and pets. How to identify it and what to do.

Grey squirrel hanging upside down raiding a tube bird feeder in a snowy suburban front garden

Wildlife 8 July 2026 8 min read

Squirrel Proof Bird Feeders: What Really Works

Squirrel proof bird feeders that work: weight-activated and caged feeders, where to hang a baffle, the tricks that fail, and the law on grey squirrels.

Small mining bee mounds with central holes in a spring lawn, with a fox-red tawny mining bee landing

Wildlife 24 June 2026 8 min read

Mining Bees in Lawns: ID and What to Do

Small volcano mounds in your lawn in spring are usually mining bees. How to identify them, why they're harmless and the best thing to do about them.

Winged black garden ants pouring out of a crack between paving slabs on a UK patio in summer

Wildlife 23 June 2026 7 min read

Flying Ant Day: Why It Happens & What to Do

Flying ant day explained: why winged ants swarm on muggy July afternoons, when it happens in the UK, and the simple, harmless way to deal with them.

Wooden bee house with drilled holes fixed to a sunny garden fence, with solitary bees at the entrances

Wildlife 23 June 2026 8 min read

How to Make a Bee House and Where to Put It

How to make a bee house for solitary bees from a hardwood block or hollow stems, where to put it in a UK garden and how to keep it clean each year.

A large grey wood pigeon with a white neck patch and pink breast feeding on a green suburban lawn in summer light

Wildlife 23 June 2026 6 min read

What Wood Pigeons Eat on Your Lawn

Wondering what wood pigeons are pecking at on your lawn? Mostly clover, seed and grit. Here's what they eat, and how to protect new seed and brassicas.

Oak branch heavy with acorns in autumn sunshine, with a large old oak in a park behind

Wildlife 19 June 2026 9 min read

What Is a Mast Year? UK Acorn Boom Years

What is a mast year? Why UK oaks and beech drop huge crops of acorns and nuts some autumns, how it affects garden wildlife and what to do with the glut.

Silver-washed Fritillary butterfly with orange, black-spotted wings feeding on bramble blossom at a woodland edge

Wildlife 6 June 2026 7 min read

Rare UK Woodland Butterflies and How to Help

Meet seven rare UK woodland butterflies, from the Purple Emperor to the Duke of Burgundy, and the realistic ways your garden can help them.

Autumn flowering plants for bees, with bumblebees on pink sedum, purple asters and Verbena bonariensis in a cottage border

Wildlife 4 June 2026 10 min read

Autumn Bee Plants: 13 Late Nectar Stars

Autumn flowering plants for bees: 13 late nectar plants from ivy and sedum to mahonia, plus how to keep something in flower from September into winter.

Seven-spot ladybird eating black aphids clustered on a nettle stem

Wildlife 4 June 2026 8 min read

Good Bugs vs Bad Bugs in Your Garden

Good bugs vs bad bugs in UK gardens: a quick friend-or-foe table, the helpful larvae people squash by mistake and how to let predators do the work.

Goldfinches and blue tits on a tube feeder in a UK garden, with more tube feeders spaced out behind

Wildlife 4 June 2026 9 min read

RSPB Bird Feeding Rules: What to Do Now

The new RSPB bird feeding advice explained: the May to October seed pause, why bird tables are out, weekly cleaning and what to do in your garden now.

Suburban back garden designed for wildlife, with a pond, long grass, a mown path and a flowering border

Wildlife 3 June 2026 9 min read

Wildlife-First Garden Design: A UK Plan

Wildlife garden design that starts with habitats: where to put the pond, log pile, long grass and hedge, then fit the patio and borders around them.

House sparrows drinking and bathing at a shallow water dish under a shade canopy in a UK garden in summer

Wildlife 27 May 2026 6 min read

Garden Birds in a UK Heatwave: Water and Shade

How to help garden birds in a UK heatwave: shallow water in the shade, which foods to put out and which to hold back, and how to leave nest boxes be.

Wildlife log pile UK with stacked oak and beech logs in a shady garden corner, ferns and moss colonising the base

Wildlife 27 May 2026 9 min read

How to Build a Wildlife Log Pile UK

Build a wildlife log pile in an afternoon: which logs to use, where to put it, how big to make it and who will move in, from beetles to hedgehogs.

Gardener in rubber gloves scrubbing a tube bird feeder with a bottle brush over a bucket outdoors

Wildlife 26 May 2026 7 min read

How to Clean Bird Feeders and Stop Disease

How to clean bird feeders step by step: what to use, how often, why drying matters, and what to do if a sick finch turns up at your feeder.

Wren with its tail cocked standing on a mossy branch among ivy and fallen leaves

Wildlife 20 May 2026 9 min read

Attract Wrens to UK Gardens: Cover and Boxes

How to attract wrens to your garden with thick low cover, ivy, log piles and leaf litter, plus the right nest box and how to help them in winter.

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