Habitat: Make Room for Wildlife

Think in layers, not lawns

Woodland edges are some of the richest habitats in any landscape, and a garden can imitate them. Think vertically: a canopy layer (a tree or tall shrub), a shrub layer (hedging, climbers), a field layer (perennials, long grass) and a ground layer (leaf litter, logs, stones). Each layer houses different insects, which in turn feed different birds. A neat lawn with a single fence offers almost none of this.

You don't need a large plot. Even a small yard can hold a climber on a wall, a pot of native flowers, a shallow dish of water and a pile of sticks behind a shed. The RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts and, in North America, the National Wildlife Federation's Garden for Wildlife programme all publish free guidance built around the same simple needs: food, water, cover and places to raise young.

Cover: the most overlooked resource

Birds rarely feed far from somewhere they can dive into if a sparrowhawk or cat appears. Dense, thorny shrubs such as hawthorn, blackthorn, holly and pyracantha provide safe perches and nesting sites. Ivy, often removed as untidy, gives winter shelter, late-autumn nectar for insects and berries in early spring when little else is fruiting.

• Delay hedge trimming until after the main nesting season — in the UK, roughly March to August — and always check carefully first.
• Leave some leaf litter under shrubs for foraging blackbirds, thrushes and dunnocks.
• Build a log pile in shade; beetles, woodlice and amphibians will move in.
• Let a patch of grass grow long through summer for insects and seed.

Plant for the insects, and the birds will find their own way in.

— Habitat principle

Water: shallow and clean

A pond is the single most effective wildlife feature in a garden, but a bird bath or a buried washing-up bowl helps too. The key is a gently sloping edge. Hedgehogs can drown in steep-sided ponds; a ramp of stones or a sloping beach lets them drink and climb out. Change bird-bath water regularly and scrub it every few days to reduce disease spread. Avoid adding fish to small wildlife ponds — they eat the frog spawn and dragonfly larvae you hoped to see.