Many of the figures and headlines regarding the current state of biodiversity make bleak reading.  Over one million species globally are threatened, 41% of the world’s insects could be extinct over the next few decades, 250 UK pollinators are at risk of extinction and scientists are talking about the 6^th great extinction!

But there is also a great feeling of optimism.  Public awareness of the importance and benefits of biodiversity is greater than I have ever experienced during my 20 years as a professional ecologist and it feels like the tide is turning.

The great news is that helping biodiversity is one area where individuals really can make a difference.  There are 400,000ha of domestic gardens in the UK – that’s much more than all the nations nature reserves put together.  We can help to bring back our much loved and needed wildlife one garden at a time.

Some of the gardening trends in the recent past have not been so great for wildlife. The popularity of hard landscaping such as decking, patios and artificial grass has increased and that along with securing our boundaries with impenetrable fences and waging a war on insects and weeds with herbicides and pesticides has made some gardens unwelcoming if not dangerous for our native flora and fauna.  But this is changing. 

Gardening with wildlife in mind is seeing a revival.  National magazines such as Gardeners World now include regular wildlife gardening coverage.  In fact, I was invited to sit on the judges panel for their Garden of the Year competition to ensure that the importance of wildlife was considered.

I am hoping that this new and growing trend will continue and our gardens will be alive with the sounds of birds singing, bees buzzing, grasshoppers chirping, hedgehogs snuffling and frogs splashing into ponds.  We’ll release our tight control over parts of the garden, so that wilder areas can develop.  Here wildflowers will bloom, providing food for pollinators, piles of leaves will gather and long grass develop, teaming with insect life, providing shelter and food for hedgehogs. 

Plants such as ivy will be allowed to grow up fence lines providing vital late summer food for pollinators and winter berries for birds (Did you know according to the RSPB ivy berries provide nearly as many calories as Mars bars, gram for gram?). Water features such as ponds will delight us aesthetically but also provide habitat for so many creatures such as frogs, newts, dragonflies and many pollinators whose larval stages rely on water. 

Wildlife will be free to move through our gardens and won’t be constrained by impenetrable fences and artificial grass and we won’t need to rely on pesticides and herbicides because wildlife will be working for us in a natural balance with wild predators such as beetles and slow worms keeping our pests in check.  People will gain a huge sense of wellbeing from watching nature as well as a sense of pride from being its custodian.  When nature thrives – we thrive!

Being more mindful of the needs of our fellow creatures will allow some of our most threatened and charismatic species to recover and once again provide adults and children alike with a sense of awe and wonder.  And it's so simple to do.  Leaving deadwood in a tucked away corner can help stag beetle larvae complete their life cycle (they need 3-7 years undisturbed in rotting dead wood) and if you’re lucky on a warm summers evening you might glimpse the magnificent adult with its majestic antler like mandibles.  Or simply creating a hole (13x13cm) in the bottom of your fence is enough to allow the hedgehog passage so that they can roam the 2km on average that they need each night. 

Working together we can create stepping stones of wildlife habitat along streets, through towns and throughout the whole of the UK. 

Here are my top 5 tips for encouraging more wildlife into your garden;

1. Introduce some water - it doesn’t need to be a big pond, even a washing up bowl buried and filled with water will draw the wildlife in.  You’ll be amazed how quickly wildlife finds a new pond.  As well as being important for species such as amphibians and dragonflies who need the water to complete their life cycle, it will also be a vital source of drinking water for small mammals such as hedgehogs, birds and insects alike.
    
2. Be less tidy! – if you can resist tidying up so much and leave wilder areas of your garden with longer grass, leaf piles, log piles, and vegetation left uncut over the winter, these areas will provide really important habitats for a whole range of species.  Log piles for example, as well as supporting invertebrates, will become hunting grounds for a range of wildlife including small mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles.
    
3. Leave some grass long – you don’t have to leave your whole lawn long, but is there an area that you could allow to grow long during the summer into a meadow habitat?  Many insects such as butterflies lay their eggs on grasses so although less colourful, long grass is just as important as wild flowers.  In the lawn areas, reducing the cut to once a month allows wild flowers such as buttercups, daisies and dandelions to grow and flower between the mows providing a buffet for pollinators.  Plantlife found that not cutting the lawn in May can result in enough nectar for 10x more bees and other pollinators.
    
4. Introduce a variety of plants, flowering at different times and with different flower shapes. This will ensure there is food available for pollinators throughout the year.  Different pollinators need to utilise different shape flowers to collect nectar and pollen as they have different tongue lengths so the greater the diversity of flower shapes in your garden, the greater variety of pollinators it will support.
    
5. Avoid using pesticides - Insects can be really helpful to us if we start working with them rather than treating them as the enemy.  If you can avoid the slug pellets and other pesticides, the beneficial insects will slowly build up and start to control those not so welcome guests. Wild areas will support loads of great predators such as ladybirds, lacewings, ground beetles and hoverflies – and these will in turn control the pest populations. Garden birds, slow worms and hedgehogs can help to control slugs and snails.  It may take a year or two for the balance to establish but it is worth being patient.  Once a fully functional garden ecosystem is in place, everything should stay more or less in balance without the need for chemicals.