5 Ways To Do More For Wildlife At Home

Whether you have a garden, a balcony or just a windowsill, there are lots things you can do at home to encourage more wildlife into your garden.

1. Let it grow – if you have a lawn, you could experiment with letting it grow longer, or leave a section of it uncut completely. You may want to sow some wildflower seeds, or just stop cutting and see what comes up! Data from Plantlife tells us that a mix of short and long grass is best, so you can experiment with keeping some areas mowed while others are left undisturbed – here are some ideas to get you going.
2. Build an animal hotel – putting a bird house or bee hotel in your garden, on a fence or even on the wall next to your window can help give wildlife a place to go. Insect hotels don’t have to be huge, there are instructions here how to make one.
3. Log or stick piles – these are a great way to give space to insects and invertebrates, and they are easy to make. Just pick a quiet corner or out of the way area and stack the logs, a range of sizes, with twigs and dried grasses gives even more places for things to live. The RSPB have lots of ideas of how to add one to your garden.
4. Create a Hedgehog Highway – Hedgehogs travel 1 mile through the night looking for food and a mate. Creating a 13cm X 13cm hole in your fence is enough for them to get through. Speak to your neighbours about putting holes in their fences too so the Hedgehogs can roam.
5. Water or Mud – Grab a shallow try or bowl to provide water for birds and insects. It’s best if you can fill it with pebbles or stones so that bees don’t fall in. And in bird nesting season, a mud tray can be a huge help to birds, especially if we have a dry spell. Here are some more ideas from The Wildlife Trust.

There is so much you can do for wildlife, and if we each do something we can make a huge difference overall.

Why don’t you have a go at one and post a picture on on social media using the hashtag #AbbeyNature.

We’ll be doing some of these activities at our events across the Abbey Nature Festival, so do come along to an event between 27th May and 4th July. These events are made possible with funding from the Cambridge Nature Network and form part of the Cambridge Nature Festival