Wildlife Gardening

Learn how to help your local wildlife from the comfort of your own home. With over 15 million gardens in Britain, covering an area larger than all our national nature reserves put together, what we choose to do with our gardens really does matter for nature.

No matter the size of the area you are looking after or how much gardening experience you have, we can all do more to help our local wildlife.

The first step to helping our wildlife is to change our mindset and think of our gardens as part of a much wider picture.  Yes, they are man-made areas, but they have the potential to be much more than just a place that we can enjoy on a sunny day. An oldie, but still a goodie read for anyone wanting to learn more about wildlife gardening is “Creating Environmentally Friendly Gardens” by Bob Davis in 2002.

Whether in a city centre or the countryside, our gardens can act as mini nature reserves for local wildlife, as well as form habitat corridors – bridging gaps between surrounding areas of habitat.

We hope our Wildlife Gardening page helps you think outside the box and be creative with your garden. In 2025, we created this handy printable booklet full of top tips for wildlife gardening. Download a copy here.

Photo of three species of pollinating insects on a native yellow flower to help local wildlife

Three species of pollinating insects on Tansy © John Malster

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Ugly or beautiful, it is the little creatures that make the world go round. We should celebrate and appreciated them in all their wonderful diversity.”  – Dave Goulson


Adding Animal Homes to your Garden

Adding Animal Homes to your Garden When you think of animal homes, you may immediately think of bird boxes. However, did you know there are a number of different home that you can create for a range of different animals? Find out more here. Bird Boxes The most common animal homes added to a garden are bird boxes.  However, just ...

An ecosystem approach to gardening

An Ecosystem Approach to Gardening An ecosystem is a community of living organisms and their physical environment interacting together. This can be as something as big as a nature reserve or as small as a garden. While it might be tempting to think about how we can encourage just one or two ‘attractive’ species (e.g. butterflies) into our gardens, we ...

Native Plants & Wildflowers

Native Plants & Wildflowers Sadly, much of our native wildflowers are no longer easily accessible for all to see and enjoy. But, you can change that, by bringing them to you! Here are a few tips on the different native plants and wildflowers that will benefit your garden and wildlife. A good starting point... Everyone's garden is different and sometimes ...

Other tools and resources

Other tools and resources There are lots of general tools and resources about wildlife gardening. We’ve tried to bring them all together to help. Useful meadow creation and grassland management links Some links to websites with advice and information on meadow and grassland management and creation. Included a list of recommendations for people interested in scything their grassland. Recommended by ...

Ponds – Adding Water

Ponds - Adding Water to Your Garden As small as a bucket or as large as a loch, every garden will benefit from the inclusion of a wildlife pond. All life is dependent on fresh water for survival and your garden and its wildlife is no exemption. Many plants and animals have adapted to life in water. Planning a pond ...

Providing Food for Animals

Proving food for animals All living things need to eat to survive and sometimes they need a little bit of help. Learn more on proving food for animals. The most common animals people put food out for are garden birds.  Unsurprisingly, the RSPB have extensive information about exactly what you should (and should not!) be feeding a range of different birds.  Please ...

Top Tips for Wildlife Gardening

Top tips from Wildlife Gardeners Want to start your wildlife gardening journey but aren’t sure where to start? Have lots of questions about what a wildlife garden does and doesn’t need? Here are some top tips from wildlife gardeners to help. We asked, so you don’t have to We asked our community of wildlife gardeners to give us their top tips ...

Wildlife Gardening Talk with Q&A

Wildlife Gardening Talk with Q&A On 18th March 2021, NESBiP hosted a Wildlife Gardening Talk with Q&A. Watch the full talk here. This talk with Q&A was part of Climate Week North East in 2021. Wildlife Gardening Talk with Q&A   The main slides from this Wildlife Gardening talk can be found here. Garden Rewildling During the main presentation, we ...

Wildlife Gardening Videos

Wildlife Gardening Videos Watch our Wildlife Gardening Playlist for tips for beginner gardens, how to collect yellow rattle seeds, how to grow wildflower seed and so much more! Watch our wildlife gardening videos for tips and hints The best way to learn about wildlife gardening is join our Wildlife Gardening Facebook Group, but we know not everyone is on Facebook. ...

Not quite found what you are looking for?

Still have questions? Not to worry, we have an amazing community of wildlife gardeners on Facebook that are happy to help! Head over to NESBiP’s Wildlife Gardening Group and join now.

By becoming a member of our Wildlife Gardening Group, it gives you the opportunity to:

  • – Ask other wildlife gardeners questions
  • – Share you experiences and knowledge with other
  • – Get some inspiration from other gardeners
  • – Build a community!

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