Animals needs four things: food, water, shelter and places to breed.  Visit our Garden for a Living London microsite for lots of useful wildlife gardening advice.  Take a look at our gardening for wildlife guides and find out how your garden, balcony, and even your walls, can provide valuable habitats that are fascinating to watch develop and grow.  And remember to pay our Centre for Wildlife Gardening a visit for some hands-on practical advice.

 

Gardening for butterflies Watch out for the silent fluttering of garden visitors like the red admiral and orange tip. If you live in north London you are slightly more likely to see the wall brown butterfly. South of the Thames, you have more chance of seeing the speckled wood.

 

Gardening for birds A well designed garden can support whole families of birds, plus visitors from  nearby parks and woods too. As well as a bird table, your perfect bird garden will provide shelter, natural food, nesting space and safe highways around the neighbourhood.

 

Gardening for meadows A mini-meadow in your garden will provide the perfect home for hunting frogs, butterflies, grasshoppers and crickets. A larger meadow may attract moles and goldfinches.

 

Gardening for pondlife A pond in your garden will provide a focal point for people to watch and a resource for local animals, which might include breeding dragonflies and damselflies, spawning frogs, toads and newts, waterboatmen and pond skaters.

 

Wildlife on walls A surprising number of animals and plants use these steep environments, especially species that are associated with cliffs. Look for kestrels on high buildings, house martins nesting in central London, and flocks of starlings roosting in Soho.

 

Keeping track By keeping good records of the wildlife in your garden, and comparing them year to year, you can build up valuable information. It will help you find out how well you are doing and also tell you if your neighbourhood is improving too.

 

Problem wildlife Sometimes you may get unwelcome visitors in your garden, but there are ecologically and environmentally sensitive ways you can deal with so-called problem wildlife.