Garden Wildlife Week: Three fun activities
Garden Wildlife Week is all about getting out in nature to appreciate and support the animals, plants, and insects that live on our doorsteps. Whether you have your own garden, a balcony, a communal space, or the local parks around you, there are lots of ways you can get involved in Garden Wildlife Week.
Go exploring with our Wildlife Checklist
A great activity for kids, download our Wildlife Checklist and tick off all the critters you can find! Start off close to home in your back garden if you have one, and perhaps venture further out if your little explorers are keen to get a full house.
Build an insect hotel
Insect hotels are a great way to support a wide range of wildlife including ladybirds, bees, woodlice, and even bigger animals like toads and hedgehogs. They provide a safe and cozy home for these creatures, and they’re really easy to make. Here’s how you can build one in your garden.
- Choose a firm and level space. Ideally one side will be in shade and the other in full sun, as this way it’ll appeal to the widest number of animals. The wildlife that visits your insect hotel will depend on the conditions of the site you choose.
- Gather materials. Old bricks and tiles, logs, pallets, dead wood, loose bark, pine cones, dry leaves, sticks, and straw all make good building blocks for an insect hotel.
- Create a strong and stable framework. Start by placing bricks or larger logs on the ground as the foundations and then start adding your other materials layer by layer. The idea is to create plenty of nooks and crannies, tunnels, and beds for visiting wildlife to use.
- Finish your hotel off with a roof to keep it relatively dry. You could use old roof tiles or old planks.
- Plant wildflowers nearby. This will attract pollinators like butterflies and bees so that they use your bug hotel.
- Name your hotel. Once you’ve come up with the perfect name, you could carve or write it on a piece of bark and attach your sign as the finishing touch! A couple of our personal favourites are Buggingham Pallets, Minibeast Manor, and The Bee & Bee.
Make your garden hedgehog friendly
Perhaps one of the most beloved garden visitors is the hedgehog, which can travel as far as a mile in one night! To help them on their travels, there are a few things you can do at home.
1. Create a hedgehog highway
Hedgehogs need safe passages through gardens, and fences often get in their way. Try digging a small hole under your fence to allow them to pass through – they only need about a 13cm x 13cm gap.
You could even speak to your neighbours to encourage them to do the same so that your local hedgehogs have a reliable route to pass through.
2. Leave them food and water
Though less crucial in the summer months when food is more readily available, hedgehogs will still appreciate a pre-prepared snack. Cat and dog food or crumbled pet biscuits work well – avoid leaving them bread or milk as these foods aren’t good for them.
Just make sure you remove any food that hasn’t been eaten every day, and clean the dishes before putting more food out. This is to prevent pests, and also to stop different hedgehogs from catching diseases from each other.
3. Create a cozy shelter
Hedgehogs love to rest in the small spaces in piles of logs and other garden debris. Create a pile in a quiet corner of your garden using things like logs, compost, and dried leaves.
4. Remove hazards
Hedgehogs can easily fall into holes, drains, and ponds. Cover up holes to stop them taking a tumble, and put rocks or bricks in ponds to provide an exit route for any hedgehogs that have waded in.
Litter is also a real hazard to hedgehogs as they can get their heads stuck in tins, plastic bags, and other discarded items. Make sure there’s no litter in your garden and that you keep any rubbish bags safely inside a bin with a lid.