GARDENING FOR WILDLIFE

It’s eight years since I began writing the first edition of Gardening for Wildlife and – with hand on heart – I can say that my passion for the subject has grown even more. I cannot tell you how much enjoyment I have had, what wonderful encounters with wildlife, all within a few feet of my back door.

Gardening is all about nurturing life; gardening for wildlife allows you to extend that to the creatures that share this planet with us.

In recent years, I have seen gardening for wildlife spread and blossom, and it is now central to the RSPB and its mission. All of us at the RSPB recognise that, if people are to care for our wildlife and try to save it, they need opportunities to get close to nature and to enjoy it as often as they can, and where better to start than in their own gardens.

At the same time, nature as a whole continues to struggle. As with wildlife in many other habitats, once familiar garden wildlife, such as Hedgehogs and Starlings, continue to decline and they need our concerted action if we are to turn the situation around. When you do things to make your gardens wildlife-friendly, you can feel proud that you are part of the solution.

So in this book we’ll look at how to encourage many of the different species you can find in a garden. We’ll go step by step through the creation of all sorts of mini habitats. And I’ve compiled a catalogue of more than 500 different garden plants that I know are not only great for wildlife, but look stunning in the garden too.

This new edition, with 48 new pages and a complete overhaul of the text and images, takes into account the extensive new research that has emerged in recent years, such as the RHS’s Plants for Bugs study. I’ve also been lucky enough to work closely with the Wildlife Gardening Forum, of which the RSPB is a partner, which has allowed me to draw on the expertise of all sorts of experts in all manner of fields.

Since that first book, I’ve also had the privilege of visiting many more inspirational gardens around the UK, from Scilly to Shetland, where I’ve learnt a huge amount first-hand from other people’s experiences. And I moved from my little garden – where I had enjoyed 15 glorious, transformative years – to one of an acre. It is the beloved former garden of two elderly sisters. It had become rather too much for them to cope with and I pledged to do my best to tend it back to its former glory and deliver a home for the wildlife they so adored there.

Use the book as you wish, but I would recommend that you read through the next section. In it we’ll go back to basics, weeding out some of the wildlife-gardening myths that have sprung up and establishing exactly what gardening for wildlife is all about. Like all good gardening, preparing the ground well reaps rewards, and I think it might bring a few liberating surprises too.

Gardens are at last being seen as the brilliant and valuable wildlife habitat they are – or at least can be, with a bit of effort and encouragement. You can bring about profound improvement really quickly, so be bold, and enjoy all the benefits that giving nature a home brings.

Gardening for wildlife can be great fun, offering you all sorts of little wild adventures without even leaving home! Yes, this is me. In my garden pond!