one-day course wildlife gardening

venue: Hackney City Farm, London

Managing your garden with wildlife in mind is an important step in improving biodiversity both in an urban or rural situation. The layout and choice of plants combined with careful management can make your garden a haven for birds, spiders, butterflies and moths. A small area of water or boggy space will encourage frogs, toads, newts and many other species. A log pile or rotting log will allow beetles and invertebrates to feel at home. Careful pruning, diversity of planting and seed heads left for feeding will make birds love your garden. Gardening for wildlife is simple to do and fulfilling all year round.

The course includes:

• design and layout, height, structure and edges
• habitats, compost heaps, water, rocks and stones, woodpiles
• planting ideas, trees, shrubs, hedges, herbaceous and grasses
• cutting grasses, pruning bushes and hedges, seed heads
• ecosystems, food webs, organics
• maintenance and aftercare, keeping your ecosystem alive
• making what you already have more wildlife-friendly
  

more on wildlife gardening           more on gardening

the peacock is one of our most beautiful butterflies, but you won't get it in a too-manicured garden; there needs to be a few nettles somewhere, which provide food for its catterpillars

if you leave a pile of logs somewhere, it will provide habitat for beetles, millipedes and woodlice, which will provide food for frogs and newts, which will in turn provide food for hedgehogs

a garden full of diversity, in terms of plant species and heights, will provide habitats for many more species of birds and butterflies