Wildlife gardens list

This is still a garden in progress but what I have done so far is install hedging along the borders and removed most of the turf grass that was originally there. I have some fruit trees and shrubs (apple, pear, cherry, walnut, raspberry). Outside of the food areas I encourage wild plants to take root and weed only very lightly which has led to the garden being filled with insects. I leave seed heads over winter which are visited by birds, especially the goldfinches which love the weedier seed heads like thistle and fireweed as well as the sunflowers. These also host over-wintering insects and I've noticed that I get ladybirds visiting really early in spring as they can spend the winter here and had barely any aphid pressure last year! This year I will be adding in more flowers for pollinators.

I have a very small pond which is actually a plastic really useful storage box filled with rocks and rainwater. There have been no frogs yet but it is visited by damselflies and dragonflies in summer and is well used by birds.

I have areas of bare soil especially for ground nesting bees. I also have a slightly chaotic pile of wood behind a compost bin that has interesting fungi as well as providing insect habitat and cover for the hedgehogs. Holes in the wooden fence posts were well used by solitary bees last year.