Kate Humble has revealed her top tip about how to make a garden more wildlife friendly. This simple trick works whether you only have a tiny balcony or acres to fill.
The TV presenter and writer’s easy garden ideas will encourage insects and animals into your outdoor space. Time to let nature thrive!
Kate Humble's trick to welcome wildlife
'Irrespective of how big your garden is, there are ways to encourage wildlife,’ Kate Humble tells us. ‘The first thing is to think about planting and it may seem like a silly thing to say, but think about the food chain.’
‘Think about it. If you’ve got insects you’re going to get everything else,’ continues Kate. ‘If you don’t plant for insects then you’re not going to attract birds or small mammals. You need to think about that what there needs to be to encourage the next step of the food chain.’
So take your mind back to school and think about what eats what when working out how to plan a garden. If you plant for insects, then each successive step in the food chain will be catered for and make an appearance.
Planting for insects will help your actual gardening, too.
‘If you grow any sort of vegetables or you have fruit trees, encouraging pollinators like bees and wasps and hoverflies is really, really important,’ says Kate.
'This is because they will do all the hard work for you.’
Take things one step further and design your garden for the food chain with more than just planting. Water feature ideas can do more than add a stylish feature.
‘The other thing that’s just brilliant is building a pond,’ adds Kate. ‘There are lots of resources out there to show you how best to do it, but I would point you to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust.’
‘It doesn’t have to be very big, but a pond will be hugely pleasurable for you because it will bring in things like dragonflies, frogs and newts. You can also have beautiful plants around it, so it can be a really attractive feature but also an amazing resource for wildlife.’
Do put a wildlife-friendly water filter in your point if you can, as while a little bit of algae is good for the pond's health, an overflow will have negative effects and then you'll have to work out how to get rid of pond algae as a result.
Kate Humble's wildlife garden trick is easy to put into action, even for the less green-thumbed among us. So let’s get planting for the insects and let everything else fall into place.
