Let nature lend a helping hand. From pollinators to pest control, the wildlife you attract to your garden can determine what grows and what doesn’t.

There are many simple ways to encourage creatures from butterflies to bumble bees, hoverflies to hedge sparrows into any garden.  These animals and insects can help reduce pests and increase the diversity of plants that grow, while you sit back and let your garden thrive. 

Encourage wildlife into your garden and you can promote biodiversity and conserve endangered species, all the while creating an attractive and colourful environment for everyone to enjoy. 

Wildflowers create a mini-wildlife sanctuary, providing nectar for butterflies, bees and moths, food plants for caterpillars and seeds for birds.  Any young explorers will find endless plants, mini-beasts and animals to learn about and most wildflowers which will add colour and beauty to any garden and Dobbies sell a number of wildlife attracting seeds in single and mixed packs. 

Lightly fragranced, Wild Pansy (Viola tricolor) has stunning yellow and violet flowers and can be planted in their final flowering position in seedbeds in June and July.  Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) attracts butterflies and bees wonderfully, producing rosettes of spine-coated leaves in the first year and conical heads of purple flowers on tall, angled and spined stems in the second year.  Seeds can be sown directly into finely prepared seedbeds in June. 

Try also planting nectar-rich flowers such as buddleia to attract butterflies, put up nesting boxes and bird feeders to encourage hedge sparrows that eat grubs from the lawn and hedgehogs that eat slugs, snails and earthworms by creating small dens with mounds of sticks surrounded by ferns.