Wildlife Garden Help

Hi All. We will soon need to re-do the back garden and wondered if anyone knew of an Idiots Guide to Wildlfie Gardening book that would tell me what to plant and where. I'm not a fussy gardener so it makes sense to have useful stuff(food for birds, bees and butterflies etc.) Any help would be gratefully received, Regards Ashlady x

Hi Ashlady I bought both these books from Amazon for family members as gifts and they said they were great

Many thanks Mini, I'll take a look

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basic...dgardens.shtml

there's some good tips on the above link

Thank you Kirsty forgot about that.
Ashlady my little garden is full of wildlife, it didn't start out that way but just sort of developed .... I even have frogs but no water, I think they must come to my garden from the manicured one with a pond next door..and there are butterflies, dragonflies, a hedgehog lots of insects and birds and nests. There is a corner that is really wild with rotting logs and that has many sorts of insects so of course the birds come too and being right out in the country on the edge of woods the garden is visited by rarer birds like Jay's and Greater spotted Woodpeckers. Not sure how big your garden is, mine is fairly small , one shrub that is a must is the Budlea, butterflies/bees love it and Lavender,Lemon Balm, Rosemary and all the herbs, I grow many herbs for my own use, Amy loves to stand in the garden sniffing them as well. Good luck with your garden, it will repay you many times over providing you with lots of interesting things to watch .

Thanks for that Kirstie, I'll take a look

Hi Mini, thanks for the encouragement. Our garden is about 30ft x 60ft. It already has plants and stuff in, but I've never really taken a huge interest, just kept it kinda tidy. When we started to feed the wildlife, I became more interested in what was there and now since it is going to need to be re-done, it makes sense to make it 'useful' I'm not a fussy or great gardener so am not looking for massive displays or specimin plants. It may also decrease my bill for the food!! I pay about £8/9 PER WEEK on seed, nuts etc. which is more than it costs to feed the dogs, so the more insects etc. I can attract the better!!!

I am sure you will get there Ashlady My garden is half the size of yours,I have been in this house 24 years so the garden is mature with shrubs and trees and herbaceous plants so takes very little looking after, I hope to see some pictures when you get going with yours

We`ve got a lot of wildlife in our garden & think one of the reasons is because it`s not all trimmed & kept neat I try to let things grow more or less how they want without looking to unsightly, making sure theres lots of undergrowth. Its a bit of a bone of contention with me & oh I won`t let him cut anything. Even if you can`t have a water feature you could put some sort of bird bat down, I`ve put black paint trays around & the birds seem to like the slopy bit
I used to make my own bird food, bought the seeds/nuts in bulk, big economy bags of currants/dried fruit etc & then melted the suet & added them, put it in suitable containers, let it set then put it out for the birds, it might work out cheaper that way for you?
Christine.