Spring garden tips for helping wildlife

With No Mow May just round the corner, it’s the perfect time to speak to your household about where you can make space for nature, by leaving lawns and grassy spaces – and nectar-rich lawn flowers like dandelions, white clover, selfheal and daisies – unmown.

This simple act is really important for the first-of-the-year’s bumblebees and other pollinating insects, giving them a vital early energy boost while they look for a suitable nest site. Last year, Plantlife’s citizen science research found lawns cut once every four weeks had the highest amount of flowers and nectar sugar, while larger areas of unmown grass were more species-rich, producing nectar for a wider range of pollinators.

You can buy a bee hotel or make one of your own simply by drilling holes into a dry log and leaving it in your garden. Many species of solitary bees like sandy, south-facing soils, so you can also consider clearing a space for them now, if you have this soil type in your garden.

Queen bumblebees also start searching for nesting holes at this time of year. Though they’ve a natural preference for mouseholes, it’s worth putting out a bespoke bumble bee nesting box, with a little hole in it, to help them on their way.

Got a bee hotel from last year? Keep an eye out for any activity at its entrance. If your bee hotel is already occupied, you might notice the males hatching out first, and waiting around for the females to follow.

And if you’ve got stinging nettles in your garden, it’s worth keeping a patch growing, or even rehoming them to a dedicated pot, as they’re great food for small tortoiseshell, peacock, red admiral and comma butterfly caterpillars.

Growing upwards and cultivating trees and shrubs offers all-important cover for insects and birds. Wall trellises are also great for encouraging sweet, pollen-producing climbers like honeysuckle, a favourite of bees, butterflies and moths.

You can boost your garden’s biodiversity still-further by adding a pond (though autumn/winter is best for this activity). You’ll be surprised at how quickly creatures like insects and amphibians will find it, says the RHS.

But before you get started on any planting, make sure you’re stocking up on composts that are peat and pesticides-free. The UK’s peat bogs are not only vital homes for wildlife, but mining peat releases carbon into the atmosphere. Pesticides are deadly to bees and other crucial pollinators – find out how to petition the government against their latest use, here.