How To Turn Your Back Garden ‘Blank Canvas’ Into A Wildlife Haven
New-build homes present a unique opportunity for homeowners to make a beautiful new space completely their own.
With summer here and plenty of gardening opportunities and jobs to attend to in the coming months, our attention naturally turns to outdoor spaces.
If you’ve recently moved into a new-build home, Oxfordshire housebuilders Blenheim Estate Homes and Pye Homes are here to help with expert advice and top tips, to help you make the most of your own ‘blank canvas’, bringing your garden to life by turning it into a haven for all types of wildlife, including birds and pollinating insects like bees.
An extended living space with opportunities all year around, there are a number of ways to create a wildlife-friendly new-build garden:
Create natural habitats
Provide essential cover for wildlife by planting shrubs along the edges of the garden. Dead wood is vital for many species; create log piles or features by burying logs partially or arranging them in a criss-cross fashion. Beetles, fungi, and possibly reptiles or amphibians will soon inhabit these areas, adding diversity to your garden. Installing nest boxes, bat boxes, solitary bee boxes, bug hotels and hedgehog houses are also effective and relatively straightforward ways to welcome a hive of activity in your outdoor space.

Provide a rich variety of food
Maximise the food sources for wildlife in your garden by planting a variety of nectar and pollen-rich flowers and shrubs, ensuring blooms year-round. Include scented plants like Jasmine, Lavender, Clematis, and Wisteria. Consider dedicating space to wildflower seeds or a native hedgerow like Field Maple, Hazel, or Holly. One of the easiest ways to incorporate food sources in your gardens is to install bird feeders and tables to attract feathered visitors, using either store-bought or homemade bird food.
Ensure a good supply of water
Water is crucial for a wildlife-friendly garden. Consider a small pond to attract frogs, newts, and dragonflies. For smaller spaces, a simple bird bath works well and can be created by using rainwater collected in a water butt for your bird bath and plants.
Make your garden accessible
Wildlife movement between habitats is essential for garden biodiversity. Enhance your garden’s positive impact by creating small openings at the base of your fence behind shrubbery, enabling hedgehogs and other wildlife to freely traverse between gardens or areas.
Go chemical-free
Minimise chemical use in your garden and opt for peat-free compost and plants whenever possible. Composting organic waste provides natural fertiliser and creates habitats for amphibians, reptiles, and worms. By implementing these affordable practices, homeowners can attract more wildlife to gardens. Together, as a community, collective efforts can significantly benefit local wildlife populations. Embrace these changes, be patient, and watch as bees, birds, bats, and hedgehogs thrive.

Weeds
Weeding your garden may be tempting, but consider leaving some plants such as nettles, dandelions, groundsel and brambles as they serve as vital sources of food for many insects including butterflies and moths.
Plant climbers
Investing in climbers is a great way of covering walls and fences to hide wildlife and help them nest. Ivy is especially useful as the autumn flowers are sources of pollen for insects and the winter berries are loved by birds. Honeysuckle is also great for wildlife, and it goes without saying that the vertical greenery makes your garden look evermore charming.
Provide shelter
The wildlife in your garden needs a place to hide from predators and Mother Nature’s harsh elements, and creating a shelter for them can easily be done with piles of leaves, dense shrubs, hollow logs and rock piles.
Remember your nighttime visitors
Even though we don’t see much of our nocturnal wildlife, they are there, including bats, which you can help by reducing or removing artificial lighting from your garden. Honeysuckle and evening primrose are great garden components as they are night-blooming flowers that release their scents after dark, attracting pollinating insects.
Know your compost
Turning waste into compost will not only naturally enrich your soil but it may also provide a warm hiding place for many creatures including slow worms. Top compost tip: To avoid attracting rats, never add bread or cooked foods, instead add green materials such as fruit and vegetable scraps, used tea and coffee grounds, crushed eggshells, grass clippings, old flowers and weeds.
Top photo by Taylor Deas-Melesh on Unsplash