Work with your neighbours and community to create safe passage, as well as places to rest, feed and breed, raising young in peaceful surroundings, as wildlife approaches it’s busiest and most vulnerable time of the year. 

Wild

We’ve lost an astonishing third of our urban hedgehogs since 2000 and it’s heart-breaking to think people living in our homes in the future may never spot a glimpse of these delightful creatures.

Appearing at dusk, they rustle and forage in the borders of our gardens, covering up to two kilometers a night. They’re a natural predator of slugs and snails – so please spread the word about ditching the slug pellets which can poison hedgehogs.

Create small series of holes or gaps in your fences make space for our spiny friends to roam freely without the danger of having to cross our roads.

Stone walls are a familiar feature of our gardens in towns as much as across the Dales. They provide a home for everything from insects, small mammals to newts. A few feet long and only a couple of feet high, it could either by drystone or a series of gabions. Add some hardy plants like stonecrop for extra coverage and to feed the bees.

Wilder

Consider hedging of native species over fencing between gardens. But where a hard border is more pratical, drape fences in honeysuckle or ivy and build up ground cover near the base to create more wildlife habitat.   

Lawns make up huge areas of our gardens and a new campaign between the RHS and The Wildlife Trusts advises gardeners to cut on a higher setting and leave three to four weeks between cuts.

Dead-heading the daisies and dandelions will encourage them to come again, providing much needed nectar alongside plants like clover for our bees and butterflies.

Lawns also provide shelter for caterpillars and beetles which feed frogs, birds, and bats – a delightful character of warm summer nights.

Wildest

Help others in your community grow wilder by organising a plant or seed swap, participate in an open garden day to inspire others or share your knowledge and new-found expertise.

If you don’t have a garden or you’re growing out of your space, set up a community gardening initiative, look at taking over an area of parkland for wildlife or help improve your local area by carrying out regular litter-picks.

Community projects can give nature one of the best fighting chances and bring a whole host of other benefits to communities too.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust have launched a Wildlife Gardening Award to inspire people to do more for wildlife in their gardens, businesses, schools and neighbourhoods.

This award recognises the valuable contribution that gardeners are already making, and encourages keen wildlife gardeners across Yorkshire to share what they are doing and the positive impact they are having.

Visit our Wildlife Gardening Award page to apply and don’t forget to share pictures of your wild garden to inspire others!