Creating a wildlife area

[rarejuicegoose]

Hello all, I'm looking to create a wildlife area in my garden and would love some tips and ideas.

My garden currently is all gravel and concrete but we've designated an area about 2.5m2 for the wildlife area and we will remove the gravel
My ideas so far are:

Wild flowers to attract bees and butterflies
Bird bath table
Bird feeders
A compost heap
A damp dark area with bark chips
Bee drinking station (marbles in a water tray)

It's a concrete walled garden unfortunately so I don't think we'd be able to attract any mammals

My dc are 2 and 5 and I thought it would be good to involve them to

If you have any ideas I would love to hear them

Insect homes! Little tubes with holes they can go and live in/hibernate in.

What are you going to use the compost for?

If it is for kids, why not put a wormery in instead? They will learn more about the mini beasts that live in a wormery than a heap.

Wildflowers usually need really poor friable soil and are quite hard to manage. Much better to just put a range of flowers in rather than try to make a wildflower patch.

The best wildlife area will literally be a pile of medium sized logs iled up, and just leave them be.

I'm a complete bit of a novice when it comes to flowers/ soil. I thought about planting a load that I can leave them to it. I have a few herbs growing at the moment that I haven't managed to kill.

The compost heap will actually be a compost bin that I already have.
I've never heard of a wormery so will have a look into that.. thank you

The damp areas will likely have some logs chucked into it as well and bark chips.

There's a very friendly and helpful group on Facebook called 'wildlife gardening forum' where lots of knowledgeable people will give you advice OP. Good luck with your efforts, it would be lovely if everyone would try to make their gardens a home for nature.

Thanks @ChristineBaskets unfortunately I don't have Facebook but have been reading a lot on Pinterest.

To be honest it's been inspired by the thread we're the poster had said it's predicted that hedgehogs will become extinct by 2025.

That in itself is a scary thought. It just got me thinking about my own garden and a good opportunity to teach my children about wildlife

What thread did you see that on (re the hedgehogs)?

Do exactly as you've said, and also, don't ever use weedkiller, sprays etc.

This is the thread
Will definitely not be using any chemicals.

Thanks, I'll read that now.

Ditto slug pellets, I was reading something lately about the effect they've had on our blackbirds.
You probably know that already if you've an interest in the area, but I'm amazed at the number of people who don't seem to know, or care

It's a shame you can't make some sort of an opening or entrance for mammals?

Good luck

I don't used slug pellet simply because my kids would probably eat them!
I did have disaster last year. I had a real slug problem around my lettuce so I thought I would put down some salt. Well I must have been a bit to generous with it and it disintegrated the lettuce!

I may try finding a way to put a small hole in the bottom of the wall. I worry though as it's only breeze block and knowing my luck the whole thing would collapse!

My dc love the bug hotel that their grandma has, they love checking to see 'who' has loved in and watching to see how long they are there and what they get up to. This is a great idea. We have a very damp boggy section of garden that I'm thinking of turning into a rockery, will be trying to incorporate some of these ideas.

You can get the wildflower seeds that you just sprinkle onto an area that are supposed to be great for insects and are easy to grow.

That's a lovely idea, but I think you're trying to put too much stuff into a small space. Personally I'd concentrate on flowers for bees and the bird bath and bee drinking station. And a pile of logs or stones.

I'd put the bird feeders elsewhere - OK if you feed just fats, but if you feed seeds there will be a lot of seed husks dropped, and you don't want your kids messing around in that. I'd put a slab elsewhere (easy to sweep up) and put the birdfeeder over that.

Look for flowers that are "pollinator friendly" - often marked with a little bee symbol. You need to decide whether you are going for perennial plants that may die down in the winter but will return every year, or for an annual mix, where you have to disturb the soil every winter to trigger germination.

It's not necessarily true that wild flowers need poor soil - it's that in rich conditions the "thugs" (grass, dandelions, docks, thistles etc) grab more of the nutrient and elbow the other flowers out. So they adapt to poor soil in order to avoid the thugs. Rather like going into a coffee shop which doesn't have great coffee, because the one with good coffee is always horribly crowded and noisy.

You could also read up on mini-ponds (which can double up as a bird bath).