Your garden or outdoor space

Man growing plants in his garden

Ideas for supporting nature in your garden or outdoor spaces

Big or small, your garden or outdoor spaces can help fight climate change. 

Here are six ways you can support nature in your garden: 

  1. Retain existing plants and trees
  2. Minimise hard surfacing - not only does this retain soil for wildlife and root systems of trees, it helps with flood mitigation
  3. Leave a gap in fence for wildlife - A hole 13cm wide and tall can allow hedgehogs and other animals to move between properties
  4. Maintain/create a green corridor for wildlife - rather than just a hard fence, consider softer boundary treatments such as hedges and trees
  5. Create a pond
  6. Leave an area of the garden wild

Here are six ways you can support nature without needing a garden: 

  1. Start a balcony or roof garden
  2. Plant wildlife-friendly plants, which you can also use in your kitchen such as thyme or sage
  3. Add a small water feature like a bird bath
  4. Welcome bees by installing a bee hotel
  5. Encourage birds with a bird feeder
  6. Join in at a community garden or start an allotment

Supporting nature as part of development proposals

These are just some initial ideas - advice should be taken from a qualified ecologist:

  • Include bat and bird boxes, and access points for bats in roof voids
  • Minimise external lighting, and make it wildlife-friendly
  • Remove invasive species, such as Japanese knotweed 
  • Link into wider green infrastructure and local nature designations eg. green corridors, Biodiversity Opportunity Areas, Sites of Nature Conservation Importance.
  • Consider the impact of new vehicle and/or pedestrian access points. Does the location and width avoid or minimise the impact on retained hedges/trees?
  • Replace amenity grassland with suitably managed species-rich grassland or areas of wildflower planting

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