A wildlife-friendly garden in the UK

A feeder is a supplement. The RSPB says one of the better long-term things you can do is help birds find their own food, and names sunflowers, teasels and ivy as plants that do that. Their feeding page adds berries: blackberries, rowan, ivy and rose hips, used by blackbirds, robins, finches, winter thrushes, blackcaps, woodpigeons, starlings and, in a good year, waxwings. This is not a planting encyclopaedia. It is the short list on those pages.

Plants, without a made-up calendar

Ivy flowers late and the berries sit into winter, which is why it appears in both the “grow your own food for birds” line and the berry list. Teasels hold seed. Sunflowers do the same if you leave the heads. We are not adding sowing months; those were not on the pages. Tilthwick is a separate site about allotments and growing. It is not a bird guide. Use it if you want a planting plan for a food garden, and keep the wildlife plants above as the ones the RSPB actually names.

The BTO says that, wherever you can, natural food should come first, and the feeder second. From May to October that is also when they want seeds and peanuts taken down, because insects, seeds and berries are easier for birds to find and because disease risk at feeders is higher. The feeder guide is what to feed.

Water

A shallow-edged pond is the water source the RSPB prefers, and it can mean you do not need a bird bath unless it dries or freezes. Steep ponds are a hazard for hedgehogs; Hedgehog Street’s material talks about a shallow edge or a way out. How to build a pond, including liners and pumps, is not repeated here. Pond Setup Guide covers that on its own site. Daily water changes, if you use a bath instead, are in water for garden birds.

Nest sites and cover

The BTO’s reason for nest boxes is that holes in trees and old buildings disappear as gardens are tidied. A box is the artificial hole. Leaving a climber on a fence also gives an open-fronted box somewhere to hide, which is where they say to put a robin box. Sizes and height are in the nest box guide.

Hedgehogs use the untidy bits: compost, log piles, the space under a shed, leaf litter. Hedgehog Street says those natural features are better than a shop-bought house, partly because they produce the insects hedgehogs eat. A 13 cm hole in the fence lets them reach that corner. See highways.

What this page will not pretend

Bat boxes and bug hotels are often sold beside bird feeders. We did not open a Bat Conservation Trust or bug-hotel page for this launch, so there is no entrance-slit size and no “which way to face a bat box” claim here. Adding them later means opening those pages first.

We have not tested a planting scheme. The birds named above are the ones the RSPB lists for those plants, not a promise that a waxwing will visit.

Which plants should I start with?

The ones named on the RSPB pages we used: ivy, teasel, sunflower, and berrying shrubs such as rowan, blackberry and rose.

Do I still need a feeder if I plant?

In the cold months, the RSPB and the BTO still describe supplementary food as useful. From May to October they want the seed feeders paused, which is when the plants are doing more of the work.

Where do ponds fit?

As drinking and bathing water with a shallow edge. Building one is on Pond Setup Guide. Hedgehog escape is the extra constraint from Hedgehog Street.