Typically, having just purchased a new-build home, you will not yet have been fortunate enough to relax in your garden amongst an array of different wildlife.
To counteract this, read on to learn how to attract a huge range of wild birds to your new-build property.
Embrace Biodiversity
Rather than sticking to a couple of varieties of flowers and maybe one tree sapling that you found in the local garden center, if you truly want to make your garden an attractive home for all manner of wildlife, biodiversity is key.
Simple ways to embrace biodiversity in your garden include:
- Letting plants and flowers grow (rather than trimming everything down all the time)
- Planting pollinators such as anemones, crocus, lavender, and dahlia
- Using trees and shrubs to define the perimeter instead of fences
- Creating your own compost heap
Choose Specific Flowers and Plants
Beginning with the autumnal flowering plants, holly berries are a great food source for wild birds such as blackbirds, redwings, song thrushes, and fieldfares—as long as you choose a female plant (as these are the only ones which produce berries).
Another autumnal plant, ivy, is both easy to grow and maintain, and is also a tasty snack for a wide variety of birds, including finches, waxwings, thrushes, and blackbirds.
Throughout February and into March, the hawthorn bush produces berries that greenfinches and chaffinches adore and in the summer; and honeysuckle will not only provide berries for warblers, thrushes, and bullfinches, but also valuable shade for all sorts of creatures.
Don’t Forget the Bees!
As you will probably already be aware, bees have faced an increasingly worrying future in recent years, but thankfully, due to numerous charities and eco-warriors’ efforts, the bee population is on the rise.
To do your bit to help bees once again thrive, choose flowers which will simultaneously attract birds and bees to your garden, including the beautifully scented lavender plant, foxgloves, blue borage, and lilac.
Provide a Banquet
Niger bird seed (from The Awesome Wildlife Company, for example) is an excellent example of nutritious and delicious seeds which will attract many different species of bird to a garden of any shape, space, and location.
During the winter months, supplement this high-quality seed with fat balls (those which are specifically designed for wild birds) and hang them over the living room window, in trees, and even on the corner of your shed.
In addition to bird seed, in the spring and summer months also leave out oatmeal, soaked raisins, mealworms, fat bars, and soaked currants.
Install Nesting Options
Finally, you should also look to provide your new visitors with somewhere to nest.
There are three different nesting boxes most utilized in gardens: a sparrow terrace which is a larger box for families of house sparrows; small hole nest boxes for smaller birds positioned in high branches of trees; and open front nest boxes.
Open nest boxes are the preferred nesting spot for pied wagtails, wrens, and the brave robin—and to maximize the chances of seeing these birds in your own garden, make sure you hang the open nest box in a place covered with shrubs.
