10 New Year's Resolutions for Wildlife

Wildlife gardening has many benefits. By growing plants, digging a pond and creating other habitats, such as log piles and compost heaps, we can provide homes for wildlife that would otherwise be homeless. There are around 30 million gardens in the UK. Potentially, if enough of us garden with wildlife in mind we can help slow down or even reverse declines of some species, like hedgehogs, right across the country.

Wildlife gardening is good for us gardeners, too. Watching birds visit the trees we’ve planted for them, bees buzz into flowers we’re growing and hedgehogs foraging among the long grass and leaf litter we’ve left for them, makes us feel better. There’s no doubt about it – caring for wildlife is good for our mental health.

The new year is a great time to take stock and see how you can make changes to your garden for the better. Here, I’ve listed 10 New Year’s resolutions to help make you and your garden a little wilder.

More on creating a wildlife haven:

• Carol Klein’s favourite plants for wildlife
• Garden habits you need to break to help wildlife
• 10 ways to work with nature on your veg patch
• Monty Don on gardening for wildlife – Podcast

If you do one thing for wildlife in the New Year, make it tree planting, which not only benefits wildlife, but you and the planet, too. And nothing beats the feeling of watching a bird land in the tree you’ve planted.

Take advantage of bare-root planting season (from November until early March) by planting fruiting trees such as rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), hawthorn and crab apple, or seed-bearing trees like birch and alder (Alnus glutinosa). Small garden trees include Amelanchier and strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo). If you don’t have room for a tree then a shrub or