03/05/2026
if you are planning work in the garden consider making space for some wildlife
Thirty years ago, the average British garden was home to hedgehogs crossing the lawn at dusk, swallows nesting under the garage eaves, glow-worms flickering along the hedgerow in June, common toads patrolling the beds after rain, and house sparrows quarrelling over crumbs on the breakfast table.
That garden still exists. It is just empty.
Every species that disappeared had an address — your roof, your hedge, your lawn, your pond, your wall. Every cause is identifiable. Every solution is within reach.
Hedgehog: a 13 cm gap at the base of a fence panel. Hedgehog populations have declined sharply across Britain over recent decades, largely due to habitat fragmentation. A connected garden corridor costs nothing to make.
Swallow: a 10 cm gap left open under the eaves from March to September. Swallows return to the same nest every year and find the door closed. Nesting ledges can be fixed inside garages as an alternative.
Glow-worm: turn off external lights between 10 pm and 5 am from May to September. A single garden floodlight is enough to cancel the female's bioluminescent signal completely. Glow-worm colonies have contracted significantly in Britain, and light pollution is among the clearest identified causes.
Common toad: a permanent body of water of around 2 square metres, with no fish. Toads return to their natal pond each spring. If it no longer exists, they have no fallback.
House sparrow: a nest box with a 32 mm entrance hole and a patch of uncut, untreated lawn nearby for foraging.
Butterflies: one square metre of nettles left in a corner. Peacock, small tortoiseshell, and red admiral all breed exclusively on nettle. A tidy nettle-free garden offers none of them a future.
Violet ground beetle: stop using slug pellets and mulch instead of rotovating. Ground beetles live and hunt in the soil surface layer and are killed directly by cultivation and poisoned indirectly by metaldehyde.
The garden of thirty years ago was not destroyed by a single event. It was emptied by an accumulation of small decisions. Each one of them can be reversed. 🌿🦔🐸🦋
