Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Ellen Winter reflects on a month of activity in and around the Stroud Valleys.

WHATEVER the size of your garden, here are some top tips to help you attract wildlife.

More tips can be found on Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s website.

1) Just add water! It’s essential, and even a small reliable source will bring in bees, birds, frogs and foxes.

Keep bird baths clean to prevent disease, and make sure ponds have sturdy plants at the edges so hedgehogs and the like can scramble out if they fall in.

Water butts and tanks should be kept covered to prevent animals falling in.

2) After water, food is the next thing to tempt most wildlife. Decide which animals you want to attract.

If you covet your neighbour’s goldfinches then a niger seed feeder might entice them.

However, for lovely scarlet tiger moths, a forget-me-not for their yellow and black caterpillars to munch on might do the trick.

3) A succession of nectar-rich flowers - from February’s snowdrops to December’s mahonia - via dame’s rocket, roses, cosmos and dahlias - will keep bees and butterflies coming to your plot all year.

Use single-flowered varieties so your visitors don’t have to work hard to get their reward of nectar and pollen.

4) Night-scented flowers such as honeysuckle and cherry-pie attract moths, so you might get some of Stroud’s fabulous bats.

These brilliant little animals eat thousands of insects per night, helping to keep your garden midges down!

5) Hedgehogs, slow worms and toads all eat slugs but like the cover of hedges and long grass to feel safe as they move around.

Try to connect your garden to the wider landscape via hedges, holes in fences and long grass at edges.

6) Finally, providing shelter in the form of bee and bug hotels might entice some wildlife to stay permanently and nest.

For more information, see the Wildlife Gardening pages at gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk