Kingston Wildlife Gardening Forum
Vision: A network of gardens that encourage wildlife and supports biodiversity.
Aims: Encourage and support everyone in Kingston to garden with wildlife in mind
- Share ideas
- Signpost gardeners to useful information.
Things you can do
- Only cut hedges and trees between September and February Leave berries until after winter to feed birds.
Links: RSPB information on hedges Woodland Trust when to trim hedges
- Cut lawns less often and leave some areas of grass to grow longer to support butterflies, bees and other insects.
Links: Natural History Museum How to grow a lawn that is better for wildlife
- Go chemical free and use seaweed fertiliser or your own compost. Encourage slow worms, hedgehogs, toads, song thrush and ladybirds to manage pests.
Links: Wildlife Trusts Chemicals free organic gardening
- Create a compost heap and also log and stick piles, the beetles and worms they attract help with decomposition and are food for hedgehogs and slow worms.
Links: Suffolk Wildlife Trust Composting in your garden Wildlife Trusts How to make a log shelter
- Ensure your fences have gaps to create hedgehog highways.
Links: Hedgehog Street Where hedgehogs live
- Provide some water in your garden perhaps a bird bath, a bee bath, or a pond.
Links: Wildlife Trusts How to provide water for wildlife
- Create mini-habitats and micro-climates such as a rockery with stones or bricks provides hiding places for toads and lizards or a bug hotel.
Links: Lakeside School Microhabitats and minibeasts Woodland Trust How to build a bug hotel
- Love your ivy, it’s a great source of nectar and pollen from September to November; allow it to mature and flower.
Links: Woodland Trust Value of Ivy
To show your support for this initiative you can print out and display this A5 leaflet (LINK to orchid leaflet) in your window.
To be kept informed about the Kingston Wildlife Forum and future events please email knrg@kingston-pc.gov.uk with subject “keep me posted”
The Wildlife Gardening Forum is a volunteer group and part of the Kingston Parish Council’s Nature Recovery Group.
https://kingston-pc.gov.uk/nature-recovery-in-kingston/