If you add up all the gardens in Essex, their area will be more than the designated nature reserves in the county – so there is a great opportunity for gardeners to support a great deal of local biodiversity. Perhaps not the rare species of wildlife, but none the less the crucial wildlife that sustains the ecology and food webs and which we all enjoy seeing.

 

PACE has organised several Wildlife-friendly Garden Open Days - a walking tour of 10 or more gardens where the owners have incorporated many wildlife features such as ponds, wildflower areas, dry gardens, plants for pollinators, bug hotels, bat/bird/hedgehog boxes, feeding stations, stumperies, log piles, compost bins, leaf piles etc. Visitors get invaluable practical tips and advice on how to do it successfully. PACE has also run similar events for new homeowners where they start with a blank canvas. 

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Sharon Barker has also written a superb PACE Guide to Wildlife-friendly Gardening which you can download here. 

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Our next Wildlife Garden Open Day will likely be in 2027.

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What can you do?

Download the Wildlife-friendly Gardening Leaflet and pick out a few things you would like to try in your garden.

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Would you like to help on the next Wildlife Garden Open Day? – you can act as a volunteer guide or helper. Please email manningtreepace@gmail.com

 

Perhaps you would like your garden to be one on the walking tour for the next Wildlife Garden Open Day – a few good examples of wildlife features incorporated into a typical well used garden.