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As LettsSafari continues to grow, we wanted the website to do more than simply tell people what we do. It’s a place to share our rewilding work, introduce the wildlife that benefits from these spaces and give people a better understanding of why restoring nature matters.

The new design brings everything together in one place, from our rewilding projects and wildlife to our latest news and resources. We’ve also made it easier to explore the different ways you can learn about, support and connect with nature.

Whether you’re new to LettsSafari or have been following us for a while, we’d love for you to have a look around!

As we continues to grow, so will the website.

You can find out more about our approach to rewilding, explore our work and keep up with what’s happening across our sites.

Visit the new LettsSafari website and let us know what you think.

We’ll continue sharing more here on our Substack about rewilding, wildlife, urban nature and the people and communities helping to create a better future for nature so subscribe to us today!

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A recent Guardian article highlighted the idea of creating mounds in gardens using existing soil, rubble, branches and organic material, drawing inspiration from our good friends at Knepp in West Sussex. At Knepp, material that could have been removed as waste was instead reused to form an undulating dry garden, providing planting opportunities and habitat for insects.

It’s a simple idea with an important principle behind it: the more varied the habitat, the more opportunities you can create for nature.

And it’s something you can try in even a relatively small urban garden.

Why a Flat Garden Isn’t Always Best for Wildlife

Most conventional gardens are designed around flat lawns, straight borders and clearly defined spaces.

Wild landscapes rarely look like that - they contain slopes, banks, fallen branches, bare ground, sheltered hollows, exposed sunny areas and countless small variations in height, moisture and temperature.

These variations create microhabitats - small areas offering slightly different conditions for plants, insects and other wildlife. Introducing even a small mound can therefore increase the variety within your garden.

How to Create a Wildlife-Friendly Garden Mound

You don’t need to undertake major landscaping. Start with materials you already have.

1. Save surplus soil

If you’re digging a pond, installing a path or creating new planting areas, don’t automatically dispose of the soil. Consider using it elsewhere in the garden to create gentle mounds or raised planting areas. Rather than sending excavated soil away in a skip, it can become part of the garden itself.

2. Add logs and branches

Dead wood is one of the most useful materials in a wildlife garden. Instead of cutting branches into small pieces and removing them, place some underneath your mound. As the wood gradually decomposes, it helps create a richer structure beneath the soil.

This approach is similar to “hugelkultur“, a long-established gardening technique in which mounds are created using decaying wood, branches and other organic material covered with soil.

3. Use turf rather than throwing it away

If you’re removing sections of lawn, turn the turf upside down and incorporate it into your mound. The grass will break down over time and return organic material to the soil. It is another example of a useful rule for wildlife gardening:

Before taking something out of your garden, ask whether nature could use it somewhere else.

4. Create different aspects

Even a mound less than a metre high can create different conditions. One side might receive full sun. Another could remain cooler and shaded. The top may drain quickly while the bottom retains more moisture. These differences give you opportunities to grow a wider mixture of plants.

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Plant Your Mound for Wildlife

Once your mound is established, avoid treating it as another conventional flower bed. Think about layers.

You could combine:

• ground-cover plants

• grasses

• wildflowers

• flowering perennials

• small shrubs

• herbs

• climbing or trailing plants

Aim to provide different heights, shapes and flowering periods. Use repetition alongside different heights, colours and textures when planting a mound. From a wildlife perspective, variety can also extend the amount of time your garden provides useful food and shelter.

Don’t Make Everything Too Tidy

A wildlife-friendly mound doesn’t need to look abandoned but it doesn’t need to look immaculate either. Allow some leaves to remain, leave occasional stems standing, keep pieces of exposed wood or let plants seed naturally in places.

A small amount of disorder can provide valuable hiding places and overwintering habitat. The aim isn’t to stop gardening. It is to garden with wildlife in mind.

Connect Your Mound to Other Mini Habitats

The real opportunity comes when your mound becomes part of a larger network. Alongside it, consider adding:

A small pond or water container: Even a tiny source of water can add another type of habitat.

A log pile: Stack branches or pieces of untreated timber somewhere sheltered.

A patch of longer grass: Rather than mowing everything at the same height, allow one area to grow.

Pollinator-friendly planting: Choose plants that provide pollen and nectar through as much of the year as possible.

Dense shrubs: Shrubs can provide shelter and potential nesting habitat while creating another layer of vegetation.

You don’t need all of them. Adding one new habitat at a time gradually makes your garden more varied.

Rewilding Is About Variety, Not Size

This is perhaps the most useful lesson from the story.

The inspiration may come from Knepp - one of Britain’s best-known rewilding projects - but the same principle can be applied in a long, narrow urban garden. You don’t have to recreate a giant nature reserve, uou simply create more opportunities for nature within the space you already have.

Where LettsSafari Fits In

LettsSafari is built around the idea that people shouldn’t need to own large areas of countryside to participate in rewilding. You can start where you are.

Through LettsSafari, subscribers can learn practical ways to encourage nature back into gardens, balconies and other small spaces while also contributing to wider rewilding activity.

That creates two complementary forms of action:

Rewild at home.
Make small changes that create more space for wildlife around you.

Support rewilding elsewhere.
Help fund larger-scale nature restoration beyond your own garden.

The goal isn’t to turn every garden into wilderness overnight.

It’s to help thousands of people make one achievable change — and then another.

Five Small Rewilding Actions to Try This Weekend

If creating a mound sounds interesting, start small.

1. Leave one pile of logs or branches somewhere sheltered.

2. Allow one patch of grass to grow longer.

3. Turn an unused container into a miniature wildlife pond.

4. Create a small mound from spare soil, turf or organic material.

5. Plant one additional wildlife-friendly plant.

The best small-scale rewilding projects often begin with something surprisingly simple. Sometimes even a pile of earth can become habitat.

Garden rewilding is a journey. We’re excited to share our journey with you through “The Nature Reserve Next Door: How to Turn Any Garden Into a Wildlife Sanctuary”.

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5.2 Medium Urban Garden Build

A medium urban garden of 120–300+ m² offers enough space to implement the LettsSafari three-habitat mosaic as a literal, spatially distinct structure: three interlocking zones of grassland, scrub, and trees, connected by a water thread. The recommended approach is to split the rewilded area (roughly one-third or more of the total garden area) into roughly equal grassland, scrub, and tree-associated zones.

Key Upgrades Versus a Small Garden

• A two-meadow system: one ‘spring meadow’ that flowers early and is then managed (cut and arisings removed) in late summer; one ‘summer meadow’ patch left long until the autumn cut, providing overwintering habitat for butterfly larvae in the grass tussocks

• A proper wet edge: a wildlife pond of at least 3 m in the longest dimension, feeding into an actual bog garden strip, which in turn spills into a damp grass margin planted with ragged robin, marsh marigold, and water mint

• A native mixed hedge of around five species, with climbers (ivy and honeysuckle) growing through it and a rough base of leaf litter and bramble below

• Hedgehog highway connection: if appropriate and with the support of neighbours, a 13 cm × 13 cm gap at the base of your fence panels allows hedgehogs to follow established nightly routes through the garden network

• At least two or three standard or semi-standard native trees providing canopy structure - a field maple or crab apple in a sunny position; an alder or willow in any damp zone

Living in, or having access to a medium sized urban garden is a real privilege, and a wonderful opportunity to extend your traditional garden methods with your own mini, rewilded nature reserve. One that nature and wildlife will constantly thank you for.

Join us next week for “Chapter 5.3 Cottage Garden Rewilding”

Get 10% off a group subscription

Get more LettsSafari updates and wildlife photos on X. And read the latest posts at the LettsSafari + website.

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In late July 2026, fire swept across more than 112 hectares of Dunwich Heath on the Suffolk coast, damaging one of Britain’s most important areas of lowland heath.

The reserve provides habitat for wildlife including nightjars, Dartford warblers, adders and specialist invertebrates. Conservationists have warned that some species have lost crucial habitat and that the effects on less mobile wildlife may be particularly severe.

The fire has also prompted a wider conversation about how we manage land as Britain’s summers become hotter and drier.

And one of the answers may lie in creating more varied, nature-rich landscapes.

How can rewilding reduce wildfire risk?

Rewilding doesn’t mean simply abandoning land.

At Dunwich Heath, the National Trust and RSPB already actively manage vegetation, remove material, maintain firebreaks and encourage different ages of heather. According to the National Trust, having vegetation of different ages can also help retain more moisture in the ground.

But conservationists are also looking at how nature itself can help make larger landscapes more resilient.

Possible approaches include:

• restoring wetlands that can create natural breaks in dry landscapes;

• using grazing animals to reduce accumulated dry vegetation;

• maintaining ponds and wetter areas;

• creating a mixture of woodland, scrub, grassland and open habitat;

• connecting habitats so wildlife has more places to move when conditions change.

At Dunwich, neighbouring wetlands helped limit the fire’s spread in some areas. Conservationists interviewed after the fire also pointed to beavers, winter grazing and more varied habitat mosaics as potential tools for making suitable landscapes more resilient.

The principle is bigger than wildfire.

Natural England argues that larger, better-connected and healthier natural areas give wildlife a better chance of surviving periods of extreme weather. The government’s Land Use Framework also identifies restoring wetlands and other nature-based solutions as part of improving resilience to climate impacts, including wildfire.

What does this have to do with your garden?

Quite a lot.

You probably aren’t going to introduce a herd of grazing animals or a family of beavers to your back garden.

But the underlying idea scales down surprisingly well: diversity creates resilience.

A garden made up almost entirely of paving and a closely cut lawn provides relatively few habitats. Introduce trees, shrubs, longer grass, flowers, water, dead wood and areas of shade and suddenly you have a much richer ecosystem. Different species can find food, shelter and cooler conditions in different places. And when thousands of gardens do this together, individual pockets of habitat begin to form something much more interesting: a network of urban nature.

Here are five ways to start.

1. Add water

Water is one of the quickest ways to increase the variety of wildlife visiting a garden. A small wildlife pond, sunken container or other safe source of water can provide drinking and bathing opportunities while creating habitat for insects and amphibians. Make sure wildlife has an easy way in and out, and avoid introducing fish if your goal is a wildlife-focused pond. The larger landscape principle is similar: wetlands provide habitat while also helping landscapes cope with environmental extremes.

2. Create different layers of vegetation

Think less about individual plants and more about habitat structure. Try combining:

• trees

• shrubs

• climbing plants

• flowers

• longer grasses

• ground-level vegetation

These different layers provide feeding, nesting and shelter opportunities for different species. Even a small garden can contain surprising structural diversity.

A balcony can do it too: tall grasses, flowering containers and climbing plants create several miniature layers of habitat in only a few square metres.

3. Leave some areas less tidy

Wildlife rarely shares our enthusiasm for immaculate gardens. A pile of leaves beneath a hedge, some dead stems left over winter or a small stack of logs can provide habitat for insects and other creatures. You don’t need to let the whole garden go wild. Choose a corner.

That distinction is important. Rewilding doesn’t have to mean doing nothing.

Sometimes helping nature means intervening less. Sometimes it means actively creating the conditions in which nature can thrive. The conservation work at Dunwich itself demonstrates this balance: vegetation is cut, scrub managed and firebreaks maintained specifically to protect its distinctive heathland ecosystem.

4. Give your lawn some variety

You don’t have to choose between a bowling green and an impenetrable jungle. Try mowing different areas at different heights. Keep some shorter grass where you want to sit or walk, but allow other sections to grow. Add flowering plants suited to your soil and local conditions. You begin creating a mosaic of habitats - the small-scale equivalent of the varied landscapes conservationists are trying to encourage more widely.

5. Connect your patch with the world outside

Perhaps the most important principle of small-scale rewilding is connection. Your garden doesn’t exist in isolation. Birds fly between gardens. Bees travel between flowers. Insects, amphibians and small mammals move through vegetation, hedges and gaps between properties. So ask:

Can wildlife get into my space?

Is there food when it arrives?

Is there somewhere to shelter?

Can it move onwards to another habitat?

A hedge instead of a solid fence, climbing plants against boundaries or a small gap beneath a fence can make your patch part of a much larger ecological network.

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Small actions become bigger ecosystems

The lesson from Dunwich isn’t that planting a pond in your garden will stop wildfires. The more useful lesson is that nature becomes more resilient when landscapes contain variety, water, connectivity and healthy habitat. That principle works at many different scales.

A major nature reserve can create wetlands, grazing systems and habitat mosaics. A community might rewild a park, roadside verge or shared green. And an individual household can turn a lawn, balcony, courtyard or garden into another stepping stone for wildlife.

That’s where LettsSafari comes in.

LettsSafari is built around the idea that you don’t need to own a huge piece of countryside to participate in rewilding. You can make your own space wilder while helping support wider rewilding activity. Taken together, those individual actions can help create something much bigger: a growing network of places where nature has more room to thrive.

Because the future of rewilding isn’t only about spectacular projects in remote landscapes.

It can start outside your back door.

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August in the city feels quiet. The swifts that were screaming over the rooftops all summer are gone. The birdsong that woke you up every morning since April has thinned right out. Everything feels a bit still.

But urban nature hasn’t wound down. It’s just shifted, and if you know what to look for, August in a city is fascinating!

The sky has changed

The swifts left. One evening they’re there, the next the sky is empty, off on a non-stop journey to South Africa that the young birds departing now will sustain for two or three years without landing once. Their disappearance is one of the sharpest seasonal signals there is, and most people in cities miss it entirely.

What replaces them at dusk is bats. August is their peak month, warm evenings, insects still abundant, and no competition from migrating birds. Stand outside after sunset in almost any London street, park or churchyard and you’ll see them. Most people have no idea how many bats are living in their city.

What’s happening at ground level

Urban foxes are in an interesting place right now. The cubs born in spring are almost fully grown but still figuring things out, exploring further, learning their territory, encountering roads and new situations without their parents right behind them. It’s why August and September tend to see more fox sightings in cities. They’re not lost, just newly independent.

Hedgehog hoglets are doing the same thing. Born in June and July, they’re venturing out alone for the first time this month, navigating urban gardens, fences and roads on their own. They need to reach around 600g before hibernation in October. In a city, that’s genuinely hard, impenetrable fencing, hard baked soil, pesticide use, and a lack of connected green space all make it harder than it should be!

Garden birds are moulting. Replacing worn feathers before winter is exhausting and leaves some temporarily less able to fly. They’re quieter, lower to the ground, and easier to miss. They still need feeding.

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What you can do

Water out and fresh, every day. This matters more in August than almost any other month; juveniles finding their feet, moulting birds, foraging hedgehogs, all of them struggling in the heat.

Leave the wild corners alone. That overgrown patch, the leaf pile, the log stack, resist tidying it until at least October. Urban hedgehogs build their hibernation nests in exactly those spots.

If you see a hedgehog out during daylight, it needs help. Contact your nearest wildlife rescue. A healthy urban hedgehog waits until dark.

And stand outside at dusk for ten minutes. Watch the bats. It’s a good reminder that the city is full of wildlife that most people walk straight past every single day!

What have you been spotting in your outdoor space this August? Tell us in the comments!

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It’s an encouraging message because it proves that successful rewilding isn’t about having a huge garden. Whether you have a back garden, a courtyard, a balcony or a few containers, carefully choosing what you plant can have a surprisingly large impact.

At LettsSafari, we believe this perfectly reflects the future of small-scale rewilding. Thousands of people making small, thoughtful changes can collectively create thriving habitats for wildlife across the UK.

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What Is Keystone Planting?

In nature, some species are disproportionately important. Ecologists call these keystone species because many other plants, insects and animals depend upon them. The same principle applies to gardens.

Certain native plants provide food, shelter and breeding opportunities for far more insects than ornamental alternatives. More insects attract more birds. More birds help control pests and disperse seeds. Before long, your garden becomes part of a much larger ecosystem.

Rather than thinking about individual flowers, keystone planting encourages us to think about the entire food web.

Why Native Plants Matter

Native plants have evolved alongside Britain’s wildlife for thousands of years. That means:

• Pollinators recognise them.

• Caterpillars can feed on them.

• Birds find more insects living on them.

• They are generally better adapted to local conditions.

Many imported ornamental plants are beautiful but provide relatively little food or habitat for wildlife. Replacing just a few of these with native alternatives can significantly increase the biodiversity of your garden.

How to Start Keystone Planting

The beauty of this approach is that you don’t need to redesign your entire garden. Start small.

1. Choose Native Species

Look for plants that naturally occur in the UK.

Popular choices include:

• Hawthorn

• Field maple

• Hazel

• Foxgloves

• Oxeye daisy

• Knapweed

• Wild marjoram

These species support a wide variety of pollinators and insects throughout the growing season.

2. Plant in Groups

Clusters of the same flowers are much easier for bees and butterflies to spot than isolated plants. A group of five or six plants often provides far greater value than scattering individual specimens around the garden.

3. Think Beyond Flowers

Wildlife also needs:

• Shelter

• Nesting places

• Water

• Seed heads

• Leaf litter

Leaving a small patch of your garden a little untidy can often provide more value than another flower bed.

4. Avoid Chemicals

Reducing pesticides allows beneficial insects to flourish. More insects mean more natural pest control and more food for birds. Healthy ecosystems are remarkably good at finding their own balance.

5. Keep Something Flowering

Aim to provide nectar from early spring through to late autumn. A continuous supply of flowers supports pollinators throughout their entire life cycle.

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Small Gardens Can Deliver Big Results

One of the biggest myths about rewilding is that it requires large areas of land. In reality, urban gardens collectively cover hundreds of thousands of hectares across the UK. If each household introduced just a few keystone plants, together they would create an enormous network of connected habitats. Every container, courtyard, balcony and front garden becomes another stepping stone for wildlife.

How LettsSafari Helps

At LettsSafari, we’re passionate about making rewilding practical and accessible. Alongside supporting larger conservation projects, we help people discover simple ways to improve biodiversity where they live. Our guides, ideas and community focus on achievable actions, including:

• Choosing wildlife-friendly plants.

• Creating habitats for pollinators.

• Supporting birds and hedgehogs.

• Reducing lawn space.

• Making better choices for nature every season.

• Because rewilding doesn’t begin in a national park.

It begins at home.

Every Small Action Adds Up

Keystone planting reminds us that success isn’t measured by the size of your garden but by the choices you make within it.

Plant one native shrub.

Add a container full of pollinator-friendly flowers.

Leave a corner wild.

Create a small pond.

Each step helps reconnect wildlife with the places where people live.

Together, millions of small actions can create one of the UK’s largest habitats.

London has always had warm summers, but what's happened this year has been something else. In May, temperatures hit 35.1°C at Kew Gardens, breaking the record for the hottest May day in UK history. July brought another wave, and with it came burst pipes and supply disruptions that left thousands of homes in east and north west London without running water at the height of the heat.

It's a lot. And it's easy, when you're personally struggling through it, to lose sight of the fact that the wildlife around you is going through exactly the same thing, with far fewer options for relief.

35.1°C - UK's hottest ever May day, Kew Gardens, 26 May 2026.

20,000+ - Households across SE England left without water at the peak.

550 - Estimated excess deaths during the May heatwave alone.

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What the heat actually does to urban wildlife

It's worth pausing on this, because it's not dramatic or obvious, it's quiet, gradual, and largely invisible unless you know what to look for.

Birds don't have sweat glands. When it gets this hot, you might notice them sitting with their beaks open, that's panting, their only way of trying to lose heat. They still lose water through their droppings and respiration, and when the puddles and ponds they rely on dry up, there's nowhere for them to rehydrate or keep their feathers in condition.

Bumblebees overheat quickly and struggle to fly far enough to find nectar. Butterfly caterpillars can die during prolonged heat. The soil bakes solid, which means blackbirds and other ground-foraging birds lose access to the worms and insects they feed on. Wild fruits and nuts ripen too early, creating food shortages later in the year just when animals are trying to build up reserves for winter.

Every patch of shade, every dish of water, every overgrown corner becomes genuinely vital when a city gets this hot.

This is the hidden side of a heatwave, the slow disruption running through every food chain, every life cycle, every creature trying to navigate a concrete city with nowhere to cool down.

The good news

Unlike the water infrastructure crisis, or the broader climate picture, this is something we can actually do something about with very little. You don't need a garden. A balcony, a windowsill, a doorstep. Any outdoor space at all.

🌿 SMALL THINGS THAT MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE

💧Put out a shallow dish of water and refresh it daily. Add a few pebbles or stones so insects and bees can perch safely while they drink, and so hedgehogs and frogs can climb in and out without getting stuck. Ceramic or plastic, not metal, it gets too hot in direct sun.

🌿 Leave things a little wild. Resist the urge to cut everything back right now. Unpruned hedges, leaf piles and log piles create damp, shady pockets that invertebrates rely on in this kind of heat.

🦔 If you have hedgehogs visiting and you're seeing them out during the day, that's a sign they're struggling. Wet cat food and a bowl of water left out in the evening goes a long way. No mealworms though, they do more harm than good!

🐸 Top up any pond you have with stored rainwater where possible. Even a washing-up bowl sunk into the soil counts as a refuge for frogs and newts when natural water sources dry up.

🌸 If you can, plant something nectar-rich in a shadier spot. Bees find it hard to forage when it's this hot, and flowers in partial shade stay cooler and more accessible than those in full sun.

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This is what community rewilding actually looks like

We talk a lot about rewilding at a landscape scale, and that matters enormously. But the truth is, when a heatwave hits a city, the most immediate ecological safety net is the one made up of thousands of individual people making small, quiet choices in their own outdoor spaces.

A dish of water on a doorstep. A balcony left a bit overgrown. A garden corner that doesn't get tidied until September. None of it sounds significant on its own. Collectively, it forms a network of refuge across the city that can genuinely help wildlife survive summers like this one.

Urban nature is resilient, but it needs us to meet it halfway. Especially now.

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The beauty of the idea is that it proves one of the core principles behind LettsSafari: small actions, multiplied by thousands of people, create big environmental change.

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What is a Pollinator Pit Stop?

Think of it as a service station for wildlife.

A pollinator pit stop provides bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects with three essentials:

• Nectar-rich flowers for food

• Fresh water with safe landing places

• A welcoming place to rest before continuing their journey

Experts recommend using a simple planter filled with plants such as lavender, thyme and ivy, alongside a shallow dish of water containing pebbles so insects can drink safely without drowning.

Even the smallest outdoor spaces can become valuable stepping stones connecting wildlife habitats across towns and cities.

Why Small Spaces Matter

Many people assume that helping nature requires acres of countryside.

The reality is almost the opposite.

Modern towns are full of tiny gardens, balconies, courtyards and window boxes. Individually they seem insignificant. Together they form an enormous network of potential habitats.

Every flowering pot:

• feeds hungry pollinators

• supports local biodiversity

• improves urban ecosystems

• makes neighbourhoods greener and healthier

When thousands of people each make one small improvement, the cumulative impact is remarkable.

That’s exactly the philosophy behind LettsSafari.

How to Build Your Own Pollinator Pit Stop

The good news is that you can create one in less than an hour.

Step 1: Choose a Sunny Spot

Most nectar-rich flowers thrive with several hours of sunlight each day. A balcony, doorstep, patio or front garden all work well.

Step 2: Select Pollinator-Friendly Plants

Choose plants that provide nectar throughout the year. Good options include:

• Lavender

• Thyme

• Ivy

• Crocus

• Pulmonaria

• Sedum

• Asters

Aim for plants that flower across different seasons so pollinators always have something available.

Step 3: Add Water

Fill a shallow dish with fresh water. Add pebbles or small stones to create safe landing places for insects. Refresh the water regularly, particularly during hot weather.

Step 4: Avoid Chemicals

Skip pesticides and weedkillers wherever possible. Healthy pollinator habitats depend on healthy insects.

Step 5: Let Nature Do the Rest

Within days you may begin seeing:

• Bumblebees

• Honey bees

• Hoverflies

• Butterflies

• Ladybirds

Your tiny wildlife oasis quickly becomes part of a much larger ecological network.

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Take Your Rewilding One Step Further

Creating a pollinator pit stop is an excellent first step but imagine if every week you made one more small improvement.

That’s exactly what LettsSafari helps you do.

Our members receive practical ideas for creating more wildlife-friendly spaces at home, regardless of the size of their garden. Simple projects might include:

• planting for pollinators

• creating bird-friendly habitats

• providing food and shelter for hedgehogs

• encouraging beneficial insects

• improving biodiversity throughout the seasons

No complicated gardening knowledge required. Just small, achievable actions that make a genuine difference.

Small Actions Create Big Impact

One pollinator pit stop won’t solve biodiversity loss, neither will one wildflower patch. But millions of small wildlife-friendly spaces, created by ordinary people, can transform our towns and cities into thriving ecosystems. That’s why LettsSafari exists.

Together, we can make rewilding something everyone can take part in—one garden, one balcony and one pollinator pit stop at a time.

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Butterflies are more than just a sign that summer has arrived. They’re important pollinators and a good indicator of the health of our environment. When butterfly numbers decline, it’s often a sign that the habitats they rely on are under pressure too.

The great thing about the Big Butterfly Count is that you don’t have to travel far to get involved. Whether you’re in a local park, a community garden, your own garden or simply walking around your neighbourhood, you might be surprised by how many butterflies you can spot once you start looking.

It’s also a reminder that urban nature matters. Wildflower patches, roadside verges, churchyards and community gardens all provide important habitats for butterflies and other pollinators. While these spaces may seem small on their own, together they create a network of green spaces that help wildlife move through our towns and cities.

Taking part is simple, but the information collected helps build a better understanding of how butterfly populations are changing across the UK. Every count adds to a much bigger picture and helps inform future conservation work.

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We’re passionate about helping people connect with nature in their everyday lives, and the Big Butterfly Count is a great example of how small actions can have a real impact!

So this week, why not spend 15 minutes outdoors? Visit your local park, community garden or green space, slow down for a moment and see what you can find.

You might discover that there’s far more wildlife on your doorstep than you realised!

At LettsSafari, we believe every garden can become part of something bigger. Small actions, repeated by thousands of people, have the power to reconnect nature across our towns and cities. Here’s how you can start creating your own bird-friendly garden today.

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Why Birds Need Our Help

Many familiar garden birds are facing increasing pressure from habitat loss, changing land use and a decline in natural food sources. Urban gardens have become increasingly important stepping stones, allowing birds to find food, shelter and safe places to breed.

The good news is that wildlife doesn’t expect perfection. Birds are remarkably quick to discover gardens that provide what they need.

Step 1: Plant for Food Throughout the Year

Bird feeders are helpful, but natural food sources provide much greater value.

Choose plants that produce:

• Berries in autumn and winter

• Nectar-rich flowers for insects during spring and summer

• Seed heads that remain through autumn

• Native shrubs that support caterpillars and other insects

Native species such as hawthorn, blackthorn, rowan and holly provide excellent seasonal food while supporting hundreds of native insect species.

LettsSafari Tip

Aim to have something flowering, fruiting or seeding during every season. A garden that offers year-round food becomes far more valuable for wildlife.

Step 2: Create Layers of Habitat

Birds use different parts of a garden for different purposes.

Think in layers:

• Trees for nesting and singing posts

• Shrubs for shelter

• Long grass for insects

• Wildflowers for pollinators

• Ground cover where insects can thrive

Even in small gardens, varying plant height creates more opportunities for wildlife.

Step 3: Add Water

Fresh water is essential for drinking and bathing.

You don’t need a large pond.

Simple options include:

• A shallow bird bath

• A small container pond

• A water dish refreshed daily

Adding stones or gently sloping edges makes water accessible for insects as well as birds.

Step 4: Let Nature Be a Little Messy

The perfect garden isn’t always the best garden for wildlife.

Leave:

• Seed heads over winter

• Small piles of leaves

• Dead wood in quiet corners

• Longer patches of grass

• Areas where wildflowers can self-seed

These features become homes for insects, which in turn provide food for birds.

Think of your garden as a living ecosystem rather than an outdoor showroom.

Step 5: Avoid Harmful Chemicals

Reducing pesticides is one of the biggest positive changes you can make. Healthy gardens naturally develop a balance between predators and pests. Ladybirds, lacewings, frogs and birds all help keep populations under control. The more diverse your planting, the more resilient your garden becomes.

Every Garden Counts

One wildlife-friendly garden is wonderful. Hundreds connected across a neighbourhood are transformational. Birds, bees, butterflies and hedgehogs don’t recognise property boundaries. They simply need a network of safe places where they can feed, rest and breed. That’s exactly why smaller-scale rewilding matters.

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How LettsSafari Helps You Rewild at Home

Creating a wildlife-friendly garden is just the beginning. LettsSafari helps people take practical action by making rewilding simple, rewarding and accessible.

As a subscriber you’ll discover practical ideas for supporting wildlife in gardens, balconies and community spaces while helping fund larger rewilding projects across the UK. Every subscription contributes to measurable environmental impact:

• Every 10 subscribers help fund the planting of one tree each year.

• Every 100 subscribers help support the reintroduction of native wildlife.

• As the community grows, together we help create new spaces where nature can flourish.

• The beauty of rewilding is that it doesn’t require perfection. It simply starts with one small change, repeated by thousands of people.

Start This Weekend

If you’re wondering where to begin, keep it simple.

This weekend:

• Plant one native shrub.

• Leave one patch of grass to grow naturally.

• Add a shallow source of water.

• Skip the pesticides.

• Observe which birds visit your garden.

Small improvements quickly become lasting habitats.

Nature responds surprisingly fast when we make room for it.

But spend a little longer walking around the city and something else becomes noticeable: nature is never very far away.

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Prague offers an interesting example of how green and blue spaces can become part of the everyday fabric of a city. Rather than nature existing only in designated parks or on the outskirts, trees, gardens, riverbanks and hillside landscapes weave their way through the urban environment.

For anyone interested in urban rewilding, there are lessons here. Prague shows how even a busy, historic European capital can make space for nature alongside the needs of residents, businesses and millions of visitors.

The Vltava: A Blue-Green Corridor Through the City

The Vltava River is one of Prague’s defining features.

It runs directly through the heart of the city, passing some of its most famous landmarks and dividing neighbourhoods that are connected by a series of bridges. But the river is much more than a scenic backdrop.

Along significant stretches of the Vltava, the river creates valuable open space.

People walk, run and cycle beside the water. Others simply sit on the banks or stop to enjoy the view. Trees and grassy areas soften the edges between the built environment and the river, while riverside paths provide an alternative to navigating the city’s busier streets.

From an urban nature perspective, rivers can play an enormously important role.

They create natural corridors through otherwise densely developed landscapes. Riverbanks and connected green spaces can provide habitats and movement routes for birds, insects and other wildlife, while also helping people feel more connected to the natural environment.

There is something psychologically different about walking beside water, too. The city suddenly feels less enclosed. The skyline opens up, traffic feels more distant and the pace of life seems to slow.

In Prague, the Vltava demonstrates the potential of “blue infrastructure” — using rivers, canals, ponds and other bodies of water as an integral part of how cities function and how people experience them.

A City Shaped by Hills

Prague’s geography also contributes to its distinctive relationship with nature.

Unlike flatter cities, Prague’s hills create different layers of green space. Parks, gardens and wooded areas often sit above the city, providing walking routes, shade and spectacular views across the rooftops and river.

The change in elevation also creates variety.

One moment you can be walking through busy historic streets surrounded by buildings, cafés and tourists. Not long afterwards, you can find yourself climbing through a park or garden where the sounds of the city begin to fade.

These spaces provide something that urban nature does particularly well: contrast.

Nature does not have to dominate a city to have an impact. Sometimes its greatest value comes from creating small moments of escape — a shaded path, a group of mature trees, a patch of grass or a viewpoint surrounded by vegetation.

These moments give people somewhere to pause and provide wildlife with small pockets of habitat.

Nature Along the Everyday Route

One thing I have noticed while spending time in Central and Eastern European cities is that there often seems to be a stronger presence of urban nature in everyday surroundings.

This is not necessarily about having more spectacular parks.

Instead, greenery often feels more closely integrated into ordinary streets, residential areas and public spaces.

Prague reflects this well.

Trees appear between historic buildings. Planted areas soften roads and squares. Green spaces sit alongside transport routes. The river creates a continuous natural feature through the centre of the city.

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The result is that nature does not always feel like somewhere you have to make a special journey to visit.

It is simply there.

You encounter it while walking to a restaurant, crossing the city, travelling to work or exploring a neighbourhood.

This is an important principle for urban rewilding.

Large parks and nature reserves are incredibly valuable, but the future of urban biodiversity cannot depend entirely on isolated green spaces. Cities also need networks of smaller habitats that connect those larger areas.

A street tree. A planted verge. A green courtyard. A pocket park. A balcony filled with pollinator-friendly plants. A riverbank allowed to grow a little wilder.

Individually, these spaces may seem insignificant. Together, they can begin to form a living network through the city.

Prague and London: Two Different Experiences of Urban Greenery

London is, of course, an exceptionally green city in many respects. Its large parks, commons, wetlands and nature reserves provide important habitats and give millions of people access to nature.

But the experience of greenery can sometimes feel different.

In parts of London, green space can feel concentrated in particular destinations. You walk through dense streets and then arrive at a park, common or garden.

In Prague, by contrast, greenery can often feel more present along the journey itself.

This is not a scientific comparison of the amount of green space in each city. It is simply an observation about how urban nature is experienced when moving through them.

And that distinction is interesting.

Perhaps the goal for greener cities should not simply be to create more parks. It should also be to make nature more visible and accessible throughout everyday life.

Imagine if every walk to the shops passed more trees.

If every residential street contained small areas planted for pollinators.

If balconies, rooftops and courtyards became miniature habitats.

If rivers and canals were treated as wildlife corridors as well as recreational spaces.

If the gaps between our major parks became greener and more connected.

That is where small-scale urban rewilding becomes particularly powerful.

What Can We Learn from Prague?

Prague is not a wilderness, nor is it trying to be. It is a busy European capital with roads, buildings, tourism and all the pressures that come with urban life. But it demonstrates how nature can coexist with those things.

The lesson is not that every city should try to copy Prague. Every city has its own geography, history and environmental challenges. The broader lesson is that urban nature works best when it becomes part of the infrastructure of everyday life.

Rivers can become ecological corridors.

Streets can become greener.

Small spaces can become habitats.

Parks can connect with surrounding neighbourhoods.

Gardens, balconies and courtyards can become stepping stones for wildlife.

And collectively, these small interventions can make cities feel very different.

And perhaps the most important lesson from Prague is a simple one: urban nature is at its most powerful when you don’t have to go looking for it.

Garden rewilding is a journey. We’re excited to share our journey with you through “The Nature Reserve Next Door: How to Turn Any Garden Into a Wildlife Sanctuary”.

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5.1 Small Urban Garden Build

A typical small urban garden in Britain, the terraced or semi-detached plot of 50–120 m², presents specific challenges which often include: high neighbour visibility, compact heavy soils, limited tree height due to light constraints and legal restrictions. On top of this many face a persistent cat pressure, and often limited sunlight.

But it also presents enormous opportunities: urban gardens aggregate into vast networks, and a small rewilded plot in a terrace is visible to more people, and therefore more culturally influential than the same area in a rural setting. It’s well worth the effort.

A Rewilded Kit That Fits a Small Urban Garden

• Mini-meadow strip (4–8 m²) with a mown path edge creating a clear ‘orderly frame’

• One dense shrub thicket of 2–4 m length along the rear or side boundary — hawthorn, blackthorn, and dog rose for UK; serviceberry and arrowwood viburnum for NE N. America

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• One or two small trees appropriate to the plot — crab apple, rowan, or field maple in UK; Eastern redbud or pagoda dogwood in NE N. America

• One wildlife pond (minimum 1.5 × 1 m) or container pond if digging is impossible

• One log pile or wildlife brush dome positioned at the base of the scrub zone

• One pollinator bed (2–4 m²) near the seating area — the ‘front-of-stage’ feature

Build in Six Weekends

• Weekend One: mark all habitat zones; remove a narrow turf strip for the meadow patch; begin the ‘no mow’ regime in selected lawn areas

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It’s encouraging news. But perhaps the most important lesson isn’t the size of the investment - it’s how nature recovers.

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Wildlife doesn’t only thrive in national parks and nature reserves. It needs thousands of connected habitats, many of them surprisingly small. Gardens, balconies, school grounds, community spaces and business parks all have a role to play.

That’s exactly where LettsSafari comes in.

Why Small Spaces Matter

When people think about rewilding, they often picture hundreds of acres of countryside.

In reality, many species depend on networks of smaller habitats connected together. A pollinator visiting flowers in your garden today may visit a nearby park tomorrow before travelling to a local nature reserve. Birds, hedgehogs, bees and butterflies all benefit from these stepping stones.

One wildlife-friendly garden won’t change the country.

Ten thousand will.

What This Means for You

The Government’s investment shows that restoring nature is now a national priority. But you don’t need government funding to make a difference.

Here are six practical ways to begin rewilding your own space today.

1. Plant Native Species

Native wildflowers, shrubs and trees have evolved alongside British wildlife. Choose plants that provide nectar from early spring through to late autumn so pollinators always have something to feed on.

2. Create Layers of Habitat

Nature loves variety. Instead of keeping everything neat and flat, introduce different heights:

• Wildflowers

• Grasses

• Shrubs

• Small trees

• Climbers

• Containers with varied planting

Different species use different layers for food, shelter and nesting.

3. Leave Some Areas Untidy

A perfectly tidy garden isn’t always great for wildlife. Consider leaving:

• Seed heads over winter

• Small log piles

• Leaf litter

• Longer patches of grass

• Dead wood where it’s safe

These become homes for insects, fungi and small mammals that support the wider ecosystem.

4. Add Water

Even a shallow bowl of clean water can attract birds, bees and beneficial insects. If you have room, a small wildlife pond quickly becomes one of the most valuable habitats in any garden.

5. Reduce Chemicals

Every reduction in pesticides and herbicides helps create healthier food chains. Natural pest control often follows once birds, frogs, ladybirds and other beneficial species begin returning.

6. Join a Bigger Movement

The Government’s programme succeeds because hundreds of organisations are working towards one goal. The same principle applies locally.

By joining LettsSafari, your subscription helps support real rewilding projects while giving you ideas, inspiration and practical guidance to make your own outdoor space more wildlife-friendly. Together, thousands of small actions become something much bigger.

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How LettsSafari Helps

At LettsSafari, we believe rewilding should be accessible to everyone—not just landowners with acres to spare. Whether you have:

• A balcony

• A courtyard

• A small back garden

• An allotment

• A school garden

• A shared community space

You can make a meaningful contribution to nature recovery. Our community shares practical ideas that are simple to implement, affordable and enjoyable, while every subscription also contributes towards larger rewilding initiatives. It’s a way to create immediate impact close to home while supporting longer-term habitat restoration across the UK.

Every Wildlife-Friendly Garden Counts

The Government’s new investment is an important milestone for nature recovery in England. But restoring wildlife won’t be achieved by a handful of major projects alone. It will happen because millions of people decide to leave a corner of grass to grow, plant flowers for pollinators, provide water for birds or create shelter for insects.

Nature doesn’t ask for perfection.

It simply needs more places to thrive.

Start with your own space, however small, and become part of a growing movement that’s helping Britain become wilder, one garden at a time.

But one of the most exciting frontiers for biodiversity isn’t hundreds of miles from our homes—it’s right outside our front doors.

Our towns and cities have become one of the UK’s most important opportunities for nature recovery. From pocket parks and railway embankments to front gardens, school grounds and roadside verges, urban spaces have enormous potential to support wildlife.

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That’s why organisations like Abundance London are so inspiring to us at LettsSafari. They demonstrate that rewilding doesn’t always begin with large estates or government initiatives. Sometimes it starts with a handful of neighbours, a neglected patch of land and the determination to make a street greener.

For LettsSafari, that’s exactly what urban rewilding is all about.

Cities Are Part of Nature Too

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, yet over 80% of us now live in urban areas. If we want wildlife to recover, cities can’t be excluded from the solution. In fact, urban areas can become incredibly rich ecosystems when we design them with biodiversity in mind.

A flowering verge can feed thousands of pollinating insects.

Native hedgerows become wildlife corridors.

Street trees provide food, shelter and cooler neighbourhoods.

Community orchards support birds, insects and local people alike.

Every square metre matters.

Abundance London has spent years demonstrating this approach through community orchards, edible landscapes, biodiversity projects and neighbourhood planting schemes. Rather than viewing cities as places separate from nature, they show how people and wildlife can thrive together.

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Urban Rewilding Doesn’t Mean Leaving Everything Untouched

One common misconception is that rewilding means simply abandoning land. Urban rewilding is much more intentional than that. It means making better decisions about how we use space.

• Instead of sterile planting schemes that provide little value for wildlife, we choose native species.

• Instead of mowing every piece of grass every week, we allow wildflowers to bloom.

• Instead of removing every fallen leaf, we recognise that leaf litter provides habitat for countless insects.

• Instead of seeing fruit trees as decorative features, we understand they become miniature ecosystems supporting birds, bees and people.

Urban rewilding is active, practical and surprisingly achievable.

Small Spaces Create Big Impact

Perhaps the biggest lesson from Abundance London is that size isn’t the most important factor. Connectivity is.

A single wildlife-friendly garden might help a handful of bees.

Twenty gardens on the same street become a pollinator highway.

A lone tree provides shade.

A network of street trees creates habitat, cools neighbourhoods and improves air quality.

One wildflower border is helpful.

Hundreds across a borough become a functioning ecosystem.

Nature doesn’t recognise property boundaries.

Every small habitat becomes part of a much larger network.

And as organisations like Abundance London demonstrate so well, that’s already happening - one street at a time.

Garden rewilding is a journey. We’re excited to share our journey with you through “The Nature Reserve Next Door: How to Turn Any Garden Into a Wildlife Sanctuary”.

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Chapter Five: Garden Rewilding — Step-by-Step Build Plans

Core Tools and Materials

A rewilded garden does not require specialist machinery or a large budget. The tools listed below are mostly standard gardening equipment, with a few additions specific to habitat construction and meadow management:

Core Tools

• Spade and digging fork — essential for pond excavation, turf stripping, and planting

• Rake (standard) and spring-tine rake — the spring-tine rake is essential for meadow management; removing arisings without it is very hard work

• Wheelbarrow — for moving excavated soil, compost, woodchip, and plant material

• Hand saw or bow saw; loppers; secateurs — for hedge planting, dead hedge construction, and scrub management

• String line and hosepipe — for marking shapes before turf-stripping or pond excavation

• Spirit level — especially important for pond construction to ensure level edges and avoid one side flooding

• Strimmer or scythe — for meadow management; a scythe is quieter, wildlife-safer, and produces better arisings for composting, but requires practice; a strimmer is faster

• Buckets and tubs — for moving materials, soaking bare-root plants before planting, and temporary water holding during pond maintenance

Core Materials by Habitat

• Meadow: local-provenance native seed mix; dry silver sand (for mixing and broadcasting seed); and yellow rattle seed (UK)

• Pond: butyl rubber liner; geotextile underlay; washed sharp sand or fine gravel for liner protection; and a rainwater butt connection; plus native aquatic plants

• Deadwood: logs and branches in various diameters (ideally minimum 8 inches in diameter); prunings with bark intact; make sure to make contact with the soil at the base of the structure

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From wildflower meadows and native hedgerows to ponds buzzing with dragonflies and borders full of pollinator-friendly plants, these gardens demonstrate that nature and gardening go hand in hand.

The good news? You don’t need acres of land to make a difference. Whether you have a large garden, a small courtyard, or a balcony, you can create a space that welcomes wildlife while becoming more enjoyable for you too.

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Why Wildlife-Friendly Gardens Matter

The UK has lost significant areas of natural habitat over the past century. As towns and cities have expanded, many species have found it harder to find food, shelter and places to breed.

Our gardens now represent one of the country’s largest networks of green spaces. Collectively, they cover hundreds of thousands of hectares. When managed with wildlife in mind, they become stepping stones that connect parks, woodlands and nature reserves.

Every garden contributes to a much bigger picture.

How to Create Your Own Wildlife-Friendly Garden

You don’t need to redesign everything overnight. Small improvements often have the biggest long-term impact.

1. Choose More Native Plants

Native flowers, shrubs and trees have evolved alongside British wildlife. They provide food for bees, butterflies, birds and other insects throughout the year. Aim for a mixture of spring, summer and autumn flowering plants to provide a continuous source of nectar and pollen.

2. Leave Some Areas Wild

Not every corner needs to be perfectly tidy. Allow a patch of longer grass to grow, leave seed heads standing through winter, or create a small log pile. These simple habitats provide shelter for insects, amphibians and hedgehogs.

3. Add Water

Even a small container pond can become one of the most valuable habitats in your garden.

Birds need somewhere to drink and bathe, while frogs, insects and pollinators all benefit from reliable water sources.

4. Feed Pollinators

Choose flowers with open blooms that are easy for bees and butterflies to access. Avoid heavily double-flowered varieties that often contain little nectar.

5. Think Beyond the Fence

Wildlife doesn’t recognise property boundaries. Leaving small gaps under fences, planting hedges instead of solid barriers where possible, and coordinating with neighbours can help create natural wildlife corridors across entire neighbourhoods.

6. Reduce Chemicals

Many pesticides and weedkillers affect the insects that birds and other wildlife depend upon. Instead, encourage natural predators and allow nature to establish its own balance.

7. Celebrate Every Success

The first bee visiting a flower.

A blackbird nesting nearby.

Butterflies returning each summer.

These are all signs that your small actions are working.

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How LettsSafari Helps

At LettsSafari, we believe that rewilding doesn’t begin with vast estates - it begins at home. Our mission is to help people make practical changes that support wildlife every day while contributing to larger restoration projects across the UK.

As a LettsSafari member you’ll receive:

• Simple, practical ideas for making your outdoor space more wildlife friendly.

• Seasonal guides showing what to do throughout the year.

• Inspiration from successful gardens and community projects.

• The knowledge that your subscription also helps support wider UK rewilding initiatives.

Together, thousands of small gardens can become one enormous nature reserve.

Start Small. Grow Naturally.

The gardens featured through the National Garden Scheme show that wildlife-friendly gardening isn’t about perfection. It’s about creating spaces where people and nature thrive together. Whether you plant one native flower, install a bird bath or let a corner grow wild, you’re helping rebuild the habitats our wildlife depends upon. Small actions, repeated by thousands of people, can transform the landscape.

It’s not because it’s noticeably quieter and cleaner than London or other UK cities. It’s because nature is built into everyday life.

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That constant presence of nature completely changes the atmosphere. The air feels fresher, birdsong fills the trees, and wherever you look there are colourful flowers, mature trees and green spaces woven into the streets. It’s easy to underestimate the impact this has, but research consistently shows that spending time around nature can reduce stress, improve mood and support better mental wellbeing. In Wrocław, those benefits don’t feel confined to a visit to the park, they’re part of everyday life.

The Numbers

Before comparing Wrocław with the UK, it’s worth looking at the facts.

Around 35% of Wrocław is made up of green space. The city has 44 official parks covering around 800 hectares, along with five rivers that split into canals and smaller waterways, earning it the nickname “the city of a hundred bridges”.

London is actually greener than many people realise. Public green space accounts for around 20% of the city, but once private gardens, tree canopy, road verges and green roofs are included, that rises to roughly 47%. On paper, London is one of the greenest capital cities in the world.

So this isn’t a case of one city having more green space than the other.

One of the biggest differences is tree cover. Poland has more than double the UK’s forest cover, around 31% compared with 13%, and that difference is noticeable. Even in the middle of Wrocław, trees seem to be everywhere.

It’s not just the parks

This is the part that’s much harder to measure.

In many UK cities, green space is something people travel to. Parks, riversides, gardens etc are wonderful places to spend time, but they’re often destinations.

In Wrocław, greenery is spread throughout the city instead. Behind apartment buildings are leafy courtyards filled with mature trees and plants. Cafés spill out into green outdoor spaces. Balconies are filled with flowers, herbs and vegetables.

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The houses stand out too.

The average single-family home in Poland is around 130 m², compared with roughly 76 m² for a new-build home in the UK. But the biggest difference isn’t necessarily the size of the house, it’s the garden. While plot sizes vary, a typical detached home in Poland sits on around 600–800 m² of land, leaving hundreds of square metres for gardens, trees and growing space. Rather than being an afterthought, outdoor space remains an integral part of many Polish homes.

In the UK, gardens are often one of the first things reduced as housing density increases. In Poland, they are an incredibly important part of the home itself.

What the UK could take from this

• Protect gardens when building new homes rather than treating them as optional extras.

• Add more greenery to the spaces between parks, including residential streets, courtyards, shopping areas and public spaces in general.

• Encourage people to grow food at home, whether that’s in a garden, on a balcony or in a window box.

• Prioritise planting and protecting street trees, not just trees within parks.

The UK already has impressive green space statistics, so this isn’t about suggesting it’s getting everything wrong.

What Wrocław demonstrates especially well is how nature can become part of everyday life. Instead of being somewhere people visit, it becomes something they experience without thinking about it. It’s a simple difference, but one that has a very noticeable impact on how a city feels.

Check out our Instagram for more content from the trip capturing many of these spaces, from rivers and leafy courtyards to residential gardens that help make Wrocław feel so connected to nature!

Garden rewilding is a journey. We’re excited to share our journey with you through “The Nature Reserve Next Door: How to Turn Any Garden Into a Wildlife Sanctuary”.

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4.6 Deadwood, Stones, Compost, and Microhabitat Engineering

Rewilding Is Not Only Planting

One of the most important insights in practical rewilding is that habitat consists of far more than living plants. The structural elements of a rewilded garden, deadwood in all its forms, stone banks, sand patches, compost heaps, leaf litter, are not supplementary features added after the planting is done. They are core habitat infrastructure that many species cannot live without, and they begin providing value the moment they are installed, without any waiting for plants to establish.

Deadwood: The Foundation of a Functioning Soil

The Royal Horticultural Society provides detailed guidance on deadwood habitats, noting that dead and decaying wood supports an enormous community of decomposers including fungi, bacteria, woodlice, millipedes, springtails, and many specialist beetles.

This decomposer community in turn supports higher trophic levels: the ground beetles that eat woodlice, the birds that probe log piles for beetle grubs, and the hedgehogs that forage in the leaf litter layer. The RSPB similarly promotes log piles as habitats supporting insects, amphibians, and small mammals, noting that even a small log pile in a shaded position will attract common toads, slow worms, and a wide range of invertebrates within weeks.

The LettsSafari approach goes further, proposing ‘Wildlife Biodomes’, which are domed structures built from recycled logs and branches designed to accelerate the development of decomposer habitat and provide layered shelter simultaneously.

The Devon Wildland description of LettsSafari’s sites around Mamhead Park describes these biodomes as part of the Sunrise Park rewilding landscape, where they function as self-sustaining homes for insects, bugs, birds, and small mammals whilst improving soil quality through ongoing decomposition. Whether you build an exact biodome or a simpler brush pile with a log base, the ecological mechanism is the same: deadwood structure + air spaces + soil contact = decomposer habitat + refuge.

Building a Log Pile or Wildlife Biodome

• Choose a position in light shade adjacent to the scrub or hedge zone that is not in full sun (which will dry out the logs too quickly) and not in permanent deep shade, which is too cold for most reptiles

• Use a variety of log sizes: large-diameter logs (15 cm+) for saproxylic beetles; medium logs (8cm+) for common toad hibernation; small-diameter branches woven between them for insect overwintering

• Bury one or two logs partially into the soil surface — this maintains moisture contact and provides the dampest conditions for slow worms, stag beetles (if present in your area), and fungi

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• Leave bark on the logs wherever possible — bark harbours specialist invertebrates and slows decomposition, extending the habitat’s lifespan

• Allow leaf litter to accumulate at the base of the pile as this is where hedgehog hibernation habitat develops naturally

• Build the pile to at least 60–80 cm in height if constructing a biodome-style structure, using larger logs as the base, woven branches as the mid structure, and lighter branches on top

Compost Heaps: Habitat as Well as Soil Strategy

A compost heap is simultaneously one of the most practical and most overlooked wildlife habitats in a garden. The RHS notes that composting actively supports fungi and micro-organisms, which in turn support the invertebrate communities that feed birds, hedgehogs, and insectivorous mammals.

The internal temperature of an active compost heap, typically 40–60°C, makes it a favoured nesting site for grass snakes in Britain, which use it as a ‘solar incubator’ for their eggs. A compost heap that is used regularly, never turned too violently, and positioned in a partially sheltered spot can become one of the most intensively used wildlife features in the garden.

Stone Banks and Walls: The Reptile and Invertebrate Hotel

Dry stone walls and rubble banks are among the most ecologically rich structures in the temperate garden landscape. The interstices between stones provide a temperature-buffered microclimate which is cool in the summer, and frost-free in winter, with rapid localised warm-up on sunny days.

This thermal profile makes stone structures the preferred basking, overwintering, and egg-laying habitat for common lizards, slow worms, and grass snakes in Britain; and for American five-lined skinks, ring-necked snakes, and various salamanders in North America. The rough surface of stone also supports mosses, lichens, and specialist invertebrates that are absent from smooth hard surfaces.

Sand and Bare-Soil Patches: The Solitary Bee Nesting Bank

Approximately 70% of the UK’s 250+ native bee species nest in bare, well-drained mineral soil — digging tunnels into south-facing banks, flat patches of sandy or gritty soil, or soft mortar in old walls. These ground-nesting bees are among the most threatened component of the UK’s pollinator fauna, precisely because the bare, low-nutrient, south-facing soil they need has largely disappeared from managed landscapes. In a garden context.

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While much of the discussion focuses on national parks and large nature reserves, there’s another important part of the solution—our own gardens, balconies, courtyards and community spaces.

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Many British species are already feeling the effects of warmer temperatures and more frequent dry spells. Pollinators struggle when flowers disappear during drought, birds find fewer insects to feed their young, and amphibians lose vital wet habitats. The good news is that thousands of small wildlife-friendly spaces can collectively make an enormous difference. Even a modest garden or patio can become a stepping stone that helps wildlife move safely through towns and cities.

How to Make Your Garden More Climate Resilient

You don’t need to completely redesign your outdoor space. A few thoughtful changes can significantly increase its value for wildlife.

1. Add Fresh Water

During hot weather, clean water is one of the most valuable resources you can provide. Simple ideas include:

• A shallow bird bath

• A small wildlife pond

• Water dishes with stones for bees and butterflies

• Regularly topping up water during dry spells

Keep water clean and place some in shaded areas to reduce evaporation.

2. Plant for Pollinators Throughout the Season

Choose a variety of native and wildlife-friendly plants that flower from early spring through autumn. Aim for continuous nectar sources rather than one short flowering period. Good choices include:

• Lavender

• Foxgloves

• Knapweed

• Wild marjoram

• Cornflowers

• Verbena

The more variety you provide, the more insects you’ll attract.

3. Leave Areas a Little Wild

Nature doesn’t need everything to be tidy. Consider leaving:

• Long grass

• Seed heads over winter

• Small log piles

• Leaf piles

• Undisturbed corners

These provide shelter for insects, hedgehogs, amphibians and countless other species.

4. Plant More Trees and Shrubs

Even one small native tree can make a difference. Trees:

• Create cooler microclimates

• Hold moisture in the soil

• Provide nesting opportunities

• Support hundreds of insect species

If space is limited, shrubs and climbing plants can offer many of the same benefits.

5. Reduce Hard Surfaces

Patios and artificial grass can become extremely hot during summer. Replacing even a small section with planting helps:

• Absorb rainfall

• Reduce heat

• Improve biodiversity

• Support soil health

6. Connect Your Garden to Nature

Wildlife needs connected habitats. Small improvements include:

• Hedgehog highways through fences

• Native hedging

• Climbers on walls

• Window boxes full of nectar-rich flowers

• Green roofs on sheds or bike stores

These tiny links become important wildlife corridors.

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Small Changes Create Big Results

One wildlife-friendly garden is valuable. Hundreds of wildlife-friendly gardens across a neighbourhood become an ecosystem. Thousands become part of a national network that helps species adapt to changing conditions. This is exactly why small-scale rewilding matters.

How LettsSafari Helps

At LettsSafari, we believe everyone should be able to contribute to nature recovery - whether they have acres of land, a suburban garden or simply a balcony. Our mission is to make rewilding simple, practical and achievable.

Through LettsSafari you’ll discover:

• Easy rewilding ideas anyone can follow

• Seasonal wildlife-friendly gardening tips

• Practical guides for gardens of every size

• Inspiration from successful small-scale projects

• A community of people helping wildlife one step at a time

Every action matters.

Together, thousands of small spaces can have an extraordinary impact on biodiversity across the UK.

Getting Started This Weekend

If you’re wondering where to begin, try these five simple tasks:

1. Put out a shallow dish of fresh water.

2. Leave one corner of your garden a little wild.

3. Plant two nectar-rich flowers.

4. Build a small log pile.

5. Spend ten minutes watching which wildlife visits.

You might be surprised how quickly nature responds.

Garden rewilding is a journey. We’re excited to share our journey with you through “The Nature Reserve Next Door: How to Turn Any Garden Into a Wildlife Sanctuary”.

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4.5 Pond, Bog, and Wetland Edges

Why Ponds Have Disproportionate Impact

Water is the single habitat addition with the highest biodiversity return per square metre in a garden context. The Freshwater Habitats Trust states that ponds, despite being small by comparison to rivers and lakes, support more biodiversity at the landscape scale than any other freshwater habitat. The reasons are multiple: ponds provide still or slow water with a wide range of depths, temperatures, and oxygen levels; pond margins provide a critical transition zone between aquatic and terrestrial habitats; ponds are isolated ecosystems in which rare and specialist species can persist without being overwhelmed by the generalists that dominate river systems.

Garden ponds specifically play an extraordinary role in UK freshwater conservation. Government estimates suggest there are approximately 3 million garden ponds in Britain — making the garden pond network the most numerous freshwater habitat type in the country. Many of these ponds are the primary habitat for populations of smooth newts, common frogs, common toads, water boatmen, diving beetles, and numerous dragonfly and damselfly species that have been excluded from intensively managed agricultural or urban landscapes.

The LettsSafari Three-Tier Water System

The LettsSafari blueprint recommends building not just a pond but a connected water system: a pond that overflows into a bog garden, which itself overflows into adjacent damp grassland that can develop into wet meadow or wetland over time. This three-tier approach — pond → bog → wet swale — mirrors the natural hydrology of wetland edges and creates the maximum possible diversity of wetland microhabitats within a small footprint:

• Pond: open water for aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, drinking and bathing birds, and emergent aquatic vegetation

• Bog garden: permanently saturated soil for bog-specialist plants, and a transition zone for amphibians moving between water and terrestrial habitats

• Wet swale/damp grassland: seasonally wet grassland that can support ragged robin, marsh marigold, purple loosestrife, and other moisture-loving wildflowers — and provides hunting and foraging habitat for many invertebrates, birds, and amphibians

Building a Wildlife Pond: Evidence-Based Guidance

Shallow Water Is the Secret

The most common mistake in wildlife pond construction is building too deep. Freshwater Habitats Trust guidance is unambiguous: the most biologically productive part of any wildlife pond is the shallow margin — the 5–30 cm zone where water is warm, well-oxygenated, and sunlit. Deep areas are relatively sterile by comparison. For a garden wildlife pond, a maximum depth of 60–80 cm is usually adequate, and the majority of the pond surface should be shallow: aim for at least half the pond surface being under 30 cm in depth.

Pond Size Guidance

• Minimum meaningful wildlife pond: 2 m × 1 m, with at least one shallow margin

• Small garden wildlife pond: 3–4 m in longest dimension; supports full amphibian colonisation and damselfly breeding in most locations

• Medium wildlife pond: 5–8 m; can support dragonfly breeding, diving beetles, and more diverse aquatic plant communities

• Container ponds: even a half-barrel or large glazed pot sunk to its rim and planted with a single water plant will support water boatmen, mosquito predation, and provide a drinking and bathing source for birds and bees

Construction Sequence

• Mark out the pond shape with a hosepipe — irregular, naturalistic shapes work better for wildlife than geometric pools

• Excavate to the planned depth profile, with at least one gently sloping ‘beach’ edge where frogs, toads, and small mammals can enter and exit safely

• Line the excavation with 5–10 cm of damp sand to protect the liner from sharp stones and roots

• Lay butyl rubber liner (the most durable option) or heavy-duty pond liner, smoothing out folds into the contours

• Fill with rainwater where possible — tap water contains chlorine and phosphates that can stimulate algae growth; connect to a water butt as the primary fill source if feasible

• Plant the margins with native aquatic and marginal species; leave the deeper zone to colonise naturally

• Do not add soil or turf to the water — this enriches the pond with nutrients and promotes algae rather than aquatic plants

Do Not Add Pond Sludge or Transplant Wildlife

Freshwater Habitats Trust guidance explicitly states that you do not need to add material from an existing pond, whether sludge, water, or wildlife, to ‘start’ your pond. Common frogs, smooth newts, water boatmen, whirligig beetles, backswimmers, and most other garden pond species will colonise naturally within the first year or two, arriving on the feet of birds, on the bodies of insects, and through their own dispersal abilities. Adding material from elsewhere risks introducing disease, invasive species, or non-local genotypes.

Pond Plant Palette: Britain and Northern Europe

Yellow flag iris

Iris pseudacorus

UK/N. Europe

Marginal; structural; bee-visited; frog/newt cover

Purple loosestrife

Lythrum salicaria

UK/N. Europe

Marginal/wet; stunning; exceptional bee plant; butterfly-visited

Ragged robin

Lychnis flos-cuculi

UK/N. Europe

Wet/damp; specialist bee value; meadow edge plant

Marsh marigold

Caltha palustris

UK/N. Europe

Earliest pond marginal; essential spring bee resource

Water mint

Mentha aquatica

UK/N. Europe

Marginal; outstanding late-season nectar; bee magnet; fragrant

Brooklime

Veronica beccabunga

UK/N. Europe

Shallow water/margin; small bee plant; dense marginal cover

Water forget-me-not

Myosotis scorpioides

UK/N. Europe

Shallow margin; nectar; spreads to form marginal mats

Bogbean

Menyanthes trifoliata

UK/N. Europe

Shallow water; spectacular flower; spreads to cover water surface

White water-lily

Nymphaea alba

UK/N. Europe

Deeper water; resting platform for dragonflies; shade to reduce algae

Broad-leaved pondweed

Potamogeton natans

UK/N. Europe

Submerged/floating; oxygenating; invertebrate habitat

Water crowfoot

Ranunculus aquatilis

UK/N. Europe

Submerged/surface flowers; aquatic invertebrate habitat

Lesser spearwort

Ranunculus flammula

UK/N. Europe

Wet margin; compact; yellow flowers; invertebrate value

Great willowherb

Epilobium hirsutum

UK/N. Europe

Tall marginal; bees; elephant hawk-moth larval host

Common reed

Phragmites australis

UK/N. Europe

Larger ponds; nesting for warblers; invertebrate-rich in stems

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Pond Plant Palette: North-East North America

Blue flag iris

Iris versicolor

NE N. America

Marginal; structural; bee-visited; native alternative to yellow flag

Cardinal flower

Lobelia cardinalis

NE N. America

Wet margin; hummingbird and bee nectar; vivid red

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