Wildlife Gardening - May

Build your own ‘Bugingham Palace’!

This is a great activity for adults and children alike! ‘Insect hotels’ can come in any shape and size. You can go large and use stacked pallets as your frame, or you can use a smaller container like a small wooden box or a plastic bottle with the end cut off. It’s entirely up to you. They will benefit all kinds of critters, from solitary bees to lacewings. There is no right or wrong way to build an insect hotel so just have fun and get creative. Try to fit some of the following features into it:

• Hollow plant stems e.g. bamboo canes
• Twigs and sticks
• Straw
• Logs (bark on) with different size holes drilled into the end (make sure they are all over 90mm deep)
• Corrugated cardboard rolled up in a waterproof container
• Sand
• Bricks and stones (whole and broken)

You can create a deluxe hotel by leaving some empty space for Hedgehogs and Frogs at the bottom of your insect hotel and adding a green roof on the top – simply cover the roof with sacking or similar, with some holes at the side for drainage that won’t leak into the hotel, cover with compost and seed with wildflower meadow mix.

Leave bushes be

There are likely to be chicks in nests for the next few months, so leave hedges and trees untrimmed to give them extra protection.