it's good news for bees, moths and butterflies

Gardening wildlife has bloomed in 2009, but while bee, moth and butterfly populations are on the rise, sightings of frogs, toads and hedgehogs populations have fallen, according to a poll for Gardeners’ World magazine. According to the survey of more than 2,000 gardening readers, just over half thought wildlife levels over the past 12 months were similar to previous years, but 24 per cent noticed an increase, while just 13 per cent thought levels had fallen.

Although frogs were the most common garden animal in a similar survey last year (seen in 67 per cent of gardens), according to the survey this year only 42 per cent of respondents spotted them, with the toad population also falling back. Meanwhile the hedgehog population fell from 44 per cent to 27 per cent. Some of the other key findings included:

72 per cent of people were taking steps to encourage wildlife into their garden.

The wildlife most frequently spotted in gardens were birds followed by squirrels, frogs, mice, bats.

Insects and bugs: spiders came top of the list, followed by butterflies, bees, wasps, then ants.

The least welcome visitors were rats, followed by slugs, snails, greenfly and cats.

• 17 per cent of readers spotted the beautiful painted lady butterfly.

According to Adam Pasco, editor of Gardeners’ World Magazine: “It’s great to see the enthusiasm our readers have for sharing their gardens with local wildlife. With a little understanding of the needs of wildlife, we can create environments to encourage a wide range of creatures to take up residence in our gardens. Planting hedges and borders of shrubs provide shelter and nesting sites for birds, fruits and berries provide food, while log piles and ‘wild’ give creatures somewhere to hibernate. A supply of water is also essential.”

A feature on the poll’s findings and further ideas on how to encourage wildlife into your garden are in the December issue of Gardeners’ World Magazine.