Wildlife Rough Areas

wildlife area sign

Rough Area sign in Church Fields car park in Boston Spa

It’s amazing how much life and diversity can come when you leave an area to Mother Nature.  The soil we have is incredible; it is full of life.  One good handful of forest soil has more life forms than humans on the planet.  The soil in your garden may not be as good, but it will still hold many lifeforms and dormant seeds.

Some people who have left an area to grow for the first time have been astounded at the diversity of animals they have seen in their garden such as frogs, moths, beetles, butterflies, caterpillars etc. and plants including:

  • Bee Orchid
  • Vetch
  • Cowslips
  • Frogs (mating)
  • Lady's Bedstraw adds a lovely scent to your garden
  • Wild Carrot adds some height and is well loved by polinators
  • Musk Mallow
  • Toad (young)
  • Magnificent Sun Beetle
  • Golden-bloomed Longhorn Beetle
  • Frogs love a rough area
  • Red Clover
  • Mexican Fleabane
  • Bluebells
  • Buttercups
  • Common Blue Butterfly

A Song Thrush has been eating snails and using a small stone to help crack them open.

song thrush eating snail

Song Thrush eating a snail.

Song Thrush

Once you have reduced the chemicals in your garden and have some established rough areas, you may be lucky to have a Song Thrush visit and eat your snails.

Make your own rough area for wildlife

You don’t have to re-wild your whole garden and it doesn't need to be a large percentage of it.  By designating a small part of your garden, nature will do its thing so that you can just sit back and enjoy.

If every one of the 23.4 million households in the UK made a wildlife area of an average of just 2 square metres, how much new space for wildlife would there be?*

    Building a bug hotel is great fun and helpful to wildlife.
    This area was never going to make a good lawn and was a continual battle against moss and 'weeds'.  Adding some wildflower seed and letting it grow has made a wonderful garden to watch amazing insects and flowers flourish.

Further Reading

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* 2 sq metres of each household in the UK is 23,129.06 acres which is over 26 Boston Spas.