Find out ways of helping wildlife in your garden this July.

In July, lawns can be teeming with baby frogs, toads and newts as they leave ponds in search of a cool, damp place to shelter in.  Baby blackbirds and robins maybe hiding under hedges and shrubs while their parents dig up soil to get at worms.  If you are lucky enough to get Hedgehogs, their babies will also be leaving the safety of their nests and learning how to forage.

Now is a good time to leave out additional food for a variety of species if your garden doesn't yet provide them with all the natural foods they would normally eat.

Here's some jobs you can do during July to help wildlife.

Help baby frogs

Grow some low-growing plants to protect fogs.

Having low growing plants around your pond gives baby frogs somewhere to hide and shelter.  Long grass is also helpful.  Be careful when mowing, check long grass for amphibians before you cut, or leave it for a couple more weeks to enable them to disperse safely.

Avoid trimming hedges

Blackbirds, thrushes, house sparrows, greenfinches and goldfinches nest in hedges and can still be using nests into late August.  Avoid trimming hedges until early Autumn and always check thoroughly before trimming.

Sow biennials for pollinators

Now is the time to sow biennials which will flower next year.

Some great plants are honesty, teasels and foxgloves.

Feed hedgehogs

If you feel the hedgehogs visiting your garden look a little bit on the thin side and your garden can't naturally provide them with enough food, then putting out some water and meat-based dog or cat food (chicken flavour) is a great way to help them fatten up.  This will also help the emerging babies with extra food while they learn to forage.  If the food is attracting cats and foxes you can always build a hedgehog feeding station so the hedgehogs can feed safely.

Cut down perennial meadows

You can use a strimmer to cut down perennial meadows.  Cut half now and then the rest in a month's time.  Leave seed heads where they fall for a couple of days to let the seeds scatter into the soil.  Remove the clippings for composting.  Now you can mow the meadow with a lawnmower to make it short and even.  Remove all the clippings to avoid enriching the soil as most wildflowers grow best in low-nutrient conditions.

What's best for nature and wildlife

Variety is key to supporting nature and wildlife.  The best thing you can do to get started is add a tree (preferably fruiting), add water, have a pile of logs on the ground, don't use pesticides and don't prune or tidy the garden as often. 

From there add as wide a variety of plants and flowers of differing heights, including ground covering plants. 

Wild, cultivated, native, non-native are all good at the time of writing.  But the best thing you can do for the environment is having the right plant in the right location, this means you don't have to change or improve your soil, or water lots throughout the year.

It's a good idea to add wildflowers to your garden as they are endangered and could disappear from the wild, it also gives insects and bees something different to feast on.

To improve your garden for wildlife doesn't mean you have to have a scruffy looking garden, so don't beat yourself up if you choose to have mainly short grass, or want the edges to look tidy.  What's important is the joy your garden and the wildlife bring to you and your family.

More articles about wildlife gardening:

Wildlife gardening jobs for January
Wildlife gardening jobs for February
Wildlife gardening jobs for March
Wildlife gardening jobs April
Wildlife gardening jobs May
Wildlife gardening jobs June
Wildlife gardening jobs for August
Wildlife gardening jobs for November
Wildlife gardening jobs for December
How to attract birds to your garden
How to attract bees to your garden
Sowing and growing wildflowers