Helping your garden wildlife...

Don't be too tidy in your garden as undisturbed areas are great for wildlife. These places provide safe daytime hiding places for small creatures and by allowing insects to gather gives a restaurant for birds! Try to minimise the amount of spraying you do as nature will do a lot of pest control for you - hedgehogs eat slugs, birds eat many insects like greenfly and ladybirds eat aphids.

Help provide a little extra food for birds while they are nesting by using a range of feeders including those that hang, bird tables and food on the ground.

Encourage mason bees with specially designed bee boxes available from good garden centres like St Bridget's. Mason bees help pollinate the garden and work harder than honey bees in poorer weather!

Get further advice...this weekend at St Bridget Nurseries' garden centre, Sidmouth Road, Clyst St Mary, Exeter, EX5 1AE; the Devon Wildlife Trust will be there to tell you more about wildlife and the amazing work of the trust. St Bridget Nurseries was one of the first and few garden centres in Devon to be approved by the Devon Wildlife Trust in recognition of the wildlife focus the company offers. The garden centre is open 8am-5.30pm on Saturday and 10.30 to 4.30pm on Sunday.