SUMMER WILDLIFE

During July and August are great for spotting and attracting wildlife into your garden. As an approved Devon Wildlife Trust garden centre, St Bridget Nurseries can advise you on how you can make your garden Wildlife friendly. Here's a few other tips of what to look out for:

- Butterflies will be a round in large numbers at this time of year, so plant good nectar producers like buddleja and red clover to attract them.

- Bumblebees will be mating with bees from different nests. Young males sleep out at night, often on flowers, whereas young queens return to their nests. Only mated young queens will survive the winter to start new colonies next year. Bumblebees may nest in tussocks of grass or moss, so may use a grassy bank at the edge of your garden. Plant clover and catmint to encourage them into your garden. You can also buy or make bumblebee bee boxes. Bumblebee boxes are about the size of small bird boxes but have two compartments: one in which the queen breeds which is filled with wood shavings, and one where the other bees live. Remember bees are great pollinators for your plants.

- Newts tend to breed later than other amphibians and should leave their ponds by August. Most frogs, toads and newts will stay on land until next spring so create log piles and leave the bottom of hedges undisturbed so they can take shelter there.