There's an excellent article in The independent today called, How to turn your garden into a nature reserve

In the article, the author, Michael McCarthy, explains that:

Wildlife gardening is different from gardening pure and simple, however. It is the difference between classicism and romanticism, between authority and freedom.

As I see it, gardening in its traditional sense is about control - about training plants to grow in a certain way at a certain place and time, with the aim of providing beauty, or a harvest. In essence, it's about dominating nature. Wildlife gardening is more about facilitating nature, about allowing (and indeed encouraging) certain things to happen naturally.

He suggests "a pond is a great start for a wildlife garden" which I'm sure is true although we don't have a pond in our garden (yet). However so many of our neighbours do, that we see a lot of frogs hopping across our lawn on their way to vist a different pond presumably. LOL!

"The next best thing to get results is birdseed" according to Mr. McCarthy. Oh yes, that is definitely true. I have numerous bird feeders in our garden which I keep filled all year round and the bird population in our back garden is growing all the time. Just recently, I've noticed several different bird families being raised in the back garden and watched as the parents take bird food from the feeders to their chicks waiting near by with their beaks wide open in anticipation and their wings fluttering wildly. I was particularly excited and pleased when I saw blue tits with their chicks at the peanut cake feeder. And I have a lot of goldfinches in our garden too which became noticeable when I started to put out niger seed, (the special birdfood they love) last year.

I'm quite proud of my contribution in the care and feeding of all the various birds in our garden. My husband and sons aren't quite so passionate about birds but I do see them watching sometimes. And they chase the neighbours cats away if they see them lurking about under the bird feeders.

The article also mentions a campaign called Wild About Gardens which is a shared project from the Royal Horticultural Society and The Wildlife Trusts. There is some very useful info on the Wild About Gardens website, especially the section, Gardening for wildlife -10 Top Tips.