The UK has lost almost half of its biodiversity since the 1970s. Much of this is caused by loss of habitat to commercial farming and construction. 72% of UK land is managed for agriculture, much of it intensively. However, we do have a secret weapon in gardens. Your garden is a space wherein you can control what happens, so you can manage it to offer replacement habitat where it has been lost in the wider countryside. You might feel your patch is too small to make a difference, but if you multiply garden numbers by average areas you get a total UK garden cover of 432,964 hectares - one fifth the area of Wales. Quarter of a typical city, and half its green space, is private gardens. Individuals, or better still, communities, managing their green spaces for wildlife really can make a huge difference.

So what has been lost, and how can we use our gardens to mitigate? Since 1950 we have lost 97% of wildflower meadows, 50% of ancient woodlands, 60% of lowland heaths, hundreds of traditional orchards, 300,000 miles of hedgerow and thousands of farm ponds, not to mention the vitally important natural networks connecting up the landscape. Gone, too, are traditional farm practices such as hedge-laying, ditching, haymaking and winter stubble fields which made the countryside a haven for so many species. By bearing in mind the essential habitats lost, we can offer alternatives. Never forget that what we consider ‘garden’ birds were once woodland species – robins, great tits, blackbirds and great spotted woodpeckers have all adapted themselves to new habitats in town gardens. More recently, goldfinches have adopted seed feeders where they once relied on farmland weed seeds and winter stubbles. Friends in town have regular visits from foxes and hedgehogs, and I even get reports of partridges using gardens in the centre of Shrewsbury. Food is readily available in gardens but increasingly difficult to find in the wider countryside, and as more and more gardeners are turning to wildlife-friendly methods, more species are going to discover the benefits of urban life.

I’m not going to go into ‘how-to’ details here, as there’s plenty of advice already available, but I’d like to encourage you to think habitat rather than species. A complete ecosystem has to support a whole range of creatures, from microscopic bacteria and tiny springtails, to ants, woodlice, dunnocks, voles and blackbirds, up to predators such as foxes and sparrowhawks. Plants range from mosses, tiny weeds, small annuals and sturdy perennials to thick hedges with climbers winding through them and full-sized trees. There are no pests or prizes – it’s all part of a complex web of life. Neither does it exist as an island. Habitats have ‘leaky’ edges, merging with adjoining ones. So if you’re planning some changes, consider your garden’s place in the bigger picture. Does it back onto a playing field, a railway embankment, other gardens or arable land? Is there a stream or active ditch close by? Are your neighbours nuts about wildlife too or madly keen on Astroturf? All of these things can impact on how your garden connects to wider habitats. What sort of wildlife arrives and how quickly it does it depends on what sort of connections are available. I know there is little point in creating a lowland fen in my garden – the soil is acidic, the site is on a hillside and the nearest equivalent habitat is miles away – but I can make my garden more attractive to species already in the neighbourhood, and make sure it serves as a highway for creatures moving around in the landscape. If something unusual appears, I’ll look on it as a bonus. If it stays and sets up home, I’ll know I got something right. And if I get it right for one species, there’s a good chance it will be right for others, and I can build on that. I won’t change the world with half an acre, but I’ll do what I can. In the Old Testament story, when God told Noah to build the Ark and Noah was justifiably concerned about where he was to get the animals to fill it, God told him “If you build it, they will come” (Genesis 7:5). But you have to do the building first!