Page 31 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #11

HOW YOU CAN
of hope. The Hedgehog Street campaign,
launched in 2011, has so far inspired more
than 50,000 ‘Hedgehog Champions’ to
open up their gardens for hedgehogs. The
campaign encourages people to talk to their
neighbours. You need only one enthusiastic
hedgehog fan on a street and, with some
gentle encouragement and education,
everyone is creating holes in or beneath their
fences so hedgehogs can go between gardens.
Focusing on creating habitats for one Kgardening. The first 300
species has knock-on benefits for others, too.
And, if you’re dedicated to creating homes
for wildlife in your garden, then you’re more
likely to be connected with it and less likely
to lay paving stones, decking or fake turf.
The vast amount of new housing Britain
needs doesn’t have to be disastrous for
wildlife. The RSPB, Barratt Homes and
Aylesbury Vale District Council have
been collaborating on a new nature-
friendly housing project at Kingsbrook in
Buckinghamshire. When complete, it will
consist of three new villages built on former
farmland, containing nearly 2,500 homes. Its
aim is to be nothing less than the benchmark
for wildlife-friendly new-build housing.
The homes feature swift and bat boxes,
gardens are being planted with fruit trees
November 2018
and garden fences will have holes
for hedgehogs and other wildlife to travel
through. Outside the gardens, public areas
in the development will ultimately be 60
per cent green space – orchards, wildflower
meadows, newt ponds and tree-lined avenues.
There will be nestboxes for kestrels and owls.
ingsbrook’s show gardens are
planted with wildlife in mind
and new homeowners are
given information on wildlife
families have already moved in. Some of
them chose the development specifically
for its wildlife credentials, but others didn’t
– what will they make of it?
“We’re hoping to inspire planners and
developers – show them just how much
it’s possible to incorporate in new-build
developments,” says the RSPB’s Adrian
Thomas, who is working with Barratt Homes
on the creation of green space. “But we also
want the people who come to live here to reap
the benefits. We, as nature lovers, know the
benefits that can come from living in such a
wildlife-rich place, and part of the Kingsbrook
project is helping new communities get the
best out of the environment around them.”
Adrian and the RSPB hope that Kingsbrook
will inspire similar new developments
GREEN THE GREY
kk There is heaps of wildlife
gardening advice and inspiration
at discoverwildlife.com/how-to/
wildlife-gardening
kk Learn more about the many
types of swift bricks at
swift-conservation.org
kk Look out for the RHS Plants for
Pollinators logo. More details at
rhs.org.uk/science/
conservation-biodiversity
kk Join the Hedgehog Street
campaign at hedgehogstreet.org
kk Visit the Wildlife Gardening
Forum’s website at wlgf.org
throughout the UK, where wildlife is
considered from the start of the design
process. One promising sign is that Barratt
Homes has invested in a new design of swift
brick, which is cheap to manufacture and
quick and easy for any bricklayer to install
without complicated modifications. Will other
building developers follow suit?
Thousands of people have signed up to
the Greening Grey Britain campaign run by
the RHS – each one pledging to reinvigorate
their front garden by planting anything from
a windowbox to a tree, shrub or climber.
The idea is to completely green the grey.
As the campaign grows, so will the gardens.
And so, hopefully, will the wildlife.
I no longer live in the flat with the garden
that inspired my book. I sold it to a woman
who feeds the sparrows and grows plants
out the front. She emails me, telling me
about the wildlife and that makes me
happy. I’ve had an offer accepted on a house
with a bigger garden, where I’ve been told
there are hedgehogs.
As soon as I move in, I’ll be signing up
to Hedgehog Street and talking to my new
neighbours (who, on each side, have paved
back gardens). We all need to do a bit more,
talk a bit more, enthuse a bit more. Our
wildlife needs us.
KATE BRADBURY writes for BBC
Gardeners’World magazine and helped
with the People’s Manifesto forWildlife
(www.chrispackham.co.uk).Her new book is The
Bumblebee FliesAnyway (Bloomsbury,£16.99).
WANT TO COMMENT? How can we
persuade our friends and neighbours
to green their gardens? Email us at
wildlifeletters@immediate.co.uk
BBC Wildlife 31