"This is a Wildlife Garden"
Award Scheme

There are an estimated 124,500 gardens in Somerset covering 19 square kilometres of our county. These gardens offer huge potential for wildlife and provide most of us with an opportunity to improve an area for wildlife. Wildlife gardening needn’t be complicated there are ways in which you could transform your garden for wildlife in an afternoon and for a lot of us, doing less could well mean more wildlife!

How to join our wildlife garden award scheme

Why not let your neighbours know about your wildlife friendly garden by joining the scheme and proudly displaying a plaque on your garden gate, wall or front door.

Requirements for wildlife

In order to attract wildlife into your garden you need to consider the basic needs of life. These fall into four broad categories:

Food

Shelter

Water

Places to breed

In order to qualify for a plaque your garden needs to provide at least six of the following wildlife garden elements and include one from each of the four columns. We'd love to see some photographs of your garden as well.

Food	Shelter	Water	Wildlife friendly management
Bird feeders think seeds, nuts and fat balls	Plant creepers on vertical surfaces or trellis for nesting & feeding	Wildlife Pond one without fish.	Leave perennials standing til spring
Nectar rich flower borders and bushes	Mixed native hedge (or fedge)	Bog garden or permanently wet area	Leave some lawn to grow longer
Shrubs and trees with nuts and berries	Dead Wood log piles or big tree stumps	Bird bath	Save water use rain butts
Go easy on ‘prey’ pests such as greenfly and slugs reduce your use of herbicides and pesticdes	Bird, bat or hedgehog box	Proximity to a stream or other water	Compost garden and kitchen waste go peat free
Flowers, fruits & seeds available throughout the year	At least one mature tree		Sit back and enjoy the wildlife

Apply for your plaque

Send your photographs and a short summary of the wildlife features of your garden to Somerset Wildlife Trust, Tonedale, Wellington, TA21 0AW or complete the following online form (& include up to four of your digital photographs) and we’ll send you a plaque in the post to proudly display in your garden. Complete the online form here

Are you planning future improvements to your garden that will benefit wildlife?

Tell us about those too and inspire others to do likewise. Tell us about your plans on our online contact form

Wildlife Gardens in Somerset

Take a look at some of the photographs we have already received of wildlife gardens in Somerset