Attract wildlife to your garden in France

Many people are beginning to enjoy attracting wildlife into their gardens, whether it's for environmental reasons or personal pleasure. It is surprisingly easy to start luring wildlife into your garden, the four main factors are: food, water, cover and nesting sites.

Here are some simple tips to encourage biodiversity into your garden:

• Build a logpile, all kinds of small mammals, amphibians and insects love to nestle down in an undisturbed pile of wood.
• Remember to check for wildlife before you light any bonfires in your garden.
• Leave a pile of fallen leaves in a quiet and damp part of the garden, frogs, toads, newts and slug-eating centipedes love this environment.
• Bird feeders are simple and rewarding. It sometimes takes a couple of weeks for the birds to find them but once they do you'll reap the rewards. From watching them come in to feed to listening to the increased bird song in your garden you won't be able to stop yourself from smiling.
• Put up bird feeders that suit the birds in your local area.
• Bees are crucial to our own survival and they are currently in decline. Reduce the use of pesticides in your garden, they have adverse effects on the insects you want to keep in your garden. Give them an array of flowers to choose from, bees need both pollen and nectar. Bees like large areas of flower where they can find food in small area, so plan large borders.
• Provide a water area for both bees and butterflies. Because of their size they can get caught in bird baths and ponds so give them an easy alternative. Fill a saucer with wet sand and sink it in to the ground, remembering to keep the sand wet.
• If you have a large enough garden try leaving an area of your garden to grow wild. Butterflies lay eggs in long grass so try to resist the urge to have all of the lawn perfectly manicured. You'll also find grasshoppers, beetles and young amphibians in this habitat, you can make it a little more colourful and bee friendly by sowing wildflowers.
• Try making a bat box, children love watching the bats flying around on a summers evening and if you listen carefully you'll hear them squeak and chirp.
• A water feature, anything from a bird bath to a larger wildlife pond will help support wildlife in your garden.