Gardening with
Wildlife in Mind

How to use this CD

Natural England Gardening with Wildlife in Mind provides information about the interdependence of plants and creatures for wildlife-friendly gardeners. This database allows you to explore the relationship between plants, the animals that depend on them and the predators that rely on some of the smaller creatures.

The program opens with a contents screen with five buttons:

Use the pink Start button to close the contents screen and run the application.
Use the blue How to use CD button to access this screen, or the More info ... button to open a folder containing the Natural England Introduction, Foreword and documents that explain how you can create a wildlife-friendly garden, or the Help button to access the help files. When these screens are closed the program returns to the Contents screen. You can also access these documents from within the application.
Use the Exit button to close the application.

As with most electronic databases, you can search for a specific item or you can narrow your search down and browse through the results. With Natural England Gardening with Wildlife in Mind, you can also stop at any point and explore the links within a complex ecosystem.

If you decide to grow plants that you have found in the database, you can make and print a pick list. You can also run your selection of the plants and animals as a slide show.

There are also suggestions for things you can do to encourage wildlife, like installing a pond or providing nesting sites for birds and more detailed advice about creating wildlife habitats. For further information there is a bibliography with an extensive book list and links to helpful websites. A useful starting point for anyone wanting to create such a garden is Chris Baines’ How to Make a Wildlife Garden.

Natural England is keen to know what you think of this CD. In particular, we would welcome comments about the ecological links between species and suggestions for additional links or additional species, including exotic (ie non-native) plants that you may have seen to attract wildlife in your garden. Future editions are a possibility and these can take account of information provided by users.

Please e-mail any comments to steve.berry@naturalengland.org.uk , write to Natural England, 33 North Street, Lewes, BN7 2PH or call on 01273 407956.