HOUSING developers with sites in Swindon have teamed up with the RSPB to offer advice on how to bring wildlife to our homes.

The wildlife charity has worked with Barratt and David Wilson Homes to offer people a practical guide to creating animal-friendly areas in gardens, doorsteps, windowsills and balconies.

A wildlife-friendly garden is currently under construction at Canalside, in Wichelstowe which developers hope will receive an RSPB Gold award.

The show gardens include a hedgehog highway, bird boxes and baths, a bug hotel, lavender hedges for bees and butterflies and a raised pond with child-safe grid.

Wildlife-friendly gardens and green space are prominent features of David Wilson Homes’ Park View and Larks Rise at Tadpole Garden Village.

The Bringing Your Garden to Life guide outlines simple tips including: provide food that comes from plants, select plants that are rich in pollen and nectar such as lavender, native honeysuckle, wallflower and summer jasmine, and offer a variety of shrubs, climbers, flowers, grass and trees

Provide water collection areas like an upturned dustbin lid or old sink, a bird bath or full-sized wildlife pond.

Provide shelter in the form of plants and shrubs, log piles and nesting boxes for birds, bats, bees and hedgehogs. All can be bought ready-made - or make your own.

Create a wildflower meadow on a windowsill using flowers such as corn marigold, cornflower, corn cockle and poppy. They can be grown in tubs adding a splash of colour and a welcome wildlife rest-stop to even the smallest of spaces

Plant up seasonal hanging baskets and pots with plants that are attractive to wildlife like marigolds, verbena, fuchsias, heathers, dead-nettles, ivy and nasturtiums, and try to include some native varieties. Include some plants that flower early and late and insects will visit in spring and autumn as well as summer.

Barratt Developments, owner of Barratt Homes and David Wilson Homes, aims to be the leading national sustainable housebuilder. Through its partnership with the RSPB, launched in 2014, the company seeks to design and landscape its developments and green spaces in an ecological and nature-friendly way. The five star developer runs a nationwide programme to create RSPB approved wildlife-friendly gardens for its show homes.

Barratt Developments west regional managing director Chris Burton said: “With both the pace and place of life massively changed due to the current lockdown, combined with the arrival of spring, lots of us are watching wildlife like never before. So we’re delighted to be able to continue this work by sharing some simple tips on giving nature a home with all of our customers, whether you’re living in urban apartments, town houses or semi-rural developments.”

“Through our long-standing partnership with the RSPB, the UK’s largest conservation charity, we have made it our mission to improve the way in which nature and wildlife are incorporated into our new communities. So we’re delighted to be able to continue this work by sharing some simple tips on giving nature a home with all of our customers, whether you’re living in urban apartments, town houses or semi-rural developments.”