Yes. My whole garden is designed with wildlife in mind but I do have a very rough area at the very bottom of my garden where I allow plenty of nettles to grow and shrubs are allowed to do their own thing.

The key is to plant plenty of nectar/berry bearing shrubs and to plant stuff close together to give good cover. Leave berries and seed heads on as long as possible. A garden pond with a sloping "beach" area to allow anything that falls in( hedghogs do this) to climb out is a good idea.

I get masses of wildlife in and near the pond including frogs,toads,newts, dragonflies, birds come for a wash and drink and wasps and other insects drink from the pond edge

You might find this link showing various aspects of my pond useful

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31559373@N00/tags/pond/

my front garden is very overgrown and generaly looks after itself.its also got a little hidden pond that you cant see but it brings lots of wildlife in to the front .

Yes... I have a wild bit at the bottom of my garden, it has logs, tree's a sink and lot's of scrambling rambling plant's,plus my bird feeders.It is a lovely hidey place for the bird's ,cat's, frog's and the rat!

we have one too with thistles and teasles, malus and prunus also cotoneaster, we are rewarded with many lovely birds and foxy of course, a family of stoats and rabbits!

I'm envious I'd love to have stoats in my garden. I do fairly regularly see weasels close to my garden so I assume they're here but I've never seen them inside the garden. They look like a mouse with a 4-6 inch extra bit stuck between the head and the bottom and they move incredibly fast!

weasels are incredible predetores anchorman . they can fit through an averadge wedding ring but are more than capable of taking out a full size rabbit which is one hell of an achievment as the rabbits over ten times the weight . i live in the town and someone actualy sore a munkjack deer in my front garden.

I've only seen them a few times, this summer they were playing under the willow tree rolling over & over -- its certainly solved the rabbit problem-- hope they stay!

We get muntjacs here too, in suburbia, and the occasional fox. The end of our garden is very wild, with nettles, rambling rose, a field maple, snowbush, a few old logs and a pile of ash where we've had bonfires. Pheasants love to wriggle in the ash, and then have a nice lie down. Apart from masses of birds . . woodpeckers in particular, we have frogs and one toad, tiny mice, and see squirrels most days (both grey and black), but haven't seen "our" hedgehog lately, though there are signs that he's visited! A heron lives somewhere near, and it's amazing seeing him flying over the garden.

We had quite a lot of pigmy shrews in our last garden. In wet summers the numbers used to explode and they'd find their way indoors into the cottage. A bit like having mice, but they'd run round the walls in the daytime, whereas mice come out at night. Once I found one in my son's bedroom upstairs. It ran all round the walls then out the door and down the stairs. It ran down the vertical risers holding onto the carpet, not jumping down. Its little legs were a blur - then it ran out UNDER the CLOSED front door! That draught excluder wasn't working as well as we'd hoped, obviously!

shrews are the most violent predetors taking on all commers as they have to eat there body weight and a half every day because of there high motabolism . its brilliant seeing all the wildlife . even snails are quite amazing if you take the time to watch them.

We have wild areas, and all the boundaries (except at the front garden) are wild, with brambles, hawthorn field maple and of course nettles, docks, willowbay and reeds. We have ditches along 3 boundaries, so whatever is out there, doesnt always make its self known. We don't get a great deal of mammal life tho', No rabbits, squirrels or deer thankfully. But we do get polecats and foxes that can problematical at times. We also have loads of field mice. Rats are about, so we have to use bait boxes. Moles are a definate. No slow worms thank goodness, too snakey. We do have a variety of birds tho'. The odd few Lapwings and a couple of woodcock. Buzzards and Red Kites, which are a bit noisy in early summer when they leave the nest and sit around the boundary, screaming for Mum. One of the dogs chases off the Geese all year. We dont want them about, scaring our ducks. Crows, Ravens and magpies are also problems too.

I've grown up with all sorts of animals, wild and domesticated, round me since I was about 8. Still the same, with dogs, cas, ferrets, chicens, rabbits, guinea pigs. I do talks on various subjects and lead dawn chorus walks in spring. I'm often surprised by how many people who are so used to dealing with animals far more dangerous, struggle to face snakes, which are comparatively harmless by comparison. I accept it etirely, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather hold a snake than tackle a feisty ram who's intent on reaching his ewes. Yet a farmer I know, who regularly outstares and bullies (gently, of course) his charolet bull, won't touch a slow worm. It's upside down! Phil J

Ours is sort of in reverse - we have a carefully tended garden and veggie garden surrounded by wild stuff in the mountains!

Philjeffs, I know it sounds daft, but I have always had a dislike of snakes, but where I used to live, I worked in one garden, that was regularly visited by adders. Yukky things. I once looked over a tall compost and came face to face with an adder. I don't know who was more surprised, me or it, it was just emerging, so unable to attack, but i ducked out of the way. They used to get caught up in the fish pond netting, had to get the neighbour to sort it out (the owners lived abroad). I only worked there for one year. And then on holiday in Florida 20 yrs ago, we went on a swamp boat, and a few cotton mouths were in the water. I'm not a happy bunny with long thin legless things. :-{ But I wish I could do one of your walks, sounds fascinating.

Yes - a dawn chorus walk sounds brilliant. I'd like a pair of wings so that I can flit down to Hampshire in Spring, and in fact fly round the UK visiting all the wonderful gardens on this site . . . not forgetting Spain, Japan, Hungary, Canada, America . . . . Oh, OK. Maybe I'll settle for an armchair tour, and enjoy them right here. :))

Like Nariz, our garden is surrounded by acres and acres of nature. We get occasional adders and slow worms. My son found a white adder in the garden a few years ago - but he only saw it once. I think there were muntjac footprints in the snow last year but my OH thinks they were prints left by jumping mice. We've agreed to differ.... ;-)

jumping mice ?
slow worms are realy quite rare you should be glad you have such creatures .

I am always fretting about the overgrown state of the bottom of my garden, but I'm going to stop worrying about it now!
Unfortunately, however, I don't see any hedgehogs or other mammals which I'd love to have living there. Plenty of frogs though!

you can always incourage these creatures with places to stay overwinter and overnight and just because you dont see them doesnt mean there not there . youd be amazed how high a hedgehog can climb or how far it can get in one night .frogs are a great start anyway . maybe a little natural pond will help get some more diversity .

"you'd be amazed how high a hedgehog can climb "

Imagines a hedgehog base jumping off the Empire State Building!

:)

lol anchorman . can you imagine the amount of holes in its parachute lol .

:^)

LOL -it would have to have a specially reinforced backpack to carry it in... :^) Great smiley Anchorman! Haven't seen one with a semi-profile nose before.

you saying anchorman has a big nose beattie lol x ?

LOL again! Only in his self portrait above, NP.
I've seen the photo of himself working in the nursery some years ago and that was a back view. "does my.....?" - no! ;-)

Me ? A big nose ?

Never!

:0)

well i didnt think so anchorman unlike some lol x .