There’s lots we can all do to help wildlife in our gardens and outdoor spaces, and whilst many of us set about gardening as a daytime activity, action in the wild world continues to unfold while most of us are fast asleep. And it’s easy to help support nature at night-time by incorporating some simple, nocturnal nature-friendly ideas into our spaces.  

Read on to find out how you can help make space for nature at night-time, regardless of the area you have available. Even small changes can make a big difference.  

What can you hope to attract? 

A whole world of wildlife (and possible encounters) awaits when we do our best to welcome it, by making our gardens and outdoor spaces that little bit wilder.  

Gardening with nature in mind should include providing a welcome to those visitors that stop by (and travel through), after the sun goes down. And they come in all shapes and sizes, including aerial and terrestrial species – from moths, bats, and owls, to hedgehogs, foxes, and badgers.

What can you provide to help wildlife ‘after hours’? 

Fragrant flowers. 

With a bit of planning, the plants you choose for your garden or outdoor space can attract many insects both day and night, making your space work better for nature. By planting some night-scented varieties, you can help benefit creatures like moths and bats, no matter the size of your patch.  

When it comes to bats, our smallest species in the UK, the common pipistrelle, can eat up to 3,000 midges a night! They need a huge number of insects to support their activity, as flying demands lots of energy. Moths, beetles and crane flies are also popular with other species of bat, and so a garden, window box or planter that’s good for insects is good news for supporting our bat populations.  

Did you know that some plants have evolved to have a stronger scent at night, to attract moths as their main pollinators? As a result, many varieties have petals that are paler in colour to better reflect the moonlight. 

Top tip: plant things like night-scented stock, evening primrose and honeysuckle. For more on planting and the types of plants you can plant see the Wild About Gardens - Star of the Night Guide. 

Water

All the creatures you’ll be hoping to attract need water to survive. Consider leaving out fresh bowls of water, especially important in the hotter, summer months). Top tip: make sure you clean bowls regularly to avoid disease spreading. 

You could also look to introduce a water feature or a pond, as many of our garden insects that are also predated by other species spend their larval stage in the water. Dragonflies and damselflies, for example, take months to years to develop before emerging from the water. Just make sure you equip any damp area with a section that’s shallow enough for anything that accidentally falls in, to get back out again.  

A reasonable amount of food 

From buffets for badgers to feeding foxes and helping hedgehogs, a set feeding routine can encourage wildlife like foxes and badgers to visit your garden at certain times, but a more sporadic approach will help ensure they’re less reliant on you.  

It’s a magical experience welcoming these mammals to share our spaces with, and vital in creating space for them to feed, breed and establish new populations. But by offering just enough food and being strict about what you offer (see more on appropriate food below), you can make sure wildlife stays wild. We want to ensure that animals continue to forage naturally and don’t become dependent on our offerings.  

Top tip: restricting what you offer will also help guard against attracting rats as leaving leftovers or considerable amounts of food about the place might otherwise attract them. 

Appropriate food

It’s best to try and replicate the natural diet of creatures in our gardens and outdoor spaces, and to feed them when they’re most in need.  

For badgers and foxes: the depths of winter and very hot weather can make for more challenging foraging conditions, but they have very broad diets. Whilst some people provide cooked or raw meat or tinned dog food, fruit and unsalted peanuts will certainly please these garden visitors too. It’s important to note that feeding foxes can undermine their territory, so 'less' is widely considered to be better when it comes to feeding.

For hedgehogs: use plain kitten biscuits or meat-based wet dog or cat food. You can also use specialist hedgehog food. It’s important not to leave bread and milk out for hedgehogs as it can cause diarrhoea. Late summer is a good time to be thinking about helping hedgehogs through the winter by introducing a hedgehog house, allowing them get used to something new in your space ahead of time. For tips on providing some hedgehog-y habitat read how to how to build a hedgehog home. You can also work with neighbours to create hedgehog highways. Discover more in this article on how to create a hedgehog hole.  

Sympathetic lighting  

Opt for low-level lighting in the garden if needed instead of harsh and intense lighting. It’s perhaps less well known how things like security lights and other forms of decorative garden lighting can have a considerable impact on wildlife.  

Artificial light at night (or ALAN) can affect anything from disrupting feeding to impacting on roosting, migrating, and breeding. It can also leave creatures vulnerable to predation by causing disorientation and affect the productivity of creatures like moths, who are drawn to artificial light, away from feeding and pollinating.  

Where possible try to make your space functional whilst creating the least amount of light that can affect wildlife. Consider: 

• Lighting only essential areas where safety may be a concern, or choose PIR lighting, activated by motion, a great way to light an area only when you need it most. 

• Avoiding spotlights and uplighters that cast a broad beam of light as the glare and intensity of these cause the most disruption.  

• Positioning of lighting – downward-facing lights reduce the glare that is confusing for migrating species and pollinators active at night. 

• Choosing warmer hues, rather than bluer hues, is more sympathetic to wildlife. 

You may also be interested in reading about how light pollution has been found to affect robins’ song and looking at the Artificial Light at Night report (2023). 

Watch the action unfold  

Now all that’s left to do is enjoy welcoming your new visitors. It may take time, but any positive change you can make will encourage more creatures to your space. 

Wildlife gardening is a great way to connect to nature and it’s incredibly rewarding when you encounter the wildlife you’ve been hoping to attract. Just remember to keep a healthy respect for these wild animals and watch from a distance. You could also consider looking into getting a camera trap if you’re particularly keen on keeping up with the action that unfolds overnight.  

For more information you can see our tips on how to use a camera trap and how to attract moths and bats to your garden by creating your own moth trap. 

The work of the Wilder Communities team has been supported by South Western Railway's Customer Community Improvement Fund and The National Lottery Heritage Fund