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Providing for Britains Wildlife

Plant a Bat Border
"We may not be able to feed them directly but we can provide
the environment that helps them flourish."
Bats are highly active visiting many gardens throughout the evening and night through the remarkable fact that they are a mammal that can fly!
Bats are best spotted in the early evening while insect densities are highest and if you want to attract and enjoy them, you must look for ways to make your garden insect rich – lots of pollen and nectar plants (particularly the evening scented plants) and have water – ideally a pond (a must in any wildlife garden).
Noctule Bat Noctule Bat
Try planting this bat border specialising in evening scents to attract night-flying insects and if you have the room, build a pond and if you don’t, add a water feature of some kind, even if its just a bird bath.
Choose a sunny spot, realistically you’ll need a minimum three one metre bed, with reasonable soil, backed by a fence, wall, etc. Mount three bat boxes on a nearby mature tree of fix at least one on the wall or fence behind a piece of trellis. Bat boxes should be mounted between 2m and 10m in height.
Pipistrelle Bat Pipistrelle Bat
Ground Ivy
Common Ivy  
Suggested Climbing Plants
2 x Ivy - Hedera helix 
2 x Honeysuckle - Lonicera periclyneum  
1 x White Jasmine - Jasminium officinale  
Plant these climbers close to the fence, feed them and water them in.
Suggested Flowers
7 x Tobacco plant - Nicotiana affinis (white)
7 x Night-scented stock - Matthiola bicornis (white-purple) 
Night Scented Stock
Night Stock
5 x Bladder campion - Silene vulgaris (white) 5 x Night scented catchfly - Silene noctiflora (white)  
5 x Evening primrose - Oenothera biennis (yellow)  
3 x Sweet rocket - Hesperis matronalis (white- purple)  

Plant these roughly 25cm apart, feed and water them in. 

Sit back in late summer and enjoy the show! And if you're very lucky you may even get the privilege of seeing the delightful sight of your very own bats launching from their roost in your bat boxes.

 

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