In a few short weeks our lives have changed beyond what most people would have thought possible.

Unnecessary trips from home are forbidden.

That for many may have started as a strain, but with a renewed perspective on the world a lot of people are waking up to the benefits of the everyday nature that surrounds us.

Nature is having a tough time with climate change, increased use of pesticides and weedkillers and development which doesn’t make space for wildlife.

This is really bad news as we need nature, not just for our food and air but a number of studies have now shown how exposure to nature is very beneficial to our mental wellbeing.

The good news is you don’t have to go far to get your daily nature fix, and since nature is helping us out, are there things that we can do to help it out while we’re in lockdown?

Happily, yes! There is a lot you can do on your local patch to give nature a hand. I’ve been exploring my local patch for years, admittedly that patch was a bit bigger than I can get to under the current guidelines, but there are a lot of activities that I have done in my garden and on local dog walks that anybody can do, things that can make a big difference.

So, what are they?

WEEDING

Well the first is something that you don’t need to do so much of - weeding.

Now surely there’s a win-win situation!

Leave patches of your garden to grow a bit wild. Many ‘weeds’ are just native plants in the ‘wrong’ place.

They are valuable food plants for many insects and their larvae, like nettles and dandelions. Dandelions are a valuable early nectar source for many insects and butterflies like Brimstone and Orange Tips love them.

Insects are having a tough time with big declines recorded so if every garden left a little wild area aside it would make a big difference.

If you learn to love native plants then maybe you’ll also be tempted to leave the weedkillers and pesticides alone – gardening organically is a serious level up for nature!

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Image:
Copyright of Zach Haynes)

WATCH

The next one is pretty easy too - watch. Take notice of what is in your garden, and, well ok, you’ll get the benefit for the watch bit, but if you can also record it you can be making a real difference for nature.

A lot of conservation organisations really value citizen scientists and have schemes you can join up to, to record what you see.

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The more we know about what species are doing well, or not, and where, the better the scientists can work out how we can best help nature.

So watching and recording what’s out and about in your garden is a big help. Where to start? Well in the past I’ve surveyed birds, bees and butterflies and there are great projects running to help these species and more. Do a bit of googling and you’ll probably find there’s a survey of your favourite wildlife that you can contribute to.

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Image:
Copyright of Zach Haynes)

BIRDS

To help birds you can join in with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Garden Birdwatch. This year, as a response to the pandemic , you can join for free. This scheme, which has been going for more than 25 years, helps to show the changes in populations of birds in our garden and what effect feeding garden birds has.

Submitting weekly records through the scheme has helped to show that Goldfinches are the species that has had the biggest gains over the last 25 years, whilst Song Thrushes, although doing well in the countryside, are not doing so well in our gardens.

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Image:
Copyright of Zach Haynes)

BUTTERFLIES

For Butterflies why not help out Butterfly Conservation with their big butterfly count?

There’s lots of time to get prepared for this as it takes place from 17th July to the 9th August, so there’s plenty of time to download the app, get familiar with UK species and maybe even time to grow some flowers to help attract your favourites.

This is really valuable to do as butterflies respond quickly to changes in the environment and their declines can signal an early warning for other wildlife losses. Counting butterflies is sometimes described as taking the pulse of nature.

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Image:
Copyright of Zach Haynes)

HABITATS

There’s all sorts of things you can buy too to help provide or improve habitats in your garden, and if you check out the web shops of organisations like the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts you can help their work while helping out your local patch wildlife.

Buy a hedgehog house, a toad abode, maybe a bee hotel and know your purchase will be having a double benefit for nature. Or make one yourself!

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Image:
Copyright of Zach Haynes)

PASS ON THE MESSAGE

A final simple thing that any nature lover , young or old, can do is to promote their passion.

Just get out there, see what you can see, learn about it and pass it on. The more people that we can connect with nature the better chance it will have.

One of the biggest celebrations of wildlife and a festival of sharing what we see is 30 Days Wild. The challenge is every day in June to do a random act of wildness, something that connects you with nature.

That may be bee watching, lying on the lawn watching the clouds, or a bit of leaf art using different leaves to make a mosaic or picture.

The Wildlife Trust run this every year, they have loads of examples of different things you could do, and social media explodes with lots of positivity about nature

I think this unusual year could turn out to be the best year yet for this initiative as more and more of us share the discovery of new found friends and knowledge from our gardens and daily exercise routes.

So while you find solace in your local patch, however big or small, I hope you’ll join me in giving nature a helping hand.