The sun is back! The days are warmer, the freezing nights are fewer, and green buds are starting to shoot their way up through the soil.

For those of us green fingered in nature, we’re also ready to welcome wildlife into our gardens. Birds, hedgehogs, bees and butterflies are all active at the moment, some waking up and looking for food and a place to raise their next generation.

Creating a mosaic or patchwork of different habitats provides a wonderfully-wide range of shelter and food sources. This could be anything from hedgerows and trees merging down to herbaceous borders, pots of nectar-rich flowers, ponds and bog gardens or log piles that provide dead wood habitat. Here are Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s top tips for a wilder spring.

(Image: Yorkshire Wildlife Trust) Dig a pond

Good for garden design: Ponds are a great focal point for a small garden and don’t have to be big or expensive – you can make a container pond out of recycled materials. You don’t need specialist plants either – water mint and hornwort are oxygenating, and creeping Jenny and marsh marigold make great impact.

Good for nature: Great for breeding amphibians and insects like dragonflies; a source of water for insects and birds. Make sure you allow the pond to fill naturally with rainwater, as tap water is more susceptible to algae and less attractive to creatures.

Build a bee home

Good for garden design: Symmetrical patterns and shapes (circles from dried bamboo, triangles and squares from cut and drilled timber) can be used to tie-in with shapes of furniture, screens and other garden features to enhance overall design themes.

(Image: Yorkshire Wildlife Trust)Good for nature: Most of our bees are solitary; some species nest in holes in the ground, while others will look for old beetle holes or hollow stems in which to lay their eggs. Consider installing individual bee homes rather than multi-species hotels, as these are easier to clean, can be located in full sun and have fewer issues with disease and parasites.

Create deadwood habitat

Good for garden design: Scatter logs under a hedge or in a border, or create a neat and tidy pile or stumpery if you’d like a garden focal point; consider standing them on end like organ pipes, which offers the most micro-climate options. Planting in a shady area with ferns, bulbs and shade tolerant perennials like foxgloves and Solomon’s seal can turn an unloved area where many plants won’t grow into a magical space full of texture and life.

Good for nature: Deadwood is the perfect hiding and hibernation place for insects, providing a convenient buffet for frogs, birds, and hedgehogs too. Fungi, wood-boring insects, woodlice, beetle grubs and wood wasps all find homes and food in the logs or lay their larvae there.

Plant climbing plants

Good for garden design: Climbing plants add variation in height and the possibility for new shapes, textures and colours via leaves, flowers, and fruits. You can also use them to add interest to a hedge or hide unattractive walls and fencing.

Good for nature: Rambling plants (wild rose, honeysuckle, ivy) grown through hedges increase shelter and food for wildlife. Ivy is wonderful because it provides good cover for nesting birds; flowers in autumn when most nectar sources are spent, providing a lifeline to autumn flying butterflies like red admiral and small tortoiseshell. Berries in very early spring help to bridge the hunger gap when birds may struggle. Honeysuckle is also a great choice – it provides nectar for insects, prey for bats, nest sites for birds and food for small mammals.

Go for gold in your garden!

Sign-up opens this Tuesday for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s popular Wildlife Gardening Award. We love to see and reward the incredible efforts people go to for the wildlife on their doorstep.

(Image: Yorkshire Wildlife Trust)Apply for a bronze, silver or gold award, each with a different number of requirements to complete the category.

Find and submit the web form on the Trust’s homepage. Successful entries will be awarded with a certificate, or, for a small cost, we’ll send you a proper sign to proudly display in your garden.

Join the hundreds of people across Yorkshire already making a difference for wildlife in their local urban spaces – no matter how big or small.

For more inspiration and ways to go that little bit wilder, visit www.ywt.org.uk