This archive brings together practical, experience-led articles from The Backyard Farmer, covering gardening, DIY, indoor growing, foraging, reviews, and sustainable living. Each post is written with real-world use in mind — focusing on working with nature, building practical skills, and making sustainable choices more accessible.
A hedgehog house provides a quiet, sheltered place to rest, nest and hibernate. This design uses suitable reclaimed pallet boards to create a compact shelter with a raised floor, a 300mm entrance tunnel and a removable roof protected by a loose weatherproof covering. Pallet boards
Wild hedgehogs mainly eat insects and other invertebrates, including beetles, earthworms, caterpillars, earwigs, millipedes and slugs. Their natural diet varies with the season, weather and what is available in their habitat. If you want to help a hedgehog visiting your garden, offer a small amount
Hedgehogs are mainly nocturnal, so seeing one in daylight can sometimes mean it needs help. Daylight activity alone does not prove that a hedgehog is ill: a bright, alert animal moving with purpose may simply be travelling, nesting or responding to disturbance. A hedgehog that
Feeding hedgehogs can provide useful supplementary food, but food that is accessible to a hedgehog may also be accessible to rats. The best practical approach is to offer a small amount after sunset, keep it available for a limited time and remove leftovers before morning.
If you want to attract hedgehogs to your garden, start by making it easy for them to get in and out. A small opening in the boundary, natural cover, fresh water and a garden free from common hazards are more important than buying specialist products.
The easiest way to tell whether a bee is female is to look for a packed pollen basket or another organised pollen load. When that is not visible, check the antennae and abdomen: females normally have 12 antennal segments and six visible abdominal plates, while
The tiny creatures crawling over a bee are usually mites, but their importance depends on the type of bee. Small mites clustered on a bumblebee are often hitchhikers travelling between flowers and nests rather than feeding on the adult. A flat, reddish-brown mite on a
Introduction Last year I made my own bird box, put it up with the best intentions in what seemed to be a good position, and then nothing used it. I was naturally gutted, but an empty bird box won’t stop me, it is a learning
Quick Answer: What Is the White-tailed Bumblebee Aggregate? The White-tailed Bumblebee aggregate, or Bombus lucorum agg., is a group of very similar UK bumblebees that are difficult to separate by sight. It usually includes: All three can look much the same in the garden: black
Peak Cluster is one of those local issues many people have now heard about, but far fewer feel they fully understand. You may have seen route maps, planning notices, consultation events, local Facebook posts, campaign material, company statements or news coverage. However, once terms like
The Man Behind Peak Cluster and What It Means for Local Landscapes When large infrastructure projects land in rural areas, it’s easy to focus on the plans, the maps, and the impact. But behind those projects are people shaping the direction—and those people often tell
Natterjack toads are one of those species you hear about a lot, but rarely actually see. On paper, they’re one of the UK’s rare amphibians. In reality, the natterjack toad population in the UK hangs on in very specific conditions — and even when you’re