Encouraging small mammals: Small mammals are elusive garden visitors going about their business mostly at night. Of the 40 or so native land mammals in Britain, four groups of small mammals are likely to turn up in gardens: bats; hedgehogs; mice, voles and shrews; and, occasionally, weasels and stoats.

To encourage them you need to provide suitable food and shelter, and remove hazards. Hedges and shrubs, especially of native plants, provide seeds and berries, attract insects as food, and create lots of shelter if you leave the bases undisturbed. Rough grass encourages mice and voles, and leaving dead heads of herbaceous plants can be a valuable source of seeds. Piles of logs, or substantial hedge prunings, are useful shelter and will provide hibernation sites for hedgehogs. You should reduce pesticide use to the minimum to avoid poisoning small mammals' food and possibly the small mammals themselves. Also make sure your plot is free of hazards by ensuring any netting is tautly fixed, ponds have exit ramps and no bottles or cans are left lying about. Hedgehogs can travel up to two miles a night in search of food. Putting out tinned pet food with crushed dog biscuit and a dish of water (not milk) will make them regular visitors. Make sure fences have a small gap to allow them in and out. Bats are brilliant entertainment with their aerial acrobatics. They can hoover up a remarkable 3,000 insects a night so do a great job of midge control.

Night-scented flowers to bring in moths will attract bats, and thick climbers for them to roost behind should encourage them to stay.

Jobs of the month:

l Cut sweet peas regularly to prolong flowering, watering well in dry spells and deadheading twice a week

l Try spraying plants affected by mildew with milk diluted with nine parts of water

l Plant brassicas including Brussels sprouts, sprouting broccoli, winter cabbages and autumn cauliflowers

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