Loving your natural pond - why not also attract wildlife to the garden too?

There is an increase in popularity on subjects to do with the importance of gardening for wildlife with a lot of mention on the topic in various media sources. Attracting wildlife to your garden does have great benefits to the environment. The natural habitats of all forms of wildlife are continuing to disappear - what with changes in farming, increase in the number of buildings being constructed, renovations to old buildings etc.
With the increase in wildlife friendly gardening the trend is to move away from manicured gardens with sterile lawns, more

clipped hedges and shrubs to gardens planned not just for plants but also for the benefit of wildlife. A balanced ecological garden means that many pests are killed by their own predators because the natural food-chain of predators is maintained. This doesn't mean that you absolutely have to rule out the use of pesticides, but staying as close to nature as posible is certainly the best way of going about attracting wildlife to your garden.
You can start of attracting wildlife by providing food particularly at times when their natural food sources are scarce. You can also put up shelters in your garden such as nest boxes or planting ground cover to encourage more natural sites for shelter and nesting.
Birds are the most popular in a wildlife garden, but there are also mammals, amphibians and insects which can be attracted into our garden and live in harmony with those visiting your natural garden pond.