At this time of year there is so much going on in the garden - here are a few ways of introducing some wildlife to your outside space.

1. Any bird-feeder whether the most expensive fancy gizmo from a garden centre, or just a plate of seeds on a table will encourage feathery birds into your garden.  You may even see something exotic if you're lucky!
2. Birdhouses: Fit a couple of bird boxes or reed bird houses in your garden to encourage birds to stay and move in!  Site them fairly high and in well sheltered positions.
3. Plant flowers that attract insects such as lavender, thyme and Buddleia.
4. For bugs and ladybirds, and even frogs if you're lucky, keep a pile of old branches or logs in a shady spot.  They will be attracted to the warm, dark, damp atmosphere and will set up home.  Not one for those mums scared of spiders!
5. A water bath can be as simple as a saucer of water and this will encourage birds to bath or drink in the garden.
6. Worms and centipedes love compost so how about create a compost heap or compost bin and encourage some long, slithery worms to the garden.
7. Throw some wild flower seeds on a patch of soil or grass.  The pretty flowers will grown and provide a meadow-like patch which is really pretty and easy to maintain.
8. Try not to cultivate all areas of the garden.  Leave some damp leaves or grass cuttings in a pile to welcome bugs frogs, hedgehogs and spiders looking for a home.
9. Take cuttings from friends and family and plant your own trees and shrubs for free!  Just pop any cuttings into a pot of soil and see how your garden grows!  Great fun!

Most of all, get the children involved and get them muddy too!  Nothing is more exciting for a toddler or pre-schooler than dirty hands, mucky knees and a brown, muddy smudge on their nose!  Start a diary project and draw what you do and what you observe in the garden.

Some children love bugs and worms, but others are scared or nervous around them - this is a great activity to enthrall those who are interested, and gently introduce worms to those who need some encouragement!  By setting up a wormery, you get to see what happens underground.  It's clean for us, safe for the worms and very interesting for the children.

You need to find the following:

• one large plastic drinks bottle - the bigger the better, the  2 litre ones work well
• one smaller plastic bottl
• water
• some clean sand (horticultural sand not the coarse DIY sand)
• some peat free soil

Steps

1. Poke some holes in the bottom of the large bottle so the water can run out.  Also, cut off the top of the bottle so you can place the small bottle inside.
2. Fill the smaller bottle with water and place it in the big one.  (This keeps the worms cool)
3. Fill the outside bottle with alternate layers of sand and soil so each layer is 4cm deep.  Pour in some water so it is damp.
4. Hop out to the garden and search for some worms.  Dig up a bit of soil and you should find some.
5. Put them carefully into the soil/sand area of the bottle and pop it somewhere dark (shed or under an empty bucket) for a couple of days.
6. When you get them out to take a look, you should see that all the soil and sand have been mixed up as they tunnel around.
7. After a few days let them out again, and then you can start again with some different worms.