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In many parts of Britain, much of the wildlife relies on welcoming gardens to survive. With so much of the country given over to buildings, roads or farmland, well-endowed gardens can provide a rare source of refuge.

The most noticeable visitors to your garden will be the birds. Encourage them by providing food. Putting out some breadcrumbs will attract birds, but for a more permanent attraction, put up a birdfeeder or plant some bird-friendly bushes.

Birdfeeders come in all shapes and sizes depending on the birds you want to attract, and whether you need to keep food out of the way of squirrels – who can scare the birds away and eat all the food. Alternatively, planting bushes with berries that birds like to eat, such as ivy or pyracantha, gives you a natural bird feeder that regularly tops itself up. You'll find invaluable information on feeding birds on the RSPB website.

Bath time

Water to bathe in is also important for birds, especially over the winter, so setting up a birdbath will be a popular attraction – and fun to watch. Birds use the water for preening, which helps oil their feathers and provide waterproofing and insulation against the cold. If you don't fancy a Sunday afternoon trip to your local garden centre to buy a custom-made birdbath, you can always improvise by simply using a wide, shallow bowl.

Birds and other wildlife will also come to your garden if you give them a place to stay. You can buy all sorts of bird boxes, as well as hedgehog houses, ladybird bug boxes, bee nest boxes, butterfly boxes, bat boxes and even frog and toad houses.

Deterring cats

Of course, the last thing you want to do is lure birds and small animals to their deaths. To prevent wildlife being killed or attacked by cats while playing in your garden, you can install an electric cat deterrent. A survey by the Mammal Society found that cats kill at least 250 million creatures in Britain every year. A cat deterrent emits a high sound (silent to humans) pitched specifically at a cat's hearing frequency, which will deter the cat without harming it.

To protect any wildlife that comes into your garden, it is also best to avoid using pesticides, slug pellets and other poisonous substances on your plants.

If you can, let your garden run a little wild, at least in one corner. If you have a lawn, leave some of it to grow long. This will not only provide food, such as flying insects, for birds, but it will also attract butterflies, grasshoppers, crickets and spiders.

Check your lawn before you mow it, particularly if the grass has got quite long. Small animals such as frogs and hedgehogs are often killed by people mowing their lawns. Before starting up your mower or strimmer, check the long grass and undergrowth with your hand or foot to make sure nothing is curled up there. Hedgehogs don't run away when they hear the noise, but curl up tightly which is unfortunately no protection against fast rotating blades.

Creature comforts

You can attract a whole host of creatures into your garden by leaving a pile of logs in a damp, shady corner of your garden. Hedgehogs, frogs, toads or newts may spend the winter there, while centipedes and ground and rove beetles, which eat slugs, may also be attracted by your log pile. Another visitor may be the stag beetle, a globally threatened species that likes to lay its eggs near dead wood or logs. The larvae live in the wood for several years until they reach maturity, so leaving the pile undisturbed is vital.

A pond is probably the most active part of any wildlife garden. A pond may attract frogs, toads, newts, dragonflies and even snakes. You can make your own or buy prefabricated ones from your local garden centre. Put your pond somewhere sunny to attract the greatest variety of wildlife, and avoid positioning it near a tree so you don't have to spend the entire autumn clearing out fallen leaves.

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