This section is written for people who are perhaps considering creating a habitat on a relatively small scale, perhaps as a community project or for a small nature reserve or garden. It is not intended to be a full methodology for creating any given habitat. The aim is to provide some guidelines to get you started. The sowing rates for grassland apply to any scale of project.

Plant and seed stock
Whichever habitat you decide to create, always try to use local origin stock, or UK origin as the minimum requirement. Talk to your chosen supplier and ask where the stock originates from. There are a number of confusing terms used when referring to plant stock, and the industry is trying to unify its approach. You need to be sure that the stock is of local or UK origin (i.e. where the parent plants originally came from) and that it has been produced either locally or in the UK.

Choice of habitat
Which habitat you choose to create will be determined largely by personal preference, the type of land and soils prevailing on your site and how much time is available for maintenance.

The basic habitats are woodland, wetland and grassland, with many variations within these according to the choice of species and type of maintenance carried out. Ideally a mosaic of different habitats will be created, but sometimes this is not possible. Where you are constrained by the amount of land available, or costs, look at the habitats around the site and try to create something that complements existing habitats rather than copies it. In this way your contribution to encouraging and conserving wildlife will be greater.

When considering which habitat(s) to create, a good starting point is to think of which plants, animals and insects you wish to attract and support. If you are unsure of this, you might look at local and regional targets for biodiversity action plans, which are available from local nature conservation organisations and councils. After that, look at the soils and consider the local climate.