Do you neglect your garden? You might be right in doing so!

As it happens, creating a wildlife garden doesn’t just mean planting flowers that provide nectar and pollen. A true wildlife haven offers a year-round habitat for local species, and this may translate to letting areas of your green space get a little messy.

“There’s new excitement about supporting the full annual cycle of insects,” says Desirée Narango, a conservation biologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, Vermont. This doesn’t just mean the plants that they need for food, for example, but also where they spend the winter, she says. “We want to support everything that these insects need to have sustainable populations, because then they can be more resilient against the myriad of other things that they have to deal with out there,” she says.

There are benefits and challenges to letting your garden go completely.

While experts recommend doing a little less mowing and pruning in the spring and summer, it’s also recommended to let some things pile up in the autumn, specifically leaves. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a non-profit organisation focused on the conservation of invertebrates, promotes an initiative called Leave the Leaves that advocates for this to protect insects that overwinter on your property.