Life is full of small, good deeds. I’m a firm believer that it’s the small things that genuinely make a big difference; A smile to a stranger. A cup of tea for your best friend. A packed lunch for your loved one. It’s these little details that might just turn your mundane Monday morning into a much brighter one. But they often get overlooked, underestimated. Every single day offers a new opportunity to have an impact, and we all have the power to make a difference in one way or another, no matter how small.
I’m moving house soon. I fulfil all the clichés about a house buyer that you can think of! I’m panicing about getting everything done in time. I’ve bought interior design magazines and have started wandering round John Lewis with that childlike excitement claiming that i need everything! But, the thing that i’m the most thrilled about is the garden. The wonderful green space that will become so many things; a source of peace and relaxation, and area to have kids play, a small, but perfectly formed vegetable plot. Our garden will, over time become all of these things, but above all else, our garden will become a home for wildlife. I will relish leaving damp log piles at the bottom of the garden and watching my niece discover all the creepy crawlies that infest it. I will plant nectar rich seeds and take pleasure when the butterflies and bees visit, splashing the garden with colour and vibrancy. There is a lot that i could do and plenty that i hopefully will, but i’m going to start small so that i can take my time. It’s truly amazing what we can do for wildlife in our gardens. In total, the gardens all across the UK cover the same area as 380,000 football pitches. That’s more than the RSPB nature reserves put together! If all those gardens took a few small steps and gave nature a home in their back gardens then wildlife in the UK would be seriously better off. Birds like the cheery house sparrow, which has suffered a huge decline in the last 50 years, might start flourishing once more.
This precious bird needs all the help it can get, whether that’s peanuts in a feeder, keeping a healthy firethorn bush or a wild lawn. With a UK network of ‘mini’ nature reserves in each neighbourhood, we may start to make small steps towards really helping the state of nature.