The media has been full of articles about the drought conditions affecting parts of the UK, hose pipe bans may be enforced and we're being asked to take shorter showers! Now would be a great time to start thinking about how you are going to manage your garden this year with restrictions on water. There are some really useful tips for green living including water conservation here and here.

However, we are trying to encourage people to create gardens for wildlife and some gardens requite lots of watering. If this means that the water is taken away from threatened habitats such as rivers and wetlands to keep thirsty annual bedding plants going, watering could be doing harm. So what to do? How about looking at some different types of garden that require less water such as mediterranean or alpine beds, borders or containers? A mediterranean border can thrive in full sun and be a haven for wildlife, and for people. With the highly scented foliage of herbs like rosemary, thyme and sage it's an assault on the senses that has practical benefits as well as aesthetic and wildlife appeal. Add in some lavender and you not only have a ready supply of fresh herbs for cooking but also an air freshener! Bees and butterflies love the flowers of these plants and they require very little water in comparison to some of the thirsty bedding plants that are popular grown for their colourful summer blooms but lack any attraction to wildlife.

Alpines offer a different level of interest, often low growing and spreading in nature these plants do well in dry and sunny spots and need little attention. You can get a massive variety of these from most garden centres these days and some of the plants are brilliant for attracting bees and butterflies. You are likely to find aubretias, saxifrages, phlox, gentians, sedums and sempervivums, my recommendation would be to go for a mix of them and to look for ones in the garden centre that are being visited by bees or butterflies. A large pot filled with an even mix of grit and soil planted densely with alpines is well worth a go and should be possible even on a tight budget or with limited space.

If we get any rain soon, put out as many pots and pans as you can, so you can then transfer it to your water butt, if you haven't got one then now is the time to get one!

Later this month and into April we'll blog about birds of prey in the garden, hedge cutting and baby birds so watch this space...