Learn how rubbish can be a wildlife haven and why hedgehogs might just save the world this weekend, says Wendy Tobitt

Thousands of new homes will be built all over Oxford city this summer. That news caught your attention! If everyone who comes to the Oxford Festival of Nature on June 7 makes just one home in their garden for bumblebees, hedgehogs or birds, there could well be thousands of new homes for wildlife in the city.

Volunteers and staff from the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) are busy this week creating an extraordinary demonstration ‘garden’ for wildlife at Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park.

The ‘garden’ will be a showcase demonstration site to help visitors to the Oxford Festival of Nature find out how they can help insects, birds and mammals.

Lucy Tomkinson and Andy Gunn from the Wild Oxford project have been rummaging around at BBOWT HQ in Littlemore to unearth old pallets, some old bricks and other ‘rubbish’ which is now being transformed into wildlife heaven.

“It’s amazing what you can do with odd bits and pieces of what looks like rubbish,” said Andy. “We’ll show people what they can do with those old saucepans, broken pots and tin baths that they’ve probably got round the back of sheds or hidden in the long grass. They can easily be transformed into homes for wildlife.

“Tyres become mini-gardens filled with nectar-giving plants, upturned dustbin lids make small ponds, and off-cuts of wood are perfect as cosy box homes for bats and birds.”

Lucy will be demonstrating Creature Features: “We’ll be showing how people can use material they can easily find to make homes for hedgehogs to hibernate in, create a bamboo cluster for solitary bees, and make a lacewing chamber using an old plastic water bottle.”

In the Butterfly Border will be the ideal plants to encourage more pollinating insects into gardens. Rosybee nursery from south Oxfordshire is planting up the ‘garden’ with colourful scented plants that attract butterflies, bees and moths.

Have you ever tried making a plant wall? Lucy will show how to transform an old wooden pallet into a vertical herb garden, suitable for the smallest balcony or back garden.

Look out for the compost heap and wormery, showing how food scraps and waste paper can be turned into life-enriching nutritional food for beetles and worms. Ailsa Barber, a Master Composter with BBOWT, will be showing some of the ways of re-using material that would otherwise be thrown away.

Absolutely nothing goes to waste, and there’s no pong!

The Wild Fair at the Oxford Festival of Nature from 10am-4pm on Saturday, June 7, will be filled with stalls and wildlife activities so that all the family can join in and discover wildlife in the city.

Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park is the largest nature park managed by Oxford City Council with lots of hidden places for wildlife.

Visitors can go on guided walks to discover which hedgerows are best for butterflies, and where the birds will find their autumn harvest of nuts and berries.

The Oxford Festival of Nature starts on Friday evening at 6pm with talks and walks at Cutteslowe Community Centre. Oxford’s own hedgehog expert Hugh Warwick will describe how these charming little prickly creatures could save the world. This will be followed by walks in the evening dusk with Oxfordshire Mammal and Bat Group to discover bats and moths.

Some people will be up with the larks on Saturday, June 7, when BBOWT’s bird expert Colin Williams will lead a Dawn Chorus from 5am, and the Oxfordshire Mammal Group will be back on site at 8.30am to open up the mammal traps they set the previous evening. Drop in to the Cherwell riverbank at Sunnymead Park at about 9.30am to help pull up crayfish traps with an expert from the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre.