Keeping a dingy spot in the garden can help encourage urban wildlife

If you hate gardening then tell the neighbours you haven't cut the grass in two months because you are trying to encourage urban wildlife.

This might sound like music to the ears of lazy gardeners everywhere, but in fact even small urban gardens can make a contribution to biodiversity and the maintenance of a broad range of species living in the city, said Prof David Goode, of the Greater London Authority, who this week will address a session of the British Association Festival of Science.

"People with gardens can do a lot," he said yesterday. "Wild or naturalistic gardens can help." He did not advocate the abandonment of the lawnmower in favour of the lounge chair, but dingy little corners of an unkempt garden could harbour wildlife. And in a city the size of London these unattractive corners add up to a significant acreage. Private gardens made up 19.5 per cent of the total area covered by the Greater London Authority.

An old Victorian-style garden with a bit of rough growth at its rear would support those species typical of the "woodland edge", Prof Goode said, with a mix of up to 25 animals and birds, including rare woodpeckers.

Even the uncultivated corner of a small garden could support five or 10, he added. The new craze for paving and decking worked against this, clearing out the habitats favoured by many birds, mammals and insects, he said. Simple measures could help, however, such as the addition of nesting boxes for swifts and bats.

The council had "inventories" of the bird, insect and mammal species that could be found in Greater London. It had also developed an "action plan" in support of a whole range of species which were tending to flee the city in favour of the suburbs.

He cited the sand martin, grey heron, house sparrow, all types of bats, water vole, adder and stag beetle.

His wish list of species also included plants such as mistletoe, the black poplar tree and the rare tower mustard, a plant named after its particular home base, the walls of the Tower of London.