In short and in plain language
Many customers want a garden where bees and beetles find food. A garden firm can offer this as a job of its own.
This means local flowers, a corner with old wood and leaves, and a flat bowl of water.
In autumn, a lot is left standing. Small animals spend the winter in the stems. The leaves may stay under the bushes.
The website says just what the firm does. A word like eco is not enough. This is also a rule.
We build the page where a firm explains this well. A form asks for size, photos and wishes.
People having a garden redesigned often ask about insects as well: about flowers for wild bees, about a corner that is not cleared every autumn, about water for hot days. Many landscaping businesses have been able to do this for a long time, but their website mentions it only in passing under garden design. This article shows how the wildlife garden becomes a service of its own: which elements actually help insects, what wildlife-friendly autumn care looks like as a care variant, which rules from nature conservation and competition law apply, and how the service page is built so that enquiries arrive with area, photos and the care the customer wants.
Key takeaways
- Private gardens accounted for approximately 57 per cent of landscaping turnover in 2025 (BGL). The wildlife garden belongs on its own subpage with zones, care calendar and form, not as a passing mention under garden design.
- Insects need food, shelter and water: native wild perennials with single flowers, a deadwood and leaf corner, patches of bare soil and a water feature with shallow zones up to ten centimetres deep (BMUV).
- Wildlife-friendly autumn care leaves perennial stems standing until spring and leaves lying under shrubs (Umweltbundesamt). Paths, driveways and the lawn by the house are still kept clear and tidy.
- Hedges and shrubs may not be cut, coppiced or removed from 1 March to 30 September (Section 39(5) BNatSchG). A leaf pile with a hibernating hedgehog is a protected resting place.
- Since 27 September 2026, generic environmental claims to consumers are not permitted without proven recognised excellent environmental performance (EU Directive 2024/825, Art. 4). Instead of “ecological”, the page states specifically what is planted and what stays.
- Meadows are mown only once or twice a year (Umweltbundesamt), and wild perennials need time. The form therefore asks, besides area, photos and zones, whether the customer likes a garden that does not look tidied up in winter.
Why the wildlife garden is a service of its own
The private garden is the sector’s largest client segment: in 2025 it accounted for approximately 57 per cent of total turnover in landscape gardening and sports ground construction (BGL). Within this segment there is a demand that does not fit neatly into the usual service labels. The customer does not want a new lawn, a patio or a clipped hedge, but a garden where something is buzzing again. If the website only says “garden design and maintenance”, they will not find what they are looking for and, when in doubt, will contact the business that calls the topic by its name. A subpage under the website for private garden businesses solves this: it carries the search term, explains the scope and pre-sorts the enquiry.
The background is not a passing trend. A long-term analysis from 63 protected areas in Germany measured the biomass of flying insects over 27 years and found a decline of 76 per cent in seasonal biomass (Hallmann et al., PLOS ONE 2017). Measurements were taken with Malaise traps, not in private gardens but in protected areas set within an intensively used landscape. That is exactly what makes the finding tangible for garden owners: if even protected land is losing insects, every plot that offers food and shelter counts.
One of the main reasons for the loss of many species in Germany is a landscape that is too tidy and too monotonous.
The Red List shows how individual groups are faring. Under the heading “Insects at risk”, the Federal Environment Ministry’s brochure summarises: 26 per cent threatened, 50 per cent not threatened, with the rest split between extinct, extremely rare and data-deficient species and the near-threatened list (BMUV, based on the Red List 2022). For bees the picture is starker: 48 per cent of the assessed bee species are classed as threatened or already extinct (Rote-Liste-Zentrum, Red List 2011). The 2011 list counted 561 established bee species; today the figure is put at around 600 (Rote-Liste-Zentrum).
For the service page this means there are enough factual reasons why a customer wants to take part. The business does not need to dramatise them, but to show what actually helps in the customer’s own garden. The difference is most visible where a gravel area is taken out; the BMUV brochure explicitly names gravel gardens as part of the problem. How enquiries arise from this topic is described in the article on unsealing front gardens as an enquiry driver.
What insects need: food, shelter, water
A wildlife garden is not an overgrown garden. It is planned so that three things are available across the year: food, shelter and water. Food comes from native plants with open flowers. The Federal Environment Ministry recommends a mix of early and late flowering plants suited to the site, and it warns against cultivated forms: highly bred flowers with double blooms offer insects no food. Planting native wild roses with single flowers instead of double varieties changes the garden little to the eye and a great deal for insects. Light plays a part too: night-time lighting in the garden can disturb nocturnal insects in their natural rhythm (BMUV). How to plan garden lighting that gives off no more light than needed is described in the article on garden lighting for the dark months. The individual building blocks can be shown as zones on the service page.
Wild perennial bed
Native perennials with single flowers, staggered from spring into late autumn. The plant list follows the site, whether sunny, partly shaded or shaded. The stems stay standing over winter.
Native shrubs and wild hedge
Freely growing wild shrubs with berries such as blackthorn or buckthorn instead of a clipped formal hedge. They provide flowers in spring, fruit in autumn and cover in winter.
Meadow instead of ornamental lawn
Part of the lawn becomes a meadow that is mown only once or twice a year (Umweltbundesamt). A mown path through it shows that the area is intentional.
Deadwood and leaf corner
Rotting branches, brushwood and leaves in one corner serve as hiding place, food and building material (BMUV). The corner is placed so that it does not get in the way of maintenance.
Water bowl or mini pond
Shallow zones up to ten centimetres deep, stones or twigs as landing spots and preferably no fish (BMUV). A bowl on the patio counts too.
Bare soil and dry-stone wall
Many insects use moist loam for building nests, so an open patch of loam, clay or loess helps (BMUV). A dry-stone wall of natural stone adds nesting sites and winter shelter.
With nesting aids, precision matters more than quantity. Some wild bees need cavities 3 to 9 millimetres in diameter for their brood cells (BMUV), drilled cleanly without splinters and hung in a sunny spot sheltered from rain and wind. A nesting aid with frayed holes may look decorative, but it convinces neither bees nor customers. On the service page, the combination works better: a bed that flowers, a corner that stays as it is, a water feature and a patch of bare soil. If you already cover drought-tolerant planting for dry summers, you can build on it. Many drought-tolerant wild perennials fit both concepts; only the reasoning differs: there it is the site, here it is the insects.
Autumn care as a care variant: leave rather than clear
In October and November, private customers traditionally ask for leaf clearance, cutting back perennials and hedge trimming. For a wildlife garden this is precisely the sensitive part, because many insects spend the winter where tidying usually happens. The German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) advises cutting back perennials only in spring: many insects, including the eggs and pupae of butterflies, overwinter in or on the stems, and cutting back in autumn would destroy these overwintering stages. The BMUV brochure names old wood, plant stems, other cavities above ground and long meadow grass as shelter in the cold season.
For leaves, the Umweltbundesamt recommends removing them in autumn only in exceptional cases, for example where plants are diseased. Whatever has to come off paths and driveways is not taken away but moved as mulch under hedges and shrubs and onto beds. Leaf piles serve as winter quarters for hedgehogs and amphibians. For businesses that service robotic mowers, this links directly to hedgehog protection in the robotic mower service. And if leaves do have to be moved with machinery, plan the work around the times that apply in residential areas; more on this in the article on leaf blowers and trimmers in residential estates.
| Task | Conventional autumn care | Wildlife-friendly care variant |
|---|---|---|
| Perennials | cut back to the ground, take away cuttings | leave stems standing until spring, then cut back |
| Leaves | remove from all areas and dispose of | clear from paths and lawn, leave as mulch under shrubs and on beds |
| Meadow and lawn | final cut over the whole area at once | leave strips of long grass over winter, mow areas in rotation |
| Deadwood and brushwood | shred or take away | stack into a pile in a quiet corner |
| Hedges | cut back as the customer wishes | cut in sections, leave parts with fruit standing |
| Charging | by area or by the hour, disposal as a separate item | by time spent, less disposal, more moving material and explaining |
The wildlife-friendly variant is not less care but different care. Paths, steps and driveways stay clear, diseased plant material is removed, and the lawn by the house may look neat. The difference lies in the areas in between. In the maintenance contract it is best described as a separate variant with its own specification, so that the crew on site knows which bed stays and which pile is not to be touched. How maintenance contracts can be structured in general is covered in the article on maintenance contracts with scope and frequency.
The legal side: cutting seasons, species protection, plant origin
Part of autumn care is regulated by law. It is prohibited to cut, coppice or remove hedges, living fences, shrubs and other woody plants in the period from 1 March to 30 September; gentle shaping and maintenance cuts remain permitted (Section 39(5) BNatSchG). October is therefore when a harder cut becomes possible again. The wildlife-friendly variant uses this freedom sparingly: hedges are cut in sections so that berries and cover remain. What the law means for trees in the garden and where tree protection bylaws come in is explained in the article on tree protection and felling seasons.
Then there is species protection. Section 44(1) BNatSchG prohibits, among other things, injuring or killing wild animals of specially protected species (No. 1) and damaging or destroying their breeding or resting places (No. 3). Under Annex 1 of the Federal Species Protection Ordinance, all native bees and bumblebees are specially protected, as are the native mammals apart from exceptions such as the water vole, the common vole or the brown rat; the hedgehog is therefore specially protected too. A leaf pile in which a hedgehog is hibernating is a resting place. The crew needs a clear instruction for this: do not move piles and deadwood corners in winter, and check before clearing under shrubs.
Plant origin: what applies in the open countryside
Promoting without greenwashing: specific instead of “ecological”
A business offering wildlife gardens wants to say so. Here the framework has shifted. EU Directive 2024/825 on empowering consumers for the green transition prohibits generic environmental claims for which the trader cannot demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance. Member States apply the rules from 27 September 2026 (EU Directive 2024/825, Art. 4). In German law, the ban now appears in the Annex to the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG) under No. 4a as a “generic environmental claim that cannot be substantiated”.
What counts as a generic environmental claim is set out in Section 2(2) No. 1 UWG: an environmental claim whose specification is not given clearly and prominently on the same medium. As examples, the Directive’s recitals name words such as “environmentally friendly”, “green”, “nature’s friend” and “ecological”. For a landscaping website this does not mean the topic is off limits. It means the page has to say exactly what is meant. “Wildlife-friendly autumn care: perennial stems stay standing until spring, leaves stay under the shrubs, we do not use chemical pesticides” is a verifiable description. “Ecological garden care” on its own is not. The general rules for advertising claims and price information on landscaping websites are summarised in the article on advertising with prices and claims.
- Instead of “ecological care”: “We cut back perennials only in spring so that insects can overwinter in the stems.”
- Instead of “insect-friendly garden” as a slogan: name the plant list with native wild perennials and shrubs.
- Instead of “nature-friendly disposal”: “Leaves stay as mulch under hedges and shrubs, cuttings go on the compost.”
- Instead of “climate-friendly garden”: name the measures, such as removing a gravel area or adding a water feature.
- Mention labels and awards only if they have actually been awarded, with the name of the awarding body.
No promises of results
The wildlife garden service page from top to bottom
The page sits as a subpage of the private garden service page and in autumn can also be reached from the seasonal slot on the home page. Its structure follows the path a customer takes in their head: what is it, what does it look like, what do I have to do myself, what scale of effort is involved, and how do I enquire.
Opening with a photo and one sentence
A photo from one of your own projects in summer, with one sentence on the scope beneath it: planning, build and wildlife-friendly care from a single business, within your own service area. No general environmental promises, just the service.
The three zones explained
Wild perennial bed, deadwood and leaf corner, water feature: one photo each, two sentences on what it does and one on how much space the zone needs. That way the customer sees that a terraced-house garden qualifies too.
Care calendar across the year
What happens in spring, summer, autumn and winter, who does it and what the customer can take on themselves. Autumn with stems left standing is stated explicitly so that nobody is surprised.
Scope and price range
Redesign after a site survey, care as a separate variant in the maintenance contract. Anyone stating prices states total prices including VAT (Section 3 PAngV) and, for contracts, the minimum term right next to them.
Enquiry with photos
A form at the end of the page asks for area, current state, zones wanted and the care required, and accepts photos. Phone number and service area sit next to it.
A photo from one of your own projects in summer, with one sentence on the scope beneath it: planning, build and wildlife-friendly care from a single business, within your own service area. No general environmental promises, just the service.
Wild perennial bed, deadwood and leaf corner, water feature: one photo each, two sentences on what it does and one on how much space the zone needs. That way the customer sees that a terraced-house garden qualifies too.
What happens in spring, summer, autumn and winter, who does it and what the customer can take on themselves. Autumn with stems left standing is stated explicitly so that nobody is surprised.
Redesign after a site survey, care as a separate variant in the maintenance contract. Anyone stating prices states total prices including VAT (Section 3 PAngV) and, for contracts, the minimum term right next to them.
A form at the end of the page asks for area, current state, zones wanted and the care required, and accepts photos. Phone number and service area sit next to it.
A wildlife garden looks different in November than in June. That is exactly what belongs on the page. Photos from every season, including the winter bed with seed heads and frost, take away the customer’s worry that the garden will look neglected in autumn. In the portfolio gallery, wildlife projects can be shown as a category of their own. How to take such pictures with a phone is shown on the page about photos for your landscaping website; for the redesign of a gravel area, an honest before-and-after from the same angle works well.
For private customers there is another point of interest. The labour costs of a garden redesign can qualify as tradesman services; income tax is then reduced by 20 per cent of the expenses, up to a maximum of 1,200 euros (Section 35a(3) EStG). The service page does not need to do the calculation, but it should mention that labour and material costs are shown separately on the invoice. What belongs on the invoice is covered in the article on the Section 35a tax relief.
The enquiry form: area, current state, care wanted
Enquiries about wildlife gardens are often vague. “We would like to do something for bees” can mean a meadow behind the house or a water bowl on the patio. A form that asks a few targeted questions turns this into an enquiry the business can answer with a site visit or an honest refusal.
- Postcode and town, so that the service area is settled straight away.
- Approximate garden area and location: front garden, back garden, slope.
- Current state to choose from: lawn, gravel, beds, shrubs, pond.
- Zones wanted: wild perennial bed, meadow, deadwood and leaf corner, water feature, wild hedge.
- Care afterwards: by the customer, wildlife-friendly care by the business, or still open.
- A few photos of the current state, from the house and from the far end of the garden.
One question is included on purpose: whether the customer wants to live with a garden that does not look tidied up in winter. Anyone who hesitates here needs a conversation about expectations before a quote is written. That spares both sides a redesign that gets undone in the first autumn. How such forms are structured in general and which fields pre-qualify is shown on the page about the enquiry form for landscapers.
Setting honest expectations: wild is not maintenance-free
The most common conflict with wildlife gardens does not arise during the build but in the year after. Wild perennials need time, a newly sown meadow often looks patchy in its first summer, and some things only show in the following season. The Umweltbundesamt recommends mowing meadows only once or twice a year so that the plants can flower, and names a cutting height of 14 centimetres, which also gives amphibians and reptiles a chance of survival (Umweltbundesamt). The cuttings are removed from the area after two days, and no fertiliser is used, because the leaner the soil, the richer the meadow in species (Umweltbundesamt).
Then there are the neighbours. A garden with standing stems and leaves under the hedges can look unkempt to outsiders. Clear edges help: a mown strip along the boundary, a path kept open through the meadow, a neatly set edging along the bed. The Umweltbundesamt advises mowing areas at different times or in different places anyway and leaving refuges. Explaining this as a design principle takes away the customer’s worry that the garden is going to seed.
The same applies to water features. A shallow bowl with stones is quickly cleaned, a mini pond needs more attention, and anyone who wants to support insects should preferably do without fish (BMUV). How to clarify expectations for larger water features is described in the article on pond construction. Wildlife-friendly care does without chemical weed and pest control entirely, following the Federal Environment Ministry’s recommendation; what is legally restricted on paving and paths anyway is covered in the article on weed control.
Build it in autumn, show it in spring
October is a good time for the website. Planting season for shrubs and many perennials is under way, customers are seeing in their own gardens what the summer has left behind, and autumn care is due. Setting up the page now means the wildlife-friendly care variant can still be offered this season and redesigns for spring can be collected. How to place autumn topics on the home page without pushing the year-round offer aside is shown in the article on autumn work on your website.
In spring comes the second step: photos of the first flowers, of the overwintered stems before cutting back and of the water feature in use. These pictures make the page more credible than any bought-in photo. Simple seasonal planning for the website sets out when which photos are taken and when which section moves to the front.
We build these pages for landscaping businesses that design and look after private gardens: with care calendar, zones, form and wording that describes specifically rather than praising in general terms. The content comes from your business, your projects and your plant lists. The page is built so that it can move to the front again next autumn with new photos, without being rewritten. The framework for this is the website for private garden businesses; how additional service pages are priced is set out under pricing.
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