Bristol

In the heart of Bristol lies a small city garden – just ten metres across – yet it is alive with more wildlife drama than its owner, artist and sculptor Lou, ever imagined. Surrounded by streets and traffic, her small oasis has become a refuge for wild creatures.

Through winter and early spring, a young male fox treats Lou’s garden as the hub of his hundred-garden territory. Bolder than his rural cousins, he raids bird feeders, patrols bins and bristles at rival males when the cry of a vixen echoes across the neighbourhood. With as many as 50 foxes per square mile, competition is fierce.

By day, a very different struggle plays out. A young blue tit, driven to the city by hunger, battles aggressive goldfinches, wily pigeons and the neighbourhood cat, Mr Fluffy, for a place at Lou’s feeder.

As the city warms, another creature stirs. A female hedgehog wakes from hibernation and begins her nocturnal search for a mate. Lou and her neighbours have created a hedgehog highway linking 16 gardens, giving her a lifeline. She travels far, dodging pets and cars, before finally finding not one but several eager suitors. For hedgehogs, multiple fathers in a single litter is a clever evolutionary strategy.

Lou’s pond becomes the stage for another miniature epic. A male frog must act fast before it fills with rivals. Soon it churns with a frenzy of mating. Dragonfly larvae patrol the depths, and only a tiny fraction of tadpoles ever become froglets. But those that do will repay the garden by keeping slugs in check.

Raising a family in the city is never simple. The blue tit finds a nest box put up by Lou, but he and his mate struggle to keep their ten chicks alive. With insects in steep decline, they forage desperately. One chick survives long enough to face its greatest hazard: its first flight, straight onto Mr Fluffy’s turf. A bell on the cat’s collar gives the youngster just enough warning to escape.

Beneath a neighbour’s shed, the fox’s mate has been raising four cubs. As the youngsters grow bold, they venture out into the neighbourhood.

From froglets climbing makeshift staircases to bees and spiders colonising sun-warmed walls, Lou’s small plot is a micro-wilderness. Together with neighbouring gardens, it forms a green network. Gardens make up a third of our city space, and across the country they are larger than all of Britain’s national nature reserves combined. For the hedgehog mother, the reward is great: four healthy hoglets exploring the world for the first time.

It turns out that this city garden offers many animals a lifeline – a sanctuary in the heart of Bristol.