CONSERVATIONISTS have been showing gardeners what they can do to make their plots more attractive to wildlife.

The Durham Wildlife Trust held a Wild About Gardens event at its site at Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve and Visitor Centre, near Houghton-le-Spring, yesterday to encourage householders to do more to increase the different species of plants and animals in their gardens.

Wild About Gardens is a national initiative organised by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and the Royal Horticultural Society to highlight the fact that gardening is a simple and effective way of protecting and promoting wildlife.

The event featured a series of guided tours through the trust's reserve so people could see conservation in action.

Experts also gave talks on the part that gardening has to play and people should do to make their gardens more wildlife-friendly.

Visitors had the chance to do some practical work as the event included tree-planting and garden planter-making sessions.

A trust spokesman said: "Managed properly, an average size garden is able to support up to 3,000 different species of plant and animal, which given the area that gardens cover, could significantly improve an area's biodiversity."