Seven ways to attract beautiful dragonflies to your garden

It can be easy to attract these colourful creatures into your outdoor space

(Alamy/PA)

So often during the summer, we see iridescent dragonflies and damselflies flitting between plants and water on river paths or lakeside walks, but how do we tempt them into our gardens?

Modern-day development, drainage and pollution have meant numbers have fallen dramatically, along with the reduction in ponds over the 20th century. Ponds are particularly important as dragonflies spend most of their lives as aquatic larvae, so need water to survive.