Winter Wildlife

Round & About

January can be a bleak month not least for the wild life visitors looking for food and shelter

Gardening for wildlife does not mean letting the garden go wild but more thinking about habitats and food for birds, mammals, insects and amphibians as you garden. 

Be less tidy! 

One of the easiest changes to make when gardening is to think about what to do with all the herbaceous perennials you are cutting down, the pruning you are doing and leaves you are raking up. Each pile you make will eventually decompose to feed the soil and whilst doing so creates a habitat for overwintering insects, amphibians and mammals. There are structures like dead hedges which can house all your prunings and look fabulous. 

Insects and invertebrates 

Although many have ‘disappeared’ for the winter they are just in a different stage of their life cycle. Choose a selection of annuals, biennials and perennials that provide food sources all year round and colour, interest and scent for us. Create log piles and bug hotels for stag beetles, solitary bees and wasps and learn which are the pests and identify the ladybird, lacewing and hoverfly larvae as they are your biological pest control. Do not use chemical sprays! 

Birds 

Provide a range of foods for birds all year round on a bird feeder and as plants. Diverse planting will attract diverse bird species. Teasels are loved by pollinators and goldfinches whereas plants with brightly coloured berries attract blackbirds and redwings. Birds need dense vegetation for roosting and nesting. 

Mammals, amphibians and reptiles 

Hedgehogs, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, badgers, deer and bats are all regular visitors (some welcome and some not) and looking for food and shelter in your garden depending on what’s there so think about hibernating hedgehogs, consider a pond but above all create diverse habitats throughout the year but particularly in winter.