Making Your Garden Attractive To Wildlife In Winter

By Author: Ellie Dixon
Total Articles: 21
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As winter approaches and the days grow shorter we prefer to spend much less time winter gardening - there aren't so many tasks to be done, and snuggling up indoors with a good book seems a much better idea. Likewise, the wildlife in a winter garden is searching out food and shelter to help survive the winter, and there's a enormous amount we can do to assist them in their quest for survival.

As we spend less time in the winter garden, our absence helps to offer wildlife in the garden many desirable winter residences. In bygone days no respectable gardener could retire indoors for the winter unless the herbaceous borders had been cleared, all the fallen leaves removed and the vegetable patch reduced to bare soil.

Now we realise that both aesthetically and environmentally, the winter garden is far more interesting and diverse if some plants are left to die back naturally. Tufts of ornamental grasses have a haunting beauty, especially when illuminated by the low winter sun, but they are also a great habitat for hibernating ladybugs.

Areas of leaf litter provide homes for many useful insect species and will ...
... shelter tender plants that may otherwise be killed by the cold weather and frosty nights. The stark angular outlines of berried shrubs and the seed heads of annual and perennial plants give a visual structure for the winter garden, and many will last for many months, providing important food for birds and other wildlife in the garden who will work their way through all the seeds and berries during the cold months.

Additionally, stone walls, log heaps and untidy corners offer ideal homes in our winter garden s for many varieties of wild animals, from field mice to frogs, toads and hedgehogs.

There are also ways we can actively encourage wildlife in the garden, not only into the winter garden, but all year long. Nowdays the domestic garden is an invaluable habitat and if we manage it well we will be rewarded with a wide variety of wildlife in the garden that will help to control our less welcome garden pests.

Feeding the birds is a must for pest control, but once you begin, it is vital to be consistent and continue as birds will waste energy visiting your winter garden bird feeder or table to no avail if no food is put out for them. In frosty weather they will also need water. This is a good time of year to fix new nesting boxes in place so the birds will have plenty of time to investigate them before the spring arrives.

Insects also need places to hide in the winter garden and while many will take up residence in existing nooks and crannies, it's a good idea to offer them some extra hiding places. These can be home made from simple materials such as a handful of straw or short lengths of cane in a flower pot, but you can also buy commercial versions.

So, why not spend some time making your winter garden a great habitat for your wildlife in winter? That way both you and they will be rested and ready once the days lengthen and spring arrives.for the lengthening days next spring.