As farm wildlife is in decline and housing and industry swallow up more habitat, gardens are becoming more and more important for supporting the ecosystem. Here’s what you could do in your garden to help wildlife this autumn and winter.
Lawns and Leafmould
It’s inevitable that I should start this blog with lawns but they’re more important than you might think.
The first thing you can do is think hard about all those autumn leaves you’re about to rake up. You ARE going to rake them up aren’t you? Because if not they will damage your lawn.
Instead of putting them all in the brown bin, why not put aside an area of the garden to make leaf mould? These composting bags are brilliant. Fill them with leaves and pop them is a corner of the garden. In 1 year you’ll have some lovely mulch. In 2 years you’ll have a really rich soil conditioner – for free. The bags break down too – so you won’t be using any unnecessary plastic. While they’re composting they’ll provide food and warmth for lots of different mini-beasts and insect eating birds.
https://www.premierlawnsni.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/leaf-composting-bag-300x198.jpg 300w" alt="leaf composting bag" width="640" height="423" />
I found these leaf composting bags for sale on Ebay. You could also use black bin bags with holes punched in them but the plastic won’t decompose whereas these rot down with the leaves
More information here
Feeding the lawn to support soil microbes
Wildlife gardening starts at grass roots. Literally. Without the minibeasts in the soil we would be living in a barren land. These creatures are AWESOME. The ultimate recycling machines. I’m talking about the invertebrates, fungi and bacteria that live beneath the surface of the soil. Some of them take dead stuff and turn it into plant food. Others capture nitrogen from the air and turn make it accessible to plants. And then there are the ones that attack and kill disease causing organisms and the ones that neutralise toxins. Awesome.
Keeping your soil in good condition ensures that these creatures can thrive. So apply an autumn winter lawn feed that also nourishes microbes. Then top it up in the new year. It will pay off. When the soil microbes are healthy, your lawn will look amazing.
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Trevor Ford from Trevor Ford Landscaping has helped me enormously with this next section. He’s a true inspiration and a brilliant landscaper, I can thoroughly recommend his work.
Beds and Borders
It’s amazing who lives in your garden that you don’t know about. A really brilliant activity for youngsters is to give them a magnifying glass and send them out to see what they can see. They’ll be busy for hours and you’ll learn a lot from what they find.
To help all those overwintering insects, resist the urge to tidy up. In your borders you’ll have lots of stems and seed heads where herbaceous perennials have finished their work for the year. If you can bear to, leave them where they are. Not just for the insects – they provide a little bit of frost protection for the crown of the plants too.
The one plant I struggle with is ivy. I’m itching to remove it from walls but it’s one of the only plants that flowers in winter time. The flowers aren’t very exciting for us, but for bees that decide to stretch their wings on a warm winters day, ivy is a good source of pollen and nectar.
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Ivy flowers may look insignificant but they’re an important resource for wildlife
Mulch everything. It’s great habitat for many of the insects that will attract birds to your garden and the exercise will warm you up.
Hedges for wildlife
Now is the best time of year to trim your hedges. Nobody will be nesting in them and you’ll encourage thicker growth for next year. If your hedge bears berries, wait until they’ve all been eaten before you start pruning.
More about hedge trimming here
Feed the birds
A lot of what we’ve been discussing will feed the birds without you lifting a finger. If you want to encourage our feathered friends into your garden, do your research carefully. The wrong food is worse than no food at all.
Much as I love to hear and see the birds, I’m no ornithologist but you’ll find lots of information about bird feeding on the RSPB website. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/feeding-birds/
Even better, visit Belfast’s window on wildlife https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/belfasts-window-on-wildlife/
Preparing for spring
Forget Christmas for a moment, if you really want something to look forward to, plant some spring flowering bulbs now.
Crocus are a big favourite with bumblebees, but I have noticed that in my garden the yellow ones get shredded by birds.
Iris reticula is another nice one. It flowers as early as February and has a wonderful bright blue colour.
Violets are another bee-friendly plant but they’re devils for invading lawns so maybe they’d be best in a pot somewhere.
https://www.premierlawnsni.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/iris-reticulata-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.premierlawnsni.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/iris-reticulata-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.premierlawnsni.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/iris-reticulata.jpg 1200w" alt="blue iris reticulata" width="640" height="427" />
Iris reticulata – a welcome sight in early spring. Plant the bulbs 5cm deep and 5cm apart
One more important winter gardening job
Nothing to do with wildlife, but while you’re thinking about the garden, don’t forget to book your lawnmower in for a service.
If your lawn has let you down this year, start thinking now what will make next summer a success. If you need any advice please don’t hesitate to ask.
Comments
This is a great post, thank you!
It's been my mission both here and in South Africa where I used to live, to encourage the transformation of gardens into wildlife habitats. However I've encountered a large number of potential clients who were either completely disinterested or openly hostile to the idea of sharing their garden with other species... One lady who cut down a tree "because it attracts birds" and another guy who asked me if there was a pesticide specifically for ladybirds. I said that was unlikely, because ladybirds are not generally considered pests and no-one wants to kill them. I asked him why he was looking for some, to which he replied "they land on the wall and make it look ugly".
So I'd like to put these questions to everyone:
Is there a market for wildlife-friendly garden design in the UK, and do you have any advertising suggestions along those lines?
And, has anyone ever turned down a job on principle because it involved the deliberate destruction of wildlife habitat?
Yes Jennifer,there is a VERY small market here in the UK. Suggest you Google 'The Butterfly Brothers".I am a one man band gardener in Surrey who specialises in wildlife-friendly gardening. But despite the national trends - Monty Don/Gardeners World/RHS/National Trust etc etc about this way of gardening, on the ground it's an extremely niche market. I've discussed this on various forums- most really Green garden owners do their own gardening. I'm on the edge of 'stockbroker' belt - they just want striped lawns,clipped hedges and block-paved driveways. I don't advertise that much anymore, there's usually very little response. I've been lucky to find some great clients, but still suffer from the usual losses due to old age,death,work related moves etc etc and have lost a couple of great jobs in the last year or so. Some clients are hardcore wildlife enthuisiats, some put up with my 'quirks' becvause I'm good and reliable, a few are more resistant. I always explain my philosophy when I first meet them (word of mouth is great but just because an existing client is 'onboard' doesn't mean their best friend will be ! ) If I can't do it chemical-free etc, I move on. I only have 2 out of 21 gardens that don't compost - one due to lack of space and one due to ongoing rat problems. I've advertised in Wildlife Trust magazines in the past; emailed local RSPB groups;usual ads in local shops/Post Offices/garden centres. I always stick to the green message. But if I tame the ads, you'll just get the normal owners - Many don't want a gardener, they want an outdoor cleaner.......
Hi Jeff
Thanks for the insight. It’s really interesting the way you mentioned ‘gardener’ vs ‘outdoor cleaner’. I hadn’t thought about it like that.
Do you design gardens and do landscaping? I only do the design part, so my focus is on designing new gardens specifically to encourage wildlife. I also believe that a wildlife-friendly garden can be designed in any aesthetic style, which would encourage more people to have one. I’m hoping that by offering a postal planning service, I can connect to as much of that niche market as possible. I don’t do any installation or maintenance, which is an important part of the process, so I’d love to know which areas you cover in case I do a design for a client there… Is that something you be interested in, installing a wildlife-friendly garden design?
I just do maintenance, planting enhancement and habitat improvements. But 'proper' gardeners can be thin on the ground so would certainly be happy to stay in touch if you were ever need to recommend someone to maintain one of your creations. I'm 56 now and worked in IT until I was 42, so I feel I'm at the slower end of gardening now. Although it's harder work than design&planning I just love the hands-on aspect of the job.
Thanks Everyone :)