How to Help Wildlife in your Garden - January
As winter draws on, this is when the wildlife in your garden, really does need a helping hand albeit by providing food and water or simply, helping to preserve their habitats.
Leave Fallen Leaves
Whilst it’s tempting to want to tidy up your garden and remove any fallen leaves, leaving them in a corner of the garden will provide shelter for insects and small mammals.
Avoid disturbing your garden too much also helps wildlife find food and shelter undisturbed. Keep an eye open for hibernating animals which could be in quiet corners of your garden.
Feeding Birds
As it gets colder, now is the time to fill your feeders with a higher calorie food to help birds withstand the drop in temperature. Providing suet balls are a really good addition to your feeders as they also will help give your birds energy to survive the cold.
This is also the time when birds draw on the different types of berries you might have in your garden. Ivy berries are particularly good for birds. They are really high in fat and provide lots of energy and goodness for birds. Not only that, ivy berries don’t rot as quickly as others so it can be a useful source of food until the end of December. The best crops of berries are produced by older plants so it’s an excellent reason to allow ivy to do its thing and ramble over trees and walls. Ivy blossom will also have provided nectar for late flying butterflies, ivy bees and hoverflies.
Keep a source of fresh water
Water can be in short supply in the winter during frosts or snowy weather, so keeping a water source for your garden wildlife is really important.
Plant Winter Flowering Plants
Winter flowering plants such as heather or pansies, not only look nice but they provide nectar for late flying insects. Similarly, consider planting early-blooming bulbs for spring pollinators.
Ponds
It’s very important to prevent your ponds freezing up completely so try and make sure at least some of your pond remains ice free.