How to transform your garden into a place wildlife can thrive in
BY mid-August swifts have already left for Africa, although swallows and house martins linger a little bit longer, gathering in flocks before embarking on their long migration.
It’s harder to spot some of our shy all-year-round residents, such as the dunnock and wren, hidden in hedges and thickets.
If you keep a bird bath well topped up with water, you’ll tempt them out for early morning bathing as well as provide much-needed drinking water in dry weather.
It’s a good idea to raise your birdbath off the ground, and place it in the open, giving birds a clear view of danger.
In your wildlife garden this month: The colours in the garden tend toward gold and bronze as the brighter early and mid-summer flowers fade.
It’s the time of year to enjoy ornamental grasses for their seedheads, and plants that thrive in dry, hot conditions, such as lavender and rosemary.
Herbaceous perennials in flower at this time of year include: campanula, echinops, Geranium psilostemon, coreopsis, phlox,
Erigeron acer, penstemon, aster and helenium.
Shrubs and trees come into their own when herbaceous plants fade and can maintain interest in your garden through summer into winter.
Good summerflowering shrubs include lavatera, hebe, Viburnum opulus and V lantana, shrubby potentilla, philadelphus and escallonia.
The elder Sambucus nigra Guincho Purple is good for shady areas and has attractive purple leaves, as well as flowers in early summer.
Thinking ahead to autumn, you could start letting flowers, and perhaps a few vegetables if you grow them, run to seed to provide food for birds and other wildlife.
Seedheads tend to look more attractive than bare earth in the winter.
Leave some windfall apples, pears and plums for birds to feed on.
Mowing your lawn less, and letting parts of it grow long, saves you time and helps give nature a home.
Create a mini jungle through which beetles and other small creatures can wander and where sparrows and goldfinches may come to feed on the seeds.
The grasses will set seed, wildflowers already in your lawn will grab their opportunity to bloom, and the longer stems will create a sheltered microclimate.
You can continue to give the mower a rest into autumn.
But cutting it at the end of summer mimics the hay meadows of olden days.
Give birds a safe and reliable way to find fresh water – essential in both cold and hot weather.
Watching your garden birds coming for a drink, or for a brush up can be quite a performance!
So sit back and watch them having a good, splashy bath – who needs TV?
You can make your birdbath at any time of year, but summer really is a critical time when water can be scarce for birds.
You’ll often see blackbirds and flocks of starlings taking a dip, while woodpigeons may just sit in the water to cool off.
Bathing helps birds keep their feathers in tip-top condition.