Maintaining YOUR GARDEN
Patience and some judicious upkeep will help your new nature patch develop over the years
OK, you’ve followed the advice we’ve offered so far. You’ve identified which of your garden bird species are in most need of help, and created sources of food and water for them, whether natural or manmade. You’ve provided them with nest sites, and planted the right vegetation that will give them habitat to eat and roost in.
But that’s just the start. If your garden is to continue to be a haven for wildlife, it’s going to need to be maintained, carefully.
Don’t worry! That maintenance still generally amounts to a lot less work than you’d be putting in on a perfectly manicured (but largely wildlife-free) garden. One of the great things about rewilding is that large parts of it involve letting nature take its course.
But, here are just a few of the things you need to bear in mind…
1 Hygiene
Most of us put out bird feeders and food of some sort, but not enough of us make sure that they don’t act as a source for disease.
In recent years, it’s become clear that the alarming declines of some garden birds, most notably Greenfinch and Chaffinch (as we saw earlier), is down to the spread of the disease trichomonosis, but keeping your feeders and water sources clean could make a huge difference towards reversing these declines.
Finches Friend has led the way in tackling the problem in recent years, developing a range of feeders that are designed with the birds’ welfare in mind. They eliminate ‘traps’ where food, dirt, and thus disease, can build up, they keep water out, and are very easy to take apart and clean.
Keep an eye on the Bird Watching members’ website and app for details of how you can help stop the spread of disease, and for advice on feeder hygiene, plus information on the full range of easy-to-clean feeders, is available at: www.finchesfriend.com
2 Timing is everything
Autumn is the best time to do as much of your maintenance as possible. Clean out nestboxes using a wire brush and a solution of warm, soapy water, and replace them (or move them, if they’ve been consistently unsuccessful). Some species, such as Great and Blue Tits, start prospecting for nest sites for next spring very early in the autumn, so the sooner you get this done the better.
It's also a good time to cut back vegetation
where necessary (but remember, if you’re rewilding, you want to keep this to a minimum), rather than in early spring when birds will be already building nests.
3 Don’t destroy your waste
While you’re tidying up, try to use as much of your garden waste as you can, to create log and brush piles, homemade insect ‘hotels’, and the like – even when this doesn’t directly benefit birds, it creates habitat for insects and invertebrates, as well as areas for the likes of Hedgehogs to use for hibernating. Remember that leaf litter is good for invertebrates, and thus forms a good feeding area for the likes of Blackbirds, while windfall fruit is best left to lie, as it similarly forms a good food source for thrushes of all kinds.
4 Let happy accidents happen
You will want to do a certain amount of weeding, around areas that you have planted, but keep it to a minimum, and remember that if you’re planning on going down the rewilding path, part of the joy of it is just seeing what turns up. Some plants, including wildflowers and weeds, will self-seed, but these can be just the things you need to bring new species into your garden.
5 Unwanted visitors
Grey Squirrels probably figure highest on this list. While many of us like to see them, they’re not a native species, and more importantly they can play havoc at feeders, taking food that was intended for the birds.
The good news is there are all sorts of squirrel-proof feeders out there. One option, if you’re concerned about the squirrels getting enough to eat, is to leave one normal feeder up that they can use, but you should be able to squirrel-proof as much as you need.
Cats and Foxes are also potential threats, or at least deterrents, to your garden birds, but you can get ultrasonic, non-harmful deterrents that should keep these animals out of your garden, or at least away from feeding and nesting areas. You can read more about them at: www.conceptresearch.co.uk
6 Keep trying
If you don’t get immediate results, don’t worry. Sometimes you might need to plant an area more than once before your chosen vegetation ‘takes’. Only if you repeatedly experience failure should you look at planting an alternative.
The same goes for all aspects of wildlife gardening. You can move nestboxes around each year until they get used, and you should move your feeders on a regular basis anyway. And, if the food you’re putting out doesn’t get a good response from local birds, keep experimenting until you find something that does.