Supporting wildlife in the winter garden
Berries, hips and even lawns all do their bit for our wildlife. Hannah Stephenson reports on which plants will help attract wildlife to your garden in the winter months.
As autumn creeps into winter, you’ll likely start seeing less wildlife activity in your garden – but it’s a time when many visitors, including birds, small mammals and some insects, need us most.
“Plants are the bedrock of a wildlife-friendly garden, and that includes throughout the winter, despite many being reduced to their skeleton,” says Adrian Thomas, gardening expert at the RSPB (rspb.org.uk).
“There are two key benefits that plants offer: cover and food. Getting through the long, cold nights is challenging for garden birds, so plants that offer dense safe cover will allow them to snooze safely out of the elements, saving valuable energy. Evergreens such as holly and ivy are ideal,” said Thomas.
When it comes to plants providing food, he adds: “An easy starting point are the plants that offer food that we can easily see, such as berries and winter flowers.
Garden trees that will often hang on to their fruits well into winter include various rowans, such as Sorbus vilmorinii and ornamental crab apples, while ivy berries continue to ripen sequentially through winter and are rich in fat.
“In terms of winter nectar and pollen for insects such as bumblebees that may be on the wing in warm winter spells, winter honeysuckle, winterflowering cherry and mahonia are good choices,” Thomas continues.
“And you’d be amazed what titbits birds will continue to find in deciduous hedges and trees, so try to delay hedge cutting and tree pruning until the tail end of winter.”
Wildlife-friendly plants Make sure you plant species where the berries should last beyond Christmas, such as skimmia and guelder rose (Viburnum opulus). Fieldfares and other birds may visit gardens to feed on windfall apples when it’s really cold.
While ivy remains the bane of some gardeners’ lives, its berries are a valuable source of nutrition for birds in late winter and early spring, when food is scarce.
Adult red admiral butterflies feed on nectar-rich plants such as Verbena bonariensis, which is still visibly in flower in many gardens at this time of year, while the caterpillars eat leaves of the common nettle.
Native plants including crab apple, elder and birch also create natural food supplies for birds over the winter, the RSPB suggests.
Bulbs
There’s still time to plant late winter and early springflowering bulbs including snowdrops and crocuses, which may prove a magnet for any bees venturing out during late winter sunshine. Other small bulbs which are tempting for wildlife include scilla and chionodoxa.
In pots
If you have a small garden, pollinating insects will head hungrily to your nectar-rich container plants in late winter and early spring. The nodding heads of hellebores, which appear at that time, not only provide a subtle hue to any arrangement, but are also a good food source for emerging queen bumblebees.
Winter-flowering heathers such as Erica carnea ‘Winter Snow’ are among the hardiest of dwarf evergreen shrubs and are ideal for brightening up winter containers, as well as being a magnet for early-flying bumblebees.
Hedging
Hedges make great shelter and provide food for birds, and now is a great time to plant species such as yew and hawthorn, before the ground gets too hard. You’ll save money by opting for bare-rooted hedging or rootballed trees and shrubs.
Lawns
You may think they’ve gone out of fashion, but in late autumn and early winter, lawns can be invaluable to blackbirds and song thrushes, who venture on to your grass in search of leatherjackets (the larvae of craneflies), earth worms and fallen fruit, the RSPB adds.
Longer grass provides shelter and egg-laying opportunities for the insects on which birds and other wildlife feed.
Consider leaving the dandelions in your lawn, which provide nectar and pollen in late winter and early spring, when queen bumblebees are coming out of hibernation.
Longer grass provides shelter and egg-laying opportunities for the insects on which birds and wildlife feed.
Consider leaving the dandelions in your lawn, which provide nectar and pollen in late winter and early spring, when queen bumblebees are coming out of hibernation.
Think about the future Looking ahead, shrubs like honeysuckle, lavender and ivy can all be planted in autumn and are ideal for providing food and coverage, according to specialists The Greenhouse People (greenhousepeople.co.uk)