Wildlife edition

How wonderful it was to have such warm weather right up to mid-October. Many gardens were still showing signs of summer until then and it has given us plenty of time to prepare for winter. Now we can watch and admire as autumn tints have appeared on many trees and shrubs before their inevitable fall. It’s a particularly colourful time for a woodland walk on a sunny day.

Thoughts now turn to the colder months – how can we help to protect and encourage wildlife? The Woodland Trust gives wonderfully simple but effective seasonal advice on its website. Just a selection:

• Build a log pile lodge for beetles and centipedes; a bug hotel of bamboo canes and leaves for bees, woodlice and spiders; a twig tower block for lacewings and even a pine cone palace for ladybirds !
• Help hedgehogs to prepare for hibernation with a hedgehog house or by leaving a pile of twigs and leaves in a quiet corner.
• Leave seedheads as an enticing snack for birds during the winter – they will also give structure to a winter border.
• Clean and top up feeders and bird baths.
• Ivy! It flowers into late autumn and seems to have been especially productive this year for late-flying insects. The berries will be appreciated later by a selection of birds.

There are plenty of other tasks to keep us gardening for a few more weeks:

• Remove shading from greenhouses and replace with bubblewrap; disinfect staging and pots.
• Bring tender plants inside or wrap them in fleece.
• Divide overgrown herbaceous perennials to replant in new areas.
• Mulch borders – leaf mulch from previous years is ideal.
• Sow green manure in vegetable beds to dig in later for improving the soil for next year. 2024 will come soon enough!

David Hogg Buckland Nurseries