Nov 14, 2022
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How your garden can help wildlife this winter
With the colder months just around the corner, find out what you can do in your garden to help wildlife. With some garden inspiration from our past Shows, you’re sure to have plenty of ideas for your plot.
We’d like to thanks our friends at BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine for help with the useful tips and advice below!
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Habitat piles
Use logs, twigs, pots, leaves and other garden debris to create a habitat pile for wildlife looking for somewhere to bed down for the winter. Choose somewhere out of the way that will be undisturbed. Dry areas make great places for insects and mammals, while damp areas will attract amphibians.
Time to put away the bee hotel
If you put up a bee hotel in the spring or summer, make sure to take it down in the winter months and pop it in a shed or dry place, to avoid damp conditions which could put any bees nesting inside at risk of fungal infections. Don’t bring your bee hotel into the house as the warmth may wake up your nesting bees early! You can put the bee hotel back up in March when the weather is warmer.
Mulch, mulch, mulch!
Here at BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair, we love a Beautiful Border. Make sure to mulch your borders – collect leaves each autumn to use as mulch the following year. This replicates the natural cycles of a woodland floor, increases worm activity in the soil, and provides shelter for centipedes and beetles.
Help the birds
As well as stocking up bird feeders with fat balls, peanuts, seeds and more, you could also try making your own helpful nesting supply. Using a bird feeder, stuff nesting wool, cones, twigs, leaves, grass clippings, straw, moss and more.
Create your own water feature
Having a source of water in the garden is a great way to encourage all sorts of wildlife to your garden, throughout the year. You can find out how to create your own naturalistic pond here. Or, why not try creating a smaller water feature, using a large ceramic bowl or perhaps an upcycled basin to create a small area for wildlife to flourish, or for birds to bathe.
Feeling inspired? Explore the gallery below where we’ve put together a collection of wildlife friendly garden inspiration from our past Beautiful Borders and Show Gardens from the shows…
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Delve into garden inspiration and see what was at the Autumn Fair
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