Winter is well underway, and it is just as essential or encouraging wildlife as any other time of the year. While you won’t see much flourishing activity as is the case in spring and summer, your garden is alive with bugs and small creatures. So rather than leave your outdoor space to fester until warmer weather, try these tips for helping out your garden wildlife this winter.
Tree Roots and Branches
Deciduous trees and bushes shed their leaves each year. When autumn arrives, it’s a warming feeling, and the leaves turn brown. But eventually, they fall, exposing branches and covering tree roots. You can hire professionals like Benton Tree Service to prune your trees and dispose of debris. However, you can also use leaves and branches around the tree roots in your garden. You can provide a safe home for smaller creatures if you spread dead leaves over your roots. Hedgehogs, frogs, and other invertebrates thrive in damp and darkened caverns. The leaves will eventually decompose into a rich and nutritious mulch for any plants as spring approaches.
Provide Pond Shelter
Frogs, among other creatures, also love to bathe, swim and breed in ponds. But they aren’t always the safest place for them. Yet you can make a safe space by providing shelter so they can safely live out the winter. Roofing tiles and shingles are excellent for this. By placing them in, around, and getting out of your pond, all the nooks and crannies make an ideal home for amphibians like frogs and newts. However, be sure to check your pond regularly to not freeze over completely. If this happens, marine creatures may not breathe.
Clear Your Pond
Winter is a great time to clear out your pond since this time of year is when animal activity is lowest. In winter, a clean pond gets it ready to accept a new life as spring approaches. However, many forms of life will call your pond plants and debris home. So, carefully remove anything from your pond and scatter any organic matter around the pond area. Scattering like this gives any snails, frogs, newts, and dragonflies the chance to recover and find somewhere to nest in the familiar plants. You could also check for any trapped animals and move them on or rescue them if you can.
Leave Hedge Pruning as Long as Possible
It’s tempting to get out there and tidy up an unkempt hedge, but this could be disastrous for any wildlife living inside it. Additionally, you will attract more wildlife such as hedgehogs and small winter birds if you leave the hedges untrimmed until spring. Leaving the pruning for a little while longer gives the birds more time to gorge on the berry-based diet they need. Further, wall-crawling plants provide an ideal home for insects and bugs that like to nest in smaller gaps. And in turn, this provides a rich feeding ground for bug-eating birds.
Encourage Bug Life with Dry Stems
You can further encourage bug and insect activity with dried stems. Bugs and insects will be attracted to any dried stems you leave standing where they are. The gaps between limbs and around the vicinity are ideal for insect nesting. Spiders particularly love these kinds of areas, and winter webs covered in frost fall allow you to see the astonishing patterns created. When you come to trim stems in spring, place them in stacks, so any residents have the time to come out from inside and make a new home for themselves elsewhere.
Winter is well underway, and it is just as essential or encouraging wildlife as any other time of the year. While you won’t see much flourishing activity as is the case in spring and summer, your garden is alive with bugs and small creatures. So rather than leave your outdoor space to fester until warmer weather, try these tips for helping out your garden wildlife this winter.
Tree Roots and Branches
Deciduous trees and bushes shed their leaves each year. When autumn arrives, it’s a warming feeling, and the leaves turn brown. But eventually, they fall, exposing branches and covering tree roots. You can hire professionals like Benton Tree Service to prune your trees and dispose of debris. However, you can also use leaves and branches around the tree roots in your garden. You can provide a safe home for smaller creatures if you spread dead leaves over your roots. Hedgehogs, frogs, and other invertebrates thrive in damp and darkened caverns. The leaves will eventually decompose into a rich and nutritious mulch for any plants as spring approaches.
Provide Pond Shelter
Frogs, among other creatures, also love to bathe, swim and breed in ponds. But they aren’t always the safest place for them. Yet you can make a safe space by providing shelter so they can safely live out the winter. Roofing tiles and shingles are excellent for this. By placing them in, around, and getting out of your pond, all the nooks and crannies make an ideal home for amphibians like frogs and newts. However, be sure to check your pond regularly to not freeze over completely. If this happens, marine creatures may not breathe.
Clear Your Pond
Winter is a great time to clear out your pond since this time of year is when animal activity is lowest. In winter, a clean pond gets it ready to accept a new life as spring approaches. However, many forms of life will call your pond plants and debris home. So, carefully remove anything from your pond and scatter any organic matter around the pond area. Scattering like this gives any snails, frogs, newts, and dragonflies the chance to recover and find somewhere to nest in the familiar plants. You could also check for any trapped animals and move them on or rescue them if you can.
Leave Hedge Pruning as Long as Possible
It’s tempting to get out there and tidy up an unkempt hedge, but this could be disastrous for any wildlife living inside it. Additionally, you will attract more wildlife such as hedgehogs and small winter birds if you leave the hedges untrimmed until spring. Leaving the pruning for a little while longer gives the birds more time to gorge on the berry-based diet they need. Further, wall-crawling plants provide an ideal home for insects and bugs that like to nest in smaller gaps. And in turn, this provides a rich feeding ground for bug-eating birds.
Encourage Bug Life with Dry Stems
You can further encourage bug and insect activity with dried stems. Bugs and insects will be attracted to any dried stems you leave standing where they are. The gaps between limbs and around the vicinity are ideal for insect nesting. Spiders particularly love these kinds of areas, and winter webs covered in frost fall allow you to see the astonishing patterns created. When you come to trim stems in spring, place them in stacks, so any residents have the time to come out from inside and make a new home for themselves elsewhere.
