Turn your garden into a Winter wildlife refuge

From hibernating hedgehogs to famished finches, give favourite garden visitors food and shelter to help them survive the cold months – it’s surprisingly easy, says Val Bourne

- Val Bourne

AS we head towards winter, it’s tempting to put your garden to bed and make everything neat and tidy. But don’t be too hasty; remember that wildlife needs shelter and food to survive once cold weather descends, and by keeping a few wilder corners you can make all the difference. Longer grass, moss and fallen leaves all provide a warm winter duvet, whether for a hibernating ladybird, ground beetle or other insect, a small mammal like a shrew, or an amphibian in dormant mode. Leave leaf litter beneath hedges, beside buildings and in far corners, and collect fallen leaves from borders only where you really need to.

It’s not necessary to cut down every stem in autumn, either. There are lots of later-flowering herbaceous perennials with strong, woody stems topped with seeds; these will shelter all manner of small creatures, so your insect-eating wrens will always be able to find food when winter bites. Finches will pick through the seeds, too, while a well-stocked feeding station will satisfy even more bird species.

Water, which is always tricky in cold weather, is equally vital. Try to keep a birdbath free of ice, and scrape any snow off a patch of grass to help ground feeding robins, blackbirds, chaffinches and thrushes. My robins don’t seem interested in dried mealworms, but any old cheese, fruit cake, crinkled apples or suet are enthusiastically devoured.

The plants you grow can be a big help, too. Evergreens make perfect hibernation sites for some ladybirds, spiders and a host of others. Box and sarcococca are excellent low-mounding evergreens, while both untrimmed hollies and yew bear edible fruit as long as they’re not clipped. Holly berries are favourites, but rarely last beyond December, so supplement these with less-popular shrubs such as Cotoneaster lacteus or Pyracantha ‘Saphyr Rouge’.