Your monthly guide on how to encourage wildlife into your garden all year round.
WILD BIRDS & MAMMALS
Leave seedheads standing rather than cutting them back to provide food and shelter for wildlife. You can also create leaf piles for ground feeding birds over winter in the UK. Don’t forget to keep bird tables topped up over winter for birds too!
The time for hibernating is arriving soon for Hedgehogs, so make sure that your Hedgehog’s houses are out by the end of the month with plenty of food for the winter months. Don’t forget to feed the squirrels too! This will build up their winter reserves. Bats are building up their bodies for winter by feasting on as many moths and bugs as possible.
INSECTS
You can plant bulbs in your gardens to help encourage and provide nectar for early foraging pollinators.
Ladybirds, Wood Wasps and Butterflies like to stay in peacock seek boxes, sheds or crannies so they’re kept safe during the cold winter months and will remain there until spring.
BEES
Leave mature Ivy uncut in your garden at this time of year as it is an excellent source of nectar for Bees and other pollinators. Sedums and Asters are great garden plants for providing pollen and nectar during this month. If you want to help encourage Bees in your garden and care for them you can begin to provide them with a supply of Bee food. This will top up Bee energy reserves.
