PREPARING THE GARDEN FOR WINTER

So the mild November is continuing and the wildlife in and around my garden is continuing to make the most of the conditions.

The peanut and fat snack bird feeders in my garden are not being emptied as often as when they are during harsh winter conditions, so I can only assume that there is still natural food around.

It has been wet and windy this week and I’m wondering if any winter visitors will be making a trip to my part of the country.

I’d love to see a redwing, but there are not enough trees or bushes providing berries within a short distance of my house.

I’m trying to grow a couple of winter berry bushes in my garden, but they are still young and may never provide a quantity of food even when fully grown, well as fully grown as I want them to be!

Yesterday I prepared the borders for winter and tidied the garden in general. The lawn was raked, all the dead summer border plants cut short and the leaves that covered the lawn, along with raked grass, coated on the borders.

I’ve done this to provide shelter for insects during winter, give the soil protection during heavy frosts and provide the soil with natural nutrients that worms will eventually ‘feed’ into the soil.

 

This process is something I’ve done for a few years now and it seems to help provide a great base for flowering plants. In spring I plan to add something new to the mix, some horse manure from the stables behind our house.

It was just done in time as we had the first frost of the winter last night.

 

There was great excitement in the house this week after the chattering of one of my favourite family birds, the long tailed tit, was heard.

I listened to the group chirp away before I saw them dancing from branch to branch among the nearest trees. They didn’t visit any of my feeders so this seems to back up the theory I mentioned earlier as I can only presume they’re not going hungry because there is enough natural food.

One other thing I’ve noticed during this heavy rain is the amount of earthworms that have been above ground. I know this is normal but I’ve seen plenty on pavements and hard surfaces, suggesting that the ground is too saturated for them, even on the top layers.

What will this mean for the benefits we get from worms by aerating the soil, thus helping water drain through? Perhaps this is only the beginning of a new natural process, but if the rain starts to recede maybe worms can find their home will be habitable again and the status quo will exist again.