Don’t tidy your garden

It’s nearly the end of summer, many of the blooms have finished and the garden is starting to look a little messy. The temptation is there to whip out the snippers and trim back all the dead flowers and brown stems, but don’t, messy is good. If you’ve grown wildflowers or poppies for instance then you need to let them set seed and for that seed to fall on the ground for next year’s flowers. Many other plants have seeds that birds need for food and by removing the seed heads you’re taking away a valuable food source.

The stems and stalks of plants are also much needed habitat for a range of insects and our insects need all the help they can get right now. As the leaves fall and the herbaceous plants start to decay you get a natural covering of organic matter on the soil, this helps protect it from winter rains that would otherwise leach nutrients away and the leaves are also taken into the ground by earthworms so you get the soil improved for free. This surface material also provides another habitat for a range of small animals and you’ll see blackbirds in particular flinging it around with gusto as they search for food.

For us humans the urge to tidy things is a strong one and for years the gardening message has been to have an autumn tidy up and “put the garden to bed for the winter”. Nature however isn’t tidy and we need to learn what is best for our wildlife, so as the beauty of our summer flowers fades away we can appreciate a new beauty, that of birds and other animals feeding on the summer bounty. So save yourself a job, leave the decaying plants where they are and clear away what remains of them in spring, once the new growth is just starting to appear, your garden will be much better for it.

Creating wildlife habitat in your garden

Late winter is an opportunity to get out in the garden (when it’s not raining) and do some pruning of trees, before the sap starts to rise in spring. But what to do with the woody waste you’ve now made? It can be tempting to take it to the tip or throw it in your garden waste bin but don’t, it can be used in the garden.

Chop or saw them into short lengths and find a quiet corner of the garden, perhaps one that is in shade and nothing really grows in. Then stack them into a pile and leave them, it’s as simple as that. You now have a habitat that will be colonised by frogs, newts, bees, spiders, countless insects and moss and fungi.

Any time something leaves your house or garden it requires fossil fuel to be dealt with or processed, keeping it in the garden avoids the use of fossil fuels and creates much needed habitat at the same time.