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As the air cools and nights lengthen, gardens can provide vital support for a host of animals. Our top November wildlife gardening jobs will help you create a heaven for the harsher months ahead.
Over winter, garden feeders and nesting boxes offer a lifeline for wildlife such as toads, voles and small birds. Wrens, for example, can lose up to 10% of their body weight during cold nights. Providing refuge helps them roost communally and conserve heat.
November is the perfect month to clean your feeders, tables and boxes. Be sure to keep feeders stocked with fat-rich foods for then throughout winter, such as:
Oily seeds
Peanuts
Suet balls
Fruit
Plus clean water – place a small plastic ball on the surface, as movement in the wind prevents freezing
Resist the temptation to cut back mature ivy until March. Throughout winter, it provides berries, valuable shelter and foraging habitat for insect-eating birds. The flowers also offer nectar and pollen for late-flying insects.
If you peer in closely, you may even find a brimstone butterfly taking shelter amongst ivy’s dense, evergreen foliage.
Left on the plant, many seed heads will support wildlife through winter. Herbaceous seed heads provide snacks and perches for small birds, such as sparrows and tits.
Want more goldfinches in your garden? Try attracting them with teasel seed heads. Their thin beaks are perfect for tweezering the tiny seeds from between the spikes.
Our favourite seed heads to leave over winter include:
Rudbeckia
Sedum
Love-in-a-mist
Echinacea
Alliums
Hydrangea
Turn your garden waste into a welcoming wood stack, with plenty of nooks and crannies for your wild visitors to nestle into. Place four posts in a rectangle, then fill the space with logs, twigs and fallen leaves. We suggest placing heavier wood at the bottom, followed by lighter clippings and foliage at the top.
Prepare for brighter days with a carpet of pollinator-friendly crocuses. These colourful springtime flowers provide a much-needed boost for insects emerging from hibernation.
Plant your corms at a depth around two times their size. We recommend planting them at the front of a border, in pots or in grass. They grow best in full sun, in moist but well-drained soil.
