With the colder months now closing in, many Brits are checking over their gardens and preparing for winter. One common task to complete in autumn is pruning and deadheading, but experts are urging gardeners to give it a rest this year.
If you want to encourage more wildlife such as robins into your garden, then leaving it alone could be the key. Garden wildlife expert, Lucy Taylor of Vine House Farm Bird Foods, has shared some of her top tips for increasing the bird visitors to your back garden – and this first one is extremely low effort.
She said: “Whilst you might want to trim longer stems off and those with dead flower heads during the autumn, leaving perennial plants in beds and pots to rot down naturally during the winter months has a great benefit to wildlife – and also helps enrich soil.
“The benefit to wildlife comes from the fact that the ground immediately below the rotting vegetation is at least partly protected from frost, with this allowing invertebrates such as insects to shelter or hibernate, which in turn become food for birds.
“Worms will also remain closer to the surface of the protected ground as they consume the rotting vegetation, which then also makes them food for birds, including robins and blackbirds.”
You can also give raking a break as well – welcome news for the lazier green thumbs. Raking can make your garden clean and tidy but it takes a lot of effort and also, according to Lucy, isn’t as good for wildlife.
She said: “In the same way that invertebrates use the dead foliage of the perennial plants for protection and food, the same is true for leaves.
“So create piles of leaves in the corners of your garden, spread them onto borders, or, with the exceptions of paths and patios, just let them remain where they’ve fallen.”