Tidying Up! & Wildlife Gardening Tips

 


Rosehips, apples... and lots of clearing up to do... views of mid-October! But before you have a total clear out of this hot dry summer’s growth, or remains of the lack of it, chill out with a cuppa and take a closer look at what may be going on behind the scenes.



Binoculars handy would take you right there... backstage!

And this doesn’t mean let the brambles and dead leaves take over! Moderation is usually the best answer, and a bit of compromise. In my low maintenance herbaceous border,


the old teasel heads amongst the purple Michaelmas Daisies will shelter tiny insects which are food for the Blue Tits and later in winter, the Goldfinches.

Behind the opening heads of pink autumnal Sedum there are the Peony’s shrivelling leaves streaked coppery and crimson. Rolled-over dead leaves harbour tiny insects, food for Blue Tits and ladybird pest controllers. It is an illustration of the old saying ‘one man’s meat, another man’s poison’. What might seem bad for garden appearance, tidiness and maintenance can be good for birds and insects... and ultimately for your garden by providing pest controllers benefitting your flowers and crops. The Dorothy Perkins ‘Excelsior’ rose on the trellis behind is greenfly free, thanks to the meticulous attentions of birds, spring and summer. The offspring of the bumble feeding on the self-seeded Evening Primrose


 may pollinate next year’s beans.


It has now become more mainstream to leave seedheads as architectural elements in a garden (e.g. Dan Pearson). Opium Poppy heads dry to quiet greens and beiges


, stand out dramatically in front of purplish-blue flowers clustering grey stems of Russian Sage. Seeds shake out with the wind, feed many, and self-plant for next year.

 - Behind the yellow Evening Primrose, seedheads have split and rotted making tiny insect shelters/bird foraging places. Incidentally, dry Poppy stems still rooted make useful props and stable impromptu stakes for nearby floppy stems – I use them to support the orange Pot Marigolds

.


Last week was a first for me... the significance of dried dead leaves was demonstrated by a Chiffchaff/ lookalike Willow Warbler - normally heard and not seen. It methodically foraged in full view in front of the window, concentrating on dead drooping leaves of Dogwood stems


 killed by the drought. Blue Tits were in there too... I realised these curling dried leaves were a treasure trove of insect food for them. And a few hours later I noticed tiny white insects, masses of them, caught in a nearby spider’s web – a feast indeed for spiders and small birds! As you can see in the photo

, amongst the crimson, green and yellows of turning leaves, a few dead leaf insect larders don’t look too intrusive.


Dogwoods are attractive, attract insects, and give shelter for a host of birds, including Long-tailed Tits and finches all year. Deep in this thicket of gold, green and bronze


 there is a nest box.


And that IS something which needs to be clean and pristine for winter! Now is the time to safely attend to your nest boxes. Remove old nesting material (and destroy any unhatched eggs), wash the box with boiling water to kill any parasites and leave it to dry. Later on, it could shelter up to 60 wrens (the record) on a cold winter’s night!


Tomorrow’s NATURE CHAIN EVENT!!






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