Winter is a hard time for us as humans – but as we have the luxuries of warm outerwear like these cosy Womens Aran Sweaters https://www.shamrockgift.com/aran-sweaters/womens-aran-sweaters and of course our warm homes, the wildlife doesn’t have this.
There are many animals in the UK that are struggling to survive, so helping them over the winter months is a great thing to do. By adding a few things to the garden, you can create a winter wonderland for the wildlife to seek refuge from the bad weather, as well as a food source when it is so hard to find at this time of the year.
If you are looking for things that you can do in the garden that will help a wide range of different creatures here are a few ideas to get you started. You might even get to spot some of these creatures in the garden…
Places to Shelter
Put up nesting boxes in the garden for birds. Although they won’t be in use until the spring, doing this now means that they can be in place ready for the birds to find as soon as they start looking and gathering materials for their nests – if you put them up in the spring you may well miss the boat!
If you have bird nesting boxes in the garden already, now is the time to take them down and clean them out. Don’t use anything that will be toxic to the birds to clean them, just a good wash with hot water will suffice.
As well as birds, you can also provide homes for other animals too – bat boxes as well as frog, bee and bug houses are also things that you can put out in the garden to provide a winter home for animals to shelter in.
You could also sweep those garden leaves up into piles to make a perfect natural shelter for hedgehogs to enjoy, safely through the winter.
Providing Food
Providing food for the birds over the winter is a great thing to do as this is a time when food for them is very scarce. Many of the native garden birds in the UK have seen a decline in their numbers so doing something like this will certainly help them. It is also such a lovely thing to watch on a winter’s morning. Setting up a feeding station for birds is easy – the main rule is to make sure it is safe from local cats and foxes so make it high up.
Provide the birds with an assortment of foods and feeders, as different birds will eat differently. You can try sprinkling seed on the top of the table, putting nuts in cage feeders and dangling fat balls on strings from the table. Birds also enjoy foods like coconuts and bacon fat, so don’t let these things go to waste!