Autumn at the garden of St Giles House
If you want to help wildlife in your garden this winter – and really, why wouldn’t you want to attract birds and bees into your garden at a time when they need help the most – there are plenty of simple steps you can take that are neither expensive nor require a complete redesign.
In fact gardening for wildlife is more sustainable — and more fun — when done resourcefully, you can use entirely found materials to create habitats and construct everything from bird boxes to bug hotels from things you can find lying around your house and garden. A winning weekend activity if you’re a nature nerd and even more so if you have little ones to help you.
I sat down with the incredible naturalist and conservationist Lucy Hobson, who’s known as Lucy Lapwing (@lucy_lapwing) to her many Instagram followers, to find out how to make your garden more hospitable to all creatures great and small over the next few months. And if you want a fun, expert and accessible resource for learning about wildlife in the UK, Lucy’s instagram is a must-follow!
When it comes to wildlife using your garden, you’re only really limited by space and location – as well as your definition of ‘wildlife’. Birds are an obvious group of animals you can encourage and support with your garden, but there’s lots of other wildlife you can help that you might otherwise overlook.
Invertebrates – beetles, butterflies, moths, hoverflies and bees – all need somewhere to hibernate in winter. Some hibernate as adults, some as larvae (i.e. caterpillars) and some as eggs. By creating a complex and varied structure in your garden, you’re creating lots of opportunity for things to tuck away in the winter. Then there’s the wildlife we don’t really
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