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As
winter approaches do you look forward to the first glimpse of a brimstone
butterfly or anticipate the friendly drone of a queen bumblebee in the
spring? If you do, and which gardener doesn’t, then this is the time to
make sure that the insects and other invertebrates that have chosen to
reside in your garden have somewhere safe to spend the winter. Many of
the smaller garden creepy crawlies don’t make it through the colder
weather, indeed many invertebrates have life cycles that mean the majority
of that particular species are not designed to see another spring. Honey
bee numbers in a hive for example, reduce naturally to a small nucleus of
individuals; enough bees to begin a new colony in the spring, but a small
enough number to survive on existing honey supplies until nectar and
pollen are available again. Many caterpillars and moths spend the winter
as pupae in a protective cocoon or hard shelled chrysalis, and other
insects reduce their bodily functions to a basic minimum level and
hibernate the winter cold away. The winter months can be difficult for
all our native wildlife but there are many positive steps we can, and
should, take as gardeners to ensure we start the new growing year with a
good complement of useful, beneficial creatures around us. |
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Anyone
who has ever placed a garden cane in the ground knows that insects are ready
and willing to find their own shelter. If in late summer you stake dahlias
or gladioli as I sometimes do you, will do doubt know how readily earwigs
find their way into the naturally hollow centres of bamboo canes. An
overturned stone may reveal a clutch of wood lice or a stack of clay pots
contain snails tucked up ready for the winter. Some of these creatures
gardeners may feel better off without, but these winter hiding places can
give us a clue as to the kind of shelter smaller creatures need to survive
harsh weather. Ready made insect shelters are now available in just about
every mail order catalogue, whether it specialises in gardening products or
not. While these can be fun for children learning about the natural world,
by and large they are an unnecessary expense for the wildlife gardener. It
is easy to make your own bee and ladybird shelters, and others – butterfly
homes for example – simply don’t work and are a waste of money. Perhaps
more importantly, we should be conscious of the natural places around our
gardens and allotments which these creatures may use for hibernation, make
sure there are plenty of these nooks and crannies and most important of all,
ensure that they are left completely undisturbed. |
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Razing
borders to the ground in the autumn to ‘tidy them up’ has happily become a
thing of the past in most gardens. The idea that we leave all seed heads
and other vegetation standing through the winter is, I suspect, something
of a fashion statement amongst celebrity gardeners but to the rest of us
it makes perfect sense - there is no doubt that it creates areas of great
benefit to wildlife. Cutting back herbaceous borders in autumn may make
for a neat garden through the winter, but in doing so you are destroying
lots of sheltered sites for all sorts of invertebrates as well as the
occasional hedgehog. Seed pods of many cottage garden plants and
wildflowers will house ladybirds and other small beetles, as well as
providing plenty of interest in the frosty winter garden. Hollow stalks
are also a brilliant refuge for hibernating invertebrates, and plenty of
plants have these natural cavities within their stems. Leaving them all
standing will shelter many creatures which in turn may feed others. If
small spiders or over wintering aphids have made their winter home here,
blue tits, great tits, wrens and robins will seek them out at a time when
natural food is scarce. Leaving winter stems generally means that the
soil is also left alone, not turned over in the traditional way. Pull out
the odd weed by all means but beneath the soil surface many soil dwellers
find protection. However if you are plagued with small slugs,
leatherjackets or wireworms, you may prefer to expose these in the
vegetable garden to your local robins and blackbirds although it may mean
the sacrifice of more friendly and useful creatures. |
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If you have long grass
with wild flowers in your garden you hopefully found time to cut it in
September, or October is not too late as long as the month is not very
wet. Neglecting these ‘haymaking’ tasks in autumn means that over time
the quality of your meadow will decrease and a once floriferous area can
become a sea of grass, which is a less useful wildlife habitat at all
times of year. But whatever type of garden you have, by leaving at least
some long grass standing through the winter you will ensure that the
diversity of invertebrates in your plot is maintained and even increased.
These winter grassy places (similar to ‘beetle banks’ left in arable areas
by farmers) do exactly what the name implies – protect beetles and other
insects. It is possible for an area such as this to include flowers as
long as it is cut without fail in the spring. More robust meadow plants,
including knapweed, meadowsweet, field scabious, meadow cranesbill and
wild marjoram, will survive this neglect as long as a spring cut and rake
is performed. Cutting in late March or April means that the large numbers
of creatures that have over wintered in your beetle bank, (including voles
and slug-eating shrews) will be able to avoid your activity, or if left in
the cuttings will have time to find alternative shelter before you return
to remove the hay. |
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Log piles are renowned for
their ability to shelter wildlife of all types, shapes and sizes. Piles of
rotting logs provide a home throughout the year for an almost endless list
of creatures including wood boring beetles and their larvae, woodlice,
spiders and worms, as well as animals higher up the food chain especially
newts, toads and slow worms. This is a really important habitat in the
winter providing a cool, damp but sheltered environment where many
invertebrates can hibernate. Again the key to maintaining this as shelter
is leaving everything alone except to perhaps add more logs gently to the
pile as older ones decay and break down. Animals will naturally take
shelter in a wood pile waiting for the wood burner or fireplace, but this
drier habitat is more likely to attract larger insects, for example
butterflies and mason bees. These insects hibernate in a variety of ways
depending upon the species. Brimstone, small tortoiseshell, comma and
peacock butterflies survive the winter as adult insects, tucked away in wood
stores, dried leaves, cracks in fencing and bark or in the dark corner of a
garden shed or garage. Surviving a long cold winter in this way explains
why we see such sad tattered specimens in the spring. Other butterfly
species may spend the cold months as a tiny caterpillar (common blue) or a
pupa (orange tip) so these creatures are especially vulnerable in the next
few months. Access to frost free places including the garden shed is
essential for them. Mason bees over winter as tiny pupae sealed within
holes on logs, canes, hollow stems or ready made bee homes and bumblebee
queens sleep the winter away in hollow chambers underground. |
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Of
course as well as having plenty of natural shelter around for butterflies,
bees, ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies, you can make your own natural
shelters in true Blue Peter style (no sticky-back plastic required!).
Short sections of bamboo canes, hollow plant stems and twigs can be tied
into bundles and pushed into hedge bottoms, forks of trees, logpiles and
dry corners of a shed to accommodate ladybirds and lacewings. You could
make sure that bird nest boxes have dry bundles of grass or wood shavings
in them – these will not only habour insects but may be used by roosting
wrens or tits. Mostly though, leave your garden alone as much as possible
– slightly dishevelled, a little overgrown and undisturbed - to allow
these useful creatures, upon which most of your more conspicuous garden
wildlife depends for food, to spend the winter as nature intended, deep in
the leaf litter, tufts of grass and thick herbaceous vegetation until
spring awakens that brimstone or queen bumblebee to bring you joy next
year. |
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© Text and
photographs Jenny Steel 2009
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