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JANUARY

January can be a month of great contrasts:  a bleak time when low, grey cloud dominates our skies and the countryside seems damp and drear, or invigorating with bright, cold, frosty weather with clear pale blue above.  If it’s the former I expect gales from the west and peg down anything that might be blown away in my hillside garden, including plants in pots!  On the plus side January brings signs of life – great tits start to sing their territorial ‘teacher, teacher’ calls, daffodil leaves poke through the sometimes frozen soil and the first virginal snowdrops open their drooping petals at the month’s end.  The birds around the borders at the start of the new year are foraging for whatever food they can find, but most mammals and insects are sitting tight in protected places, waiting for a clear bright day and dash of warmth from the sun before leaving their shelter.  Even hedgehogs will come out of hibernation briefly on a sunny January day, to find food and water.  They soon return to their leafy nests.  If we have snow there is little the gardener can do outside apart from dash out to shake it from branches to prevent them breaking from the extra weight.  However a sprinkling of snow does give me the opportunity to look at tracks made by mammals and birds around the garden and occasionally a life and death story is there to be unravelled.  Rabbits, foxes, badgers, pheasants and thrushes can all be easily recognised by the tracks they leave.  January in my garden doesn’t pass by without a brief nod to traditions of the past.  Wassailing, from the Anglo Saxon words for good health, was traditionally performed on January 17th and apples trees in particular were singled out for special treatment.  My newly planted orchard of 40 apple varieties needs all the help it can get in this windy spot so a toast to the trees in the form of warm spiced cider seems in order.  Fruit trees are great for wildlife and vice versa, bringing a wide range of birds, small mammals and insects to their fruit, flowers and leaves.  As the month progresses I watch out for ‘charms’ of goldfinches on my teasels, flocks of long tailed tits in the hedgerows, and thrushes and blackbirds where berries still remain on rowan, hawthorn or holly.

What to do in January 

• Several types of shrub, especially native ones, can be cut to the ground this month.  This form of management, known as coppicing, keeps shrubs such as willow, hazel, dogwood and wild roses within bounds and rejuvenates them, plus the clippings can be used as hardwood cuttings.

• Ensure your garden birds have plenty of food and water at all times.  Staying well fed during the winter months not only ensures survival but also results in better breeding success in the spring.

• Melt solid ice on ponds if it lasts for two days or more.  This is best done by holding a small metal saucepan of very hot water on the surface until a hole appears.

• Continue to turn over soil in vegetable patches if the weather is mild and have fun ordering your veggies seeds so you are ready for the spring.

January Project - Create a twig pile

Winter pruning of shrubs and hedges can leave us with a dilemma.   Most of us don’t possess a (noisy) shredder so what to do with the clippings?  It is all too tempting to have a bonfire with these shoots but most environmentally friendly gardeners prefer to maintain smoke free surroundings.  Thin twigs will break down in the compost heap over time – indeed their presence helps to get air into the heap and discourage a build up of sludge from wet grass clippings - but stems of a thicker diameter can be put to good use if used to create a wildlife habitat.  We are all familiar with the log pile which is a brilliant hiding place for many animals in our gardens.  Log piles provide shelter for hibernating wildlife as well as a food source for many invertebrates, especially beetles and their larvae.  Twig piles however can also be great wildlife habitats.  Prunings can be pushed under shrubs or hedges where they are out of the way and they break down slowly over time.  These habitats, like log piles, provide shelter for wildlife but also create great nesting places for birds including robins, wrens, blackbirds and other species that sometimes nest low down.  If your clippings include hawthorn, pyracantha or other prickly species, so much the better.  These will provide even more protection for your garden birds.

DECEMBER

A heavy frost at this time can transform the garden and our countryside.  Hoar frosts coat stems, seed heads and branches with a thick rime of crystals producing a photo opportunity not to be missed.  December is inevitably associated in our minds with Christmas, but the observant gardener celebrates another day this month – the winter solstice on the 21st.  It is a day in the gardening (and wildlife) calendar that is probably more significant than any other as it is around this time that song thrushes start to sing, bulbs begin push their new green leaves through the soil and there may even be the occasional great tit investigating the nest boxes in my garden.  It all means that spring (even if it is only in terms of activity and not weather!) is just around the corner.  No sooner have we accepted that winter is upon us than signs of spring appear.  Each new event this month is a reminder that the natural world changes as the days begin, even imperceptibly, to lengthen and we can look forward to the garden bursting into life again.  The hedgerows around my garden may be bare of leaves but they are full of small birds this month, searching for the insects that hibernate amongst the twigs.  Thrushes and blackbirds may be feeding on the holly and hawthorn berries, jays take the remaining acorns from the nearby oak trees and I will listen out for chak-chak’ call of fieldfares overhead - migrants from an even cooler climate than ours.  In the borders there may still be the odd flower on a hebe, lavatera or michaelmas daisy, clinging on in spite of the frosts, but next season’s flowers will also be appearing.  The native stinking hellebore often produces its green, maroon tipped flowers as early as December and they persist well into January and February.  With such a lack of flowers though, more colour in my garden is provided by the variety of mosses, fungi and lichens to be seen particularly on logs, beneath trees and in other shady damp places.  The range of colours amongst these small plants is surprising, from rich dark green to more yellow and orange hues.  In December I leave much of the garden to its own devises, my only thoughts being preparation for the new year ahead.  For me this month is about seed ordering, planning borders and creating new habitats for wildlife – armchair gardening at its best.

What to do in December 

• Cover weedy areas with old carpet or thick black polythene now, to kill off unwanted plants in preparation for planting new borders or making meadow areas in the spring.

• Continue to rake up any late fallen leaves from lawns and add them to the compost heap.  Alternatively pack them into black bin liners punctured with a few air holes, and leave them somewhere out of the way to produce valuable leaf mould.

• If the weather is mild dig over empty vegetable beds to allow the birds to find and remove pests.

• Take down bird boxes and sterilise them inside with boiling water.  Before replacing them, add dried grass or moss to provide warmth for birds that may use them as roosting sites in the cold weather.

December project – plant native shrubs

Any time in the next few months is ideal for planting native, bare rooted shrubs, either in a hedge, as individual specimens or to create a wildlife habitat in a corner of your garden.  As our winters become increasingly mild, December is a good month to carry out this task giving the shrubs ample time to settle into their new home before the spring weather warms the soil and they burst into growth.  Bare rooted shrubs are quick to grow away compared with their container grown cousins, often out stripping the latter in the first year.  Hawthorn, blackthorn, dogwood, field maple, spindle and hazel together make a wonderful hedge, full of flowers in spring and berries and nuts in the autumn, creating a wonderful patchwork of leaf colours and shapes throughout the year.  Plant with care, adding organic compost to the hole as well as finishing off with a good mulch.  Find a local stockist if you can as these plants will be better adapted to your local weather and soil conditions, and will flourish in your area.

NOVEMBER

November can bring many surprises – weather warm enough to have a cup of tea in the garden if I am lucky while around me the gold of the local oaks glows in late autumn sunshine, or cool enough for the odd flurry of snow in an icy westerly, at least here in the South Shropshire Hills!  Trees in the local woods that top the hills are still shedding their leaves, but some species, especially oak and beech often retain their tough leaves for a little longer.  But branches become barer by the day especially if the weather is windy, and that autumn feel gives way to winter's cold.   Around the garden my priorities change this month.  Weeding borders is one of my least favourite gardening tasks, so I make an effort to remove anything that might shed seeds for next spring or creep underground (ground elder and couch grass are spreading perennials that can’t be tolerated) but leave plants that are not doing any particular harm, and may even benefit the wildlife that is planning to spend the winter in my garden.  Dandelions can remain as their bright flowers are the first choice for nectar for early spring butterflies and pollen for bees.  Hopefully I will get to them before they seed too widely next spring.  Border plants are left to their own devices to provide not only hibernation places for over wintering insects, but also a framework on which winter frost can work its magic.  Some plants such as teasels have seeds for the local finches which is all the excuse I need for relaxing a little.  Tidying up leaves is a task that does take up my time, and I do this either by mower, which conveniently chops leaves up as they are collected, or by raking with a spring rake on a not too windy day.  Either method produces material for composting.  The mower kick starts the process of decomposition and the mixture of damp grass and chopped leaves goes straight into the wooden compost bins.  Large quantities of raked leaves are left to break down slowly in chicken wire containers where the weather can reach them over many months.   This method produces wonderful leaf mould – perfect for mulching precious plants while creating a great wildlife habitat for beetles and earthworms and a hibernation place for newts, frogs and toads.  Whatever the task, the garden is the place to be on a clear cold afternoon this month. 

What to do in November 

• Hedges and shrubs can be safely cut back this month but avoid berries that may be vital bird food.  Consider making a wildlife habitat with your prunings in an out of the way spot.  Frogs, toads, ground beetles and other predatory animals will take up residence and perform a useful function for you next spring.

• Clean out bird boxes if you haven’t already done so and add dry grass as a roosting material.  This will help our smaller garden birds to survive the worst of the winter cold.

• Check stored apples and pears regularly and remove any damaged fruit.
• Abandon November the 5^th bonfires and attend an organised display – not only safer but easier on your garden wildlife.  If you do have a bonfire, check thoroughly for hedgehogs and other wildlife before the event.

 November project – learn to lay a hedge

All over our area the country practice of hedgelaying is making a huge comeback.  This wonderful craft has been revived in recent years as it is the best way to rejuvenate and manage a hedge, making it thick and stock proof and wildlife friendly.  The stems are cut near to the ground, but not completely severed.  They are then bent over at an angle of 45 degrees or less, depending on the regional style, and tied down with stakes made from hazel.  The top of the hedge is ‘feathered’ or woven with willow or hazel stems to finish off a sturdy and attractive feature that some would call a work of art.   This method of management works well in a garden with hedges that are mainly hawthorn or a mixture of native shrubs and the basics are not too difficult to learn.  There are hedgelaying courses in many areas of the UK during the winter.

OCTOBER

Autumn is very much in the air this month and the countryside around my garden is rich in colour.  Leaves are changing hue and everywhere there are the fruits of a natural harvest that must sustain our wildlife through the approaching winter.  Increasingly I feel that the sloes, spindle berries, hips and haws are depleted too quickly, bringing birds and mammals to gardens in search of food.  But while fruit is still available and the weather is good, wildlife will be feeding in the hedgerows and woodlands all over our area.    Resident birds numbers are swelled by the arrival of the first redwings and fieldfares at the end of the month – last year their arrival coincided with a deep frost that carpeted my garden and put paid to the last few late summer flowers in the borders.  This also meant that the odd red admiral butterfly that was lingering disappeared rather quickly, and it felt as though winter was upon us in a flash.  However these brightly coloured butterflies were replaced by grey and pied wagtails at the pond, charms of goldfinches on teasels and thistles, a family of bullfinches searching for seeds on the docks in the longer grass and song thrushes and blackbirds feeding on berries in the hedges around the garden boundaries.  Whether October is warm or cool, this transition between summer and winter can be a wonderful time – a few flowers in the borders picked out by late sun, dampness in the mornings and evenings, leafy scents around the garden and a scattering of early falling leaves.  Our string of damper summers recently has often blended into warmer and more pleasant autumns, although whether this is a trend is anybody’s guess.  I will expect sun, frost, wind and rain and do my best to enjoy the remaining flowers in my garden and the wildlife I see around me. 

What to do in October

• Make sure all vegetables including potatoes, onions and beetroot are taken up now and stored in frost free places.

• Continue to harvest any late fruits, especially cooking apples to store for those all important apple crumbles and pies in the winter months.

• Continue to mow lawns on a high cut – this will not only make sure they go into the winter in good condition but mowing is also an effective way of collecting fallen leaves for the compost heap.

• If you have meadow areas in your garden you can sow yellow rattle after they have been cut.  This semi-parasitic plant helps to reduce the height and vigour of the grasses, enabling the wildflowers to thrive and increase.

October Project – Put up new nest boxes

October is a good month to put new bird nest boxes around your garden.  The birds have plenty of time to get used to them before the spring, plus if you add a little dry grass or moss, they may well be used for roosting during the cold winter months. Boxes for birds come in all shapes and sizes so choose something that is appropriate for the birds you know you have in your garden.  Blue tits are the commonest garden nesters but great tits and robins are also happy to use an artificial nest box.  Ensure you get your box from a specialist supplier – many of those rather pretty colourful ones in Garden Centres have been designed to decorate our gardens rather than provide the correct accommodation for our garden birds.  The size of the hole is crucial as is the length of the drop from the hole to the bottom of the box.  Most boxes should be placed above head height and should not face prevailing winds.  South facing boxes can get too hot in summer so site your box according to your local conditions.  If it’s not quite in the right place the birds will probably refuse to use it.  If it isn’t used after two summers, move it and see what happens!  Nest cups for swallows and house martins are also available – these birds continue to decline so helping them in this way could be a lifeline. 

SEPTEMBER

I find it impossible to walk out into a September morning and not detect the hint of autumn in the air – however warm and sunny the days may be.  Falling temperatures at night mean that dew coats the lawns and sparkles on the grasses in late summer borders.  The hedge around my garden is composed entirely of native shrubs – hawthorn, hazel, sloe, spindle and guelder rose amongst others – and all will be displaying their fruits now.  The berries of guelder rose, together with those of rowan in the woodland garden, attract the neighbourhood blackbirds and disappear in a flash, but the others take longer to ripen and usually persist well into the winter when migrant thrushes arrive to feast on hawthorn and holly.  The local grey squirrels spend plenty of time stocking up their larders this month as do the wood mice.  The former, serious destroyers of trees and bird feeders, are entertaining none the less as they collect hazel nuts and bury them in the lawns.  The wood mice are less often seen but their caches of the stones of wild cherry alongside any hazelnuts they can find appear in the empty bird boxes – winter stores for harder times ahead.

Late summer borders, with some planning and thought, can look amazing.  Combined with ornamental grasses, this relaxed style of planting has become very popular in recent years, and it is easy to see why.  As early frosts destroy bedding and summer flowers such as lupins and foxgloves are already spent, the rudbeckia, echinacea, achillea and helenium come into their own.  Combined with the elegant late flowering Japanese anemones, colourful bergamot and the hardier dahlias, borders can sparkle with red, orange and yellow this month much to the delight of bumblebees and butterflies.  These insects are eager to stock up their reserves as autumn and hibernation approach, so growing some of these later flowerers provides them with much needed nectar and pollen. 

In September the colours of the countryside change around me to more muted greens and the fields are ploughed for winter wheat.  But this is one of the best times for both colour and wildlife here.  September is a month to really enjoy before the cooler weather of autumn arrives.

What to do in September

• In the vegetable garden there should be plenty of things to harvest this month – make the most of what you have and freeze or store surplus fruit and vegetables.  Trusses of green tomatoes can be brought inside to finish ripening.

• Sow quick maturing salad crops such as rocket, pak choi and spinach in sheltered gardens. 

• Cut long grass and wildflower meadows this month, leave to dry for a few days and rake off all the hay to enable fallen seeds to germinate.

• If you grow herbs in the garden, pot up chives and parsley for the kitchen windowsill this month.

• Don't forget to leave some windfall fruit for birds - blackbirds and thrushes will love apples and pears plus red admiral butterflies will feed on them too.

September Project – Mulching

September is the month we often start to think about tidying up the garden a little as autumn approaches and summer’s growth on shrub and bushes impinges on paths and borders.  Using our cuttings, clippings and mowings around the garden is a great way of recycling organic matter - mulching saves water, money and time spent weeding.  I try to reuse as much as possible in my garden including grass mowings.  These can be placed around the stems of recently planted hedge shrubs or trees to contain the ground moisture in dry periods and suppress weeds.  I also use the contents of my grass box to mulch areas of weedy growth which I want to plant later.  This has the effect of killing off annual weeds, but also nettles and docks although the docks struggle on valiantly and sometimes need digging out too. 

Shrub prunings can also be put to good use around the garden.  As well leaving them in an out of the way place to provide winter hibernation sites for ladybirds, lacewings and other beneficial insects, shredded clippings can also be used to mulch beneath trees and shrubs, where they provide weed control and create a great habitat for creatures such as ground beetles which devour slugs. 

AUGUST

Gardening-wise August can be a lazy month.  Lawns are growing more slowly, annual flowers are all in place in pots and border spaces, perennials need little attention and for the wildlife gardener there are, as yet, no meadows to cut.  Although haymaking in the countryside is traditionally done in July or even late June if the weather has been fine, a garden meadow need not be cut this early.  Leaving mine for a couple more months means that I can continue to enjoy the later flowering blooms of bedstraw, meadowsweet and field scabious which may flower into September, as well as the seed heads of knapweed and wild carrot and of course the grasses. 

So the best moments of warm August days are spent beside the pond, drink in hand.  Water is a magnet to my garden wildlife this month as birds drink and bathe and a succession of dragonflies joust for possession of a territory in which to lay their eggs.  Dragonflies and damselflies never cease to fascinate me – their appearance, life cycle and habits are all extraordinary and it is easy to forget that the wonderful flying creatures we see around our ponds this month are the brief culmination of a much longer life – several years for some species - under the water as rather ugly and fearsome looking larvae. If you have the time to sit and watch, look out for the adult insect’s astonishing ability to catch its prey, and eat it, on the wing.   

With so much happening at eye level it is easy to forget to look skyward occasionally when I’m wandering around my garden in mid summer.  The call of a buzzard will draw my eyes upwards though and if the sky is clear there may well be several of these magnificent birds of prey circling on thermals.  Our record here is twenty-nine!  On these occasions too I sometimes see a red kite, which makes me wonder how many I miss by gazing at the ground!

 So August gives the gardener a little breathing space before summer comes to an end and garden maintenance begins again in earnest.  I will be preparing myself for the hard work of haymaking.

What to do in August

• If you grow vegetables don’t forget to sow more cut-and-come-again lettuces now for autumn salads, plus spinach and chard for the spring.
• Herbs can be gathered this month for drying for winter use.  Pick non-flowering shoots, strip the leaves and spread them on sheets of clean paper on sunny windowsills.  Thyme, sage, marjoram, dill and fennel all dry well.
•  Now nesting has finished you may want to prune back early flowering shrubs such as forsythia and flowering currant to encourage plenty of blossom next spring.
• Dead head buddleia as the flowers fade to ensure that more spikes develop.  These will keep your butterflies happy into the late summer.

August Project - Collect your own seeds

 The best way to increase the plants in your garden – and the most economical in terms of transportation miles and use of compost and pots, is to grow your own from seed.  This month you can start to collect seeds from some of your favourite plants to sow in the autumn or next spring.  Not all will come true from seed but half the excitement is the surprise element!   If you are new to collecting your own, stick to plants with larger, easy to handle seeds rather than the ‘dust’ produced by foxgloves or verbascums.  Cowslips, primroses, Jacob’s ladder, aquilegia, hollyhock and delphiniums and annuals such as poppies, nigella and larkspur will all germinate with ease if sown at the right time.  Collect whole seed heads on a dry day and place them into well-labelled paper envelopes.  Store them in a small cardboard box in a cool room until you want to sow them.  You can re-use garden centre seed trays, plastic module and pots for an eco-friendly approach.

JULY

Although we think of July as the very height of summer, it is rather sad to think that the day length is already shortening.  Actually I prefer not to think about that and make sure I enjoy the garden and countryside around me while it is at its best.  Work in my garden is minimal this month except for successional sowing of salad crops, weeding here and there and of course watering where it is essential.  I prefer not to water the garden at all and certainly never the lawn.  Plants are more likely have shallow roots if there is water readily available.  Left to their own devices they develop deeper roots to find moisture lower down in the soil.  Watering pots is a different matter though, but I try to keep pots to a minimum and use so-called ‘grey’ water as well as anything that may be available from the water butts.  No problems there last year!!

July is a great month for insects in the garden, especially bumblebees and butterflies.  Dragonflies too, if you or your neighbours have a pond, are likely to appear, hawking around and searching for prey which they catch on the wing.  These amazing aerobatic creatures are wonderful to watch, but identification can be somewhat difficult.  Their old country name of ‘horse stingers’ gives the impression that they are rather dangerous creatures, but they have no sting.  Devil’s darning needle is another rather quaint name, but I prefer to think of them as aerial jewels as their colours are so bright.

Butterflies are usually plentiful this month and if you grow a buddleia you are likely to see a good selection of the larger species including red admiral, small tortoiseshell and peacock.  To attract the small blues, small copper and gatekeeper I make sure I have a good supply of marjoram in the garden, both our wild native plant and other varieties of ‘oregano’ which is really just another name for marjoram.  The yellow leaved golden marjoram is especially nice – tasty, good for insects plus it brightens a border on even the dullest day. 

Experience has shown us over the last two summers that July can be wet and windy, hot and dry or beset with thunder storms.  Whatever comes this summer I’ll be making the most of my garden and its wildlife. 

What to do in July

• If you grown vegetables you could sow a green manure this month into ground that isn’t being used.  I use the lovely plant Phacelia which is turned in once it has produced a good amount of leaf.  If a few seeds stray the lovely mauve flowers are a magnet for bees.
• Remove older leaves from strawberries that have finished fruiting to encourage strong new growth.
• Try to keep on top of vegetables that may be fruiting – courgettes in particular need to be picked when they are small and French beans will continue to produce if they are picked frequently.
• Dead heading some flowers – roses for instance – is worth the effort if you want flowering to continue into the late summer months.

July Project – bumblebee survey 

If you have a little time to spare this month you may want to have a closer look at the bumblebees around your garden.  It’s well known that these attractive and important insects are becoming less common in the countryside but gardens are increasingly important refuges for them.  The Bumblebee Conservation Trust needs more information about our bumblebees and is carrying out several surveys this summer where the general public can help.  Bumblebees nest in a variety of places, including disused mouse and vole nest in the ground, in compost heaps and even occasionally in bird boxes.  You can let them know about any nests you find as well as what varieties of bumblebees you have around.  Their website has information on bumblebee identification or you can send digital photos of the bees in your garden if you are in doubt.  You can find out more at www.bumblebeeconservation.org

JUNE

I have high hopes for June this year after last summer’s debacle.  The only good thing to say about the wet weather last year was that everything looked beautifully green and lush!  However, June really is a highlight in the gardening calendar and it is sad when heavy rain this month flattens borders and, in my garden, wildflower meadows.  My large meadow, sown in the spring of 2006, has flowered brilliantly since then.  New meadows are best cut in their first year as this enables the grasses to establish well and cover any bare soil, which helps to exclude weedy species.  May saw a great deal of promise this year and yellow rattle, ragged robin and common spotted orchids are already flowering well.  As the summer progresses there will be knapweed and lady's bedstraw.  This habitat is a great place for butterflies to find nectar and the common blue is well established here.

This June I am expecting great things from my meadow right through until September and also from my nectar borders.  This month I will looking out for a plentiful supply of bumblebees amongst the flowers and hopefully more butterfly species too as the garden continues to develop.  My herbaceous plants have been chosen especially to provide nectar and pollen and have been planted in long, deep borders with ornamental grasses that hopefully hums with insects all through the summer.   And with any luck, and decent weather, our gardens and the countryside will be graced with some of the migrant butterflies that make their way here from the Mediterranean and North Africa this month.  It seems extraordinary that these flimsy, delicate creatures can travel such long distances, but the red admiral and painted lady do just that.  They breed here, the former on nettles and the latter on thistles.  Look out for these two colourful species feeding on Buddleia later this month.

In good weather June can be the most glorious of months when everything seems to happening at once – birds, bees and butterflies are breeding and buzzing and its hard to remember the dreary days of winter.  Even if we experience a wet month, our local wildlife and wildflowers will surely keep our spirits high.

What to do in June 

• If you have any areas of lawn where bulbs or wildflowers such as cowslips grow, you can cut these at the end of the month.  Divide clumps of daffodils and replant for better flowering next spring.
• Early summer herbaceous plants such as lupins and delphiniums can have their spent flower heads cut back now.  This will encourage a few more flowers from side shoots later in the summer, maintaining the colour in your borders for longer as well as providing more nectar and pollen for insects.
• If you grow vegetables, now is the time to plant out your small leeks plus brassicas including broccoli, spouts and winter cabbages.  Keep an eye open for the ‘cabbage’ white butterflies and squash eggs when you find them, rather than resort to sprays later which may kill other beneficial insects.
• Continue to feed the birds in your garden – this is a crucial time when adult birds are feeding their chicks.  Sunflower hearts and peanut kernels will keep the adults going as they search for insects for their young.

June Project - sow foxglove seeds

It may seem like an odd time of year to be sowing seeds but many biennial plants naturally disperse their seeds at this time.  Foxgloves are amongst my favourite flowers and come in all shapes and sizes.  Our native biennial is one of the best bumblebee attracting plants you can grow and comes in a huge range of colours.  If you fancy something other than our native pink you could try white, primrose yellow, apricot and of course a whole range of spotted varieties.  The seeds of foxglove are tiny and need sowing with care.  Firm peat-free compost into a seed tray and cover with a thin layer of horticultural grit, obtainable from garden centres.  Gently distribute the minute seeds as thinly as you can on top of the grit – they will fall into the spaces between the grit particles.  It is very easy to cover them too thickly with compost so this method works well.  Keep the seed tray damp and prick out the little plants when they are large enough to handle.  Pot up and plant out in the autumn for a fabulous and dramatic display next May and June.

MAY

May is my favourite month in both the garden and the countryside, when every shade of green is apparent and I can almost see my plants growing day by day.  It is also a great month for wildlife as many bird species are feeding young in the nest and bumblebees drone between white dead-nettle flowers in search of nectar.   Spring butterflies around my garden, including orange tip and holly blue, mingle with early summer species and I will be looking out for the first common blues which breed on the bird’s foot trefoil in my meadow, and the speckled wood.  The common blue is the sweetest little insect - a flash of silvery blue which, when it alights on a favourite flower reveals pale blue underwings with golden orange spots.  Where the common blue enjoys May sunshine, the speckled wood is a creature of dappled shade, frequenting woodland rides and hedgerows.  Both species will visit gardens and in my South Shropshire territory these two species linger and breed.   May is renowned everywhere for one special wildflower and one extraordinary insect.  The bluebell is not an especially good plant for attracting wildlife – the odd long-tongued butterfly such as the brimstone will sip its nectar - but it ranks as one of our most beautiful wildflowers.  And the maybug or cockchafer, one of our largest native beetles, will be out and about, throwing itself at lighted windows as it whirrs around at dusk.

May is the month when my personal obsession takes over.  My moth trap – a large square box topped with a bright light – will be operating on warm, overcast nights in my garden.  The catch is not harmed, but hides away in the depths of the trap amongst old egg boxes, ready to be identified the next morning and released in a safe place away from too many searching beaks.  Chinese Character, Iron Prominent, Hebrew Character and Nut Tree Tussock – the names alone make these insects interesting.  As beautiful as butterflies and much more varied in shape, size and colour, moths deserve better press!  So with bats and moths at dusk, foxgloves opening their spotted bells in my burgeoning borders, maybugs hammering against lighted windows and swallows nesting in my porch, May really is an exciting month in the garden.

What to do in May

• By the end of the month it is safe (hopefully!) to assume that we will have no further frosts so plant out any tender bedding now.  Choose wildlife friendly bedding where you can especially petunias for moths, tagetes for butterflies and verbena for bees.
• Dahlias can also be planted out now.  Again some provide nectar and pollens for insects. Varieties such as Redskin reveal their yellow stamens and attract hoverflies and some butterflies.
• Cut back spring flowering shrubs including flowering currant and Forsythia, but first check carefully for nesting birds.
• If you are a vegetable grower plant out your courgettes, pumpkins, squashes and French and runner bean plants at the end of the month.

May Project - make a mini-pond

Adding water to your garden is one of the most important things you can do for wildlife.  If you don’t have room for a wildlife pond (or for safety reasons would prefer not to have one) you may still be able to provide a drinking spot for birds and attract the odd dragonfly or damselfly.  A ‘mini-pond’ is easy to create in a large ceramic pot or, better still, in a half-barrel, available from most garden centres.  Position the barrel in a light but not overly sunny spot and place garden soil, gravel or a mixture of both in the bottom.  Create a shallower spot on one side with stones, covered with soil.  Fill with rain water from a water butt and add plants – wildflowers such as brooklime and water mint can be pushed into the gravel, or a miniature water lily or the native fringed lily placed gently on the bottom in a container.  Add oxygenators, keep your barrel well topped up in dry weather and a great variety of garden birds will use if for drinking and the smaller dragonflies and damselflies may lay their eggs in your tiny wetland habitat.

APRIL

In April my wildlife garden is a hive of activity – literally.  The honeybees from our beehives are making the most of any pollen they can find to feed their offspring in the comb.  Bumblebees too are active this month.  The huge queens have emerged from hibernation and they will be searching for pollen and nectar before seeking a suitable nest site.  This will usually be an underground disused mouse nest still with its bundle of dried grass, but a queen bumblebee will take her own nesting material into a suitable hole in a bank.    And it is not just the bees that are out celebrating the change in the weather.  My hedges will be full of nesting birds and some species, including robins and dunnocks, will already be feeding their newly hatched fledglings.  Birds rather dominate my garden this month as migrants, including the chiffchaffs and blackcaps whose songs define this time of year, return.  Hopefully willow warblers too will sing their cascading notes from the hawthorn trees on my boundary as they did last year.  And I’ll be keeping my eyes skyward for the first swallows and ensuring that there is mud around the edges of the ponds for the house martins to use for building their nests.   I will be hoping too for butterflies, especially the wonderful little holly blue.  The female lays her eggs in April on the flower buds of holly, or if her preferred plant is not available, on dogwood.  Small tortoiseshell, peacock, comma and brimstone butterflies, all of which have spent the winter months in hibernation should now have emerged, often the worse for wear, with tattered wings. 

Gardening in April is fast and furious – so much to do and not enough time!  Vegetables to sow, lawns to cut and borders to tidy now that hibernating insects have emerged.  I will be planting additional small wildflowers in my recently established meadows, and squeezing last minute bare rooted native shrubs into the spaces in my new hedges where there have been winter casualties.

• If you wish to increase your stocks of herbaceous border plants, you can sow seeds of easy to grow perennials such as lupins, scabious or achillea, in seed trays to prick out later.  These will flower in their first summer and attract bees and butterflies to your garden.
• There is just time to plant bare rooted native hedging at the beginning of April as long as the weather is damp.  A native hedge is a fantastic habitat in even the smallest garden, providing shelter, food and nesting places for a wealth of wildlife.
• Continue to sow salad crops including rocket, coriander and mixed lettuce leaves now, as well as carrots, beetroot, spring onions and broad beans. 
• Leave all hedges and shrubs alone from now on as any cutting or pruning may disturb nesting birds.

 April Project - make a cornfield bed

If spring makes you feel energetic and keen to get out and do something new and exciting in your garden, there is no better month to sow a stunningly colouful area of cornfield annuals.  Poppies, corn marigolds, corncockles, cornflowers and corn chamomile - available as a seed mix from many seed suppliers - are all annual wildflowers that were once common on field margins, but are now less frequently seen.  Begin by preparing an area of bare soil in full sun, making sure you remove any invasive perennials such as thistles, dandelions or couch grass.  Rake the soil down to a fine tilth and scatter the seed as evenly as possible over the area.  You may want to add a handful of silver sand to the seed, to aid distribution.  Walk over the area, gently pushing the seed into the soil but resist the temptation to rake the seed in too deeply.  These species rely on light to trigger  their germination.  Water the area if the weather is dry but little else is needed to create your cornfield patch.

MARCH

Spring is upon us and in my garden the month of March brings more than just the inevitable excitement of getting out and sowing seeds.  This is the month when the garden seems to be bursting at the seams with life, whatever the weather.  Robins and long tailed tits start their nest building in the hedges, mounds of frogspawn appear in the wildlife pond and the occasional peacock butterfly, bedraggled after four months of hibernation, seeks nectar from the many golden dandelions in the lawns.  For me most of March’s gardening activities are about looking ahead and preparing for the summer. 

My wildflower meadow will have a spring cut late this month with the mower on a high setting, but then it can be left completely alone until my annual ‘haymaking’ event in September.  Any spaces in the new nectar borders will be filled with home grown plants that have over wintered in a sheltered spot outside, and work to establish wetland wildflowers will continue around the new wildlife pond this month, now full with winter’s rainwater.   March is a month of contrasts in any garden – mild but welcome sunshine or icy winds whipping through the daffodils and hellebores – but there is always the promise of great things to come.

What to do in March

• Start to cut lawns this month, but remember to leave areas where wildflowers and bulbs are established.

• Don’t overdo the tidying in your herbaceous borders just yet.  These areas provide shelter for many beneficial insects including ladybirds, which will be your natural allies in months to come.

• Sow hardy annuals into border spaces at the end of the month if your soil is not too wet.  Larkspur, California poppies and English marigolds will bring early summer colour and provide bees and hoverflies with pollen, or try night-scented stock to fill the evening garden with perfume in May and June.

• Prepare vegetable plots for sowing, but hold off planting shallots, broad beans and salad crops until next month if the weather is wet and cold.

 March Project - sow some vegetables 

If you are not a vegetable gardener, this could be the month to turn over a new leaf.  Any small patch of soil can be used to grow your own salad crops – so much tastier and healthier than shop bought bags of days old lettuce.  You don’t need a dedicated vegetable area – for starters mixed baby salad leaves can be sown into small empty spaces in borders or I use large terracotta pots which stand outside the kitchen door.  These can be quickly harvested in a ‘cut-and-come-again’ fashion for a healthy and attractive garnish or an addition to a lunchtime sandwich. 

Fill pots with peat free compost, firm lightly and sprinkle with a salad leaf mixture containing ‘baby leaf’ red and green lollo rossa, oak leaf lettuce, rocket, endive, chicory and radicchio.  Cover with a little compost and water lightly when the compost looks dry.  If you prefer to fill border spaces, choose open sunny spots.  Rake the soil to a fine tilth, sprinkle seeds and cover lightly.  These attractive mixtures are ready to harvest in four or five weeks.

FEBRUARY

February is possibly my least favourite month in the garden – so much gloom and mist.  But even in this dank month there are signs of spring with blossom on wild plum in my hedges, snowdrops in flower and catkins lengthening daily on the hazel.  Even so, I’m glad the month is a short one and look forward with great anticipation to sowing seeds as soon as the soil is dry enough next month.  This month I have to be content with pruning the fruit trees and preparing vegetable beds while eagerly watching for the return of our local yellowhammers on the hedge tops.  Through the winter months they feed elsewhere but as natural sustenance in the countryside is depleted they find the courage to approach my low bird table.  As yellow as a canary, the male stands out like a sore thumb – a prime target for the local sparrow hawk.  On bright days the yellowhammers, together with the local great tits, thrushes and chaffinches, begin their territorial songs.

It is easy not to notice how quickly the days lengthen at this time of year.  By February it is light until 6pm and this rapid change in day length not only stimulates song birds.  Many plants are growing now and buds appear on daffodils and crocuses.  Frogs too are starting to feel amorous and appear around the garden and the natural pond in the field next door as they prepare for the orgy of activity ahead. 

I love the month of March, when so much changes in the garden and there is everything to look forward to.  In the meantime I am happy to watch, listen and wait. 

What to do in February

•  If you planted new native hedging last winter, this is a good month to cut the shrubs back or plant new ones as long as the ground is not frozen.  New bare rooted trees can also be planted now. 

•  Buddleia is one of the mainstays of a wildlife friendly garden, attracting a wide range of the larger butterfly species.  This shrub flowers best on new wood prune Buddleias hard at end of month to encourage new flowering shoots.

• Pruning of fruit trees should be completed this month if possible.  Stack your prunings on a twig pile to create a wildlife habitat unless any are diseased – these are best burnt quickly on a very hot bonfire.

• In mild areas you can start sowing.  Broad beans, parsnips, shallots, garlic and Jerusalem artichokes can be sown outside, but most of us will need to wait until next month. Salads, perennial flowers and annuals such as sweet peas can be sown under cover.

February Project – put up a bird box

February heralds the yearly campaign known as National Nest Box Week which runs from the 14^th of February (Valentines Day) to the 21^st.  Many people may well think it is rather early to be putting up a nest box, but some species will already be nesting and robins and tits will be actively seeking nest sites this month.  Many types of nest box are available but if you are hoping to increase the success of breeding birds in your garden choose one from the RSPB, British Trust for Ornithology or from a specialist bird care company.  There are still a great many boxes around that are entirely unsuitable, having the wrong size hole, a small perch at the front (ideal for a predator to sit on!) or the depth of the box is incorrect. 

If you don’t already have a nest box in your garden choose one for a blue or great tit as these are most likely to try out a new box. Boxes should be attached to walls, fences or trees at head height or above and make sure the entrance hole is not obscured by vegetation.  If you have grey squirrels around you may want to fix a metal plate over the hole to prevent them from chewing their way in.  Woodpeckers, magpies and cats may all see an easy meal in a nest box so be aware of the box position.  Tits eat a huge number of small insects so with any luck you will soon have your own family of natural pest controllers.