Give Larry the Woodlouse a Home this Autumn by Morwenna Alldis
Typically as autumn beds in we start to do a little tidying around our gardens, pruning and removing any dead wood to encourage new growth in the spring. But this autumn, don’t discard you rotting wood with the rest of your garden waste – instead create a log/twig pile in a corner of your garden to give your garden critters a cosy home over the colder months.
Woodlice, snails, woodmice and even solitary bees (depending on where you position your wood pile) will love to scurry their way in between your maze of logs and twigs - wriggling underneath any loose bark is a particularly favoured nook.
How to Build your Log Pile
1. Gather Your Materials - Each time you do a spot of pruning in your garden save the wood you collect. If you don’t have much dead wood in your garden, you could ask your neighbour or local tree surgeon for their dead wood – you’ll probably be doing them a favour by taking it off their hands!
2. Choose the Perfect Spot – where you decide to build your log pile will influence which wildlife starts to call it home. A shady garden spot will cause the wood to rot quicker, attracting funky fungi and marvellous mosses, as well as Larry the Woodlouse! Whereas, a sunny spot, which will allow the wood to dry out, is perfect for solitary bees and wasps – they’ll take over an old beetle hole as their home, chewing the wood to make it a perfect fit for their stripes.
3. Build Your Log Pile – how you stack your wood is totally a personal choice. You can either be extremely neat or go for a more natural, rustic look – either way nature isn’t fussy about the cosmetics! Some animals do prefer buried wood – so you could dig a small trough and start your wood pile underground to give even more nature a home. You can lay your wood horizontally or vertically. If vertical, the twigs/logs need to be buried 45cm - 60cm in the ground. Above ground they need to look like organ pipes and be different heights.
4. Prettify Your Log Pile- once you’ve finished your log pile, sprinkle some earth over the top (you could use the soil you dug-out to sink the logs below ground). And then top it off with a scattering of wild flower seeds.
Don’t fret if your log pile doesn’t seem to be a hive of activity – its secretive new residents like to hide from both the sun and from you! But if you stealthily visit your log pile at night, you may spot your new garden beasties scurrying about.
For more information and to download a handy creep crawly ID chart click here.
To create a personalised plan on how you can give nature a home in your local greenspace, visit: www.rspb.org.uk/myplan