Well, now the Big Garden Birdwatch is over, and we all know what birds and other creatures share our gardens with us, (https://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/ ) let’s look ahead and see what we can do to help them all through spring…. Hopefully you already have plans for putting up bird boxes for when those little blue tits get broody, but there are other creatures which also really need our help in the next few months.
Some of our most common garden butterflies (I’m thinking commas, peacocks, small tortoiseshells, brimstones, even red admirals) get through the winter by hibernating as adult butterflies. When they eventually wake up in the spring, they are desperately in need of sustenance, which takes the form of nectar. However, there is not always much in flower so early. This is where you come in. If you can choose nectar-rich plants which flower nice and early in the spring, you can really help these beautiful creatures. Some ideas for you: primroses, violets, wallflowers, violas, honesty, cowslips and Chionodoxa (also known as Glory of the snow) all flower really early, and will not only help the butterflies, but also queen bumblebees which have slept away the winter, pregnant with next summer’s brood of worker bees.
Those of you who have compost heaps, if you mulch your borders now, you’ll be providing a happy hunting ground for those insect eating birds, like song thrushes, dunnocks, robins and blackbirds. The can often be seen, rummaging around in the fallen leaves and mulch, looking for worms and other morsels at this time of year. In the dead of winter last year, I was lucky enough to spot two song thrushes rustling around in the fallen field maple leaves, looking hopefully for worms… No doubt in my mind that they would not have been there if we’d raked up those leaves in autumn.
Hello Shirley.
We have lavender, hebes & primrose in the garden. when it eventually gets dry I will put some more plants into the garden.