The recent repetitive frosts we’ve been experiencing through the nights are a real hindrance in the garden.
Snakeshead Fritillary: Richard Bowler (rspb-images.com)
Not only are many of our plants experiencing ongoing frost damage, but our garden wildlife also struggles to stay warm through the night and find enough food.
Birds are warm blooded but are not able to store any significant extra fat as this would affect their flying ability. They are able to fluff up their feathers to trap in warm air but even doing this, some of our smaller garden birds can lose around 10% of their body night through one very cold night.
Obviously, they need to restore this weight loss through the next day and this can be difficult with fewer insects available in the garden. They too can be a struggling to survive through the cold nightly temperatures or delayed from emerging from their winter hibernation. They also need plant matter to eat which can be severely stunted and slow to develop through the freezing temperatures and lack of rain.
Plants can bounce back from a bit of frost damage but sometimes this repeat process is severely damaging. When the ground becomes frozen, plant roots cannot take up water and plants struggle thought lack of moisture and nutrients. If your plants look shrivelled, dry, pale or and blackened, this can be damage caused by the frost moisture on the leaves being followed by sun which scorches the plant.
If you prune the plant down to a healthy bud or area lower down, this can make the plant more vulnerable to further frost damage so until the frosty nights are over, it can be more protective to leave the plant as it is. Once the nights are forecast for warmer temperatures, that’s the time to cut back, water well and feed your plants to promote new growth. Until then, you can protect your plants with fleece through the night and mulch around their bases with straw or bark as a blanket for the roots. You can also protect them from morning sun while they are still wet using a black fabric weed control fabric, and lift it off later when the plant crown is dry or in the shade.
We can help our by choosing tough, hardy plants for our gardens that will survive cold spells to provide shelter and nectar for wildlife.
European Robin: Ray Kennedy (rspb-images.com)
We can also provide supplementary food for our garden birds and hedgehogs. Choose energy rich bird food through cold spells with sunflower hearts and fat such as Favourites blend extra bird food mix or provide suet in the form of fat balls, nibbles or blocks. The RSPB have a half price offer on fat nibbles at the moment when you spend £30 with their online shop.
Bird food often gets scattered onto the ground by birds and can benefit our garden mammals such as shrews, mice and voles.
You can purchase hedgehog food from many garden centres and pet food stores as well as from the RSPB and remember who you buy from the RSPB, you are not only getting high quality, environmentally friendly products from the most sustainable sources, you are also making a contribution to the charity as 90% of RSPB profits are spent on conservation and education.
Alternatively, you can put some cat biscuits of meaty cat food into a protected hedgehog feeding station or home made "cafe" to keep the cats away from your hedgehog food!
Providing fresh clean drinking water can be a life-saver for wildlife through times like this also when there are no little pockets of rain collected in natural crevices.
Hopefully, the rain is coming in the next day or two and we can also look forward to frost free nights from mid-may … and get our tender annuals out into the garden to flourish!
The Flatford Wildlife Garden is now open every day until October from 10.30am – 4.30pm. Entrance to the garden is free and well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome. Car parking is £5 at the Flatford National Trust car park and this gives you access to the stunning countryside walks around Dedham Vale in Constable Country.