Caring for birds in your garden

Autumn is the time of year to prepare for winter. For those of us with gardens, we’re cutting back and dividing plants in the beds as well as raking the leaves as they fall off the trees. But it is time to care for the birds, too.

  Nest Boxes:

 If you have bird nest boxes in your garden, the time to clean them is now, between September and December. The birds have finished raising their young, so the boxes will not have any birds living in them. For each box, open the lid, remove the contents and dispose, then pour boiling water in the box concentrating on the corners and bottom. When birds nest, they will have mites, ticks, and lice living in the box and feeding on both adults and chicks. These parasites can survive all winter and resume their activities in the spring, so it’s best to get rid of them now. Do not use any kind of powders as they can harm birds. Leave the box to dry, add some fresh dry grass or leaves, close the box and rehang. Sometimes a nest box might have unhatched eggs and dead chicks; this is not unusual as adult birds might lay more eggs than they can raise or adults cannot find enough food to feed the chicks.

  Food: 

Some birds live here all year, and some migrate through on their way to their winter home. At this time of year, feed the birds high energy foods such as fat balls and cheese, supplementing with fruits such as apples, grapes, and dried fruits. Good quality bird seed and dried meal worms are both appreciated by the birds, too. Water bowls should be cleaned daily if possible. Set your bird feeder where you can see it out your window so that you can watch the birds enjoying their feast.

  Plant a Meadow :

If you have an area in your garden that has been neglected for a while, consider clearing off the grass and sow native flower and grass seeds. Once the area grows, birds will enjoy eating the insects

they find and some ground nesting birds may find a home.

  Happy Autumn!

   Cindy Crump

Gardeners Gold

Gardener’s gold

Autumn is a busy time of year in the garden.  But the falling leaves are a valuable resource not to be wasted. If left to decompose, they turn into leaf mould and over time produce a wonderful compost. 

Oak, beech and hornbeam leaves make the best quality leafmould and break down the quickest.  Thicker leaves such as sycamore, walnut, horse chestnut and sweet chestnut take longer.  Conifer and evergreen leaves can take 2-3 years to decompose, so are best avoided unless you’re very patient!

Collect leaves when they are wet, or sprinkle with water to dampen them and leave them in a shady spot in an out of the way corner.  If you have the room you can buy or make a wire mesh container for your leaves. Otherwise you can buy purpose-made sacks made from loosely woven jute from most garden centres now.  They hold an amazing amount of leaves and have the added advantage of being bio-degradable.    Or place your leaves into a large, black polythene sack such as a bin liner.  You will need to punch a few holes in the sides and bottom of it or your leaves will become a slimy mess. Tie the top loosely.  Bear in mind that the volume of leaves will reduce to between a quarter and a third as it becomes leafmould. You can’t possibly overdose your soil on it though so make as much as you can! Bags can be stacked if you’re short of space.

The leaves should have decomposed after about a year and you can use the resulting leafmould as a mulch.  After another year it can be dug in to improve your soil or even used as a seed sowing compost.

With autumn leaves in such plentiful supply why not work your own bit of magic? Turning nature’s discards into leafmould does feel a little like alchemy!