Jobs & Hedgehogs

Autumn seems to be upon us and after such a lovely summer it’s a bit of a shock to wake up to dark mornings and much cooler temperatures. The gardens are looking a bit tatty now and leaves are starting to change colour and drop, and Winter seems to be very close.

Tidying up the garden is a regular Autumn job to remove dead foliage and prepare the beds for the coming season but maybe it might be a good idea to leave a few plants for the birds. I’m not suggesting that your gardens are full of weeds but if you have any thistles maybe on your compost heaps their seed heads are a great food source for many smaller birds, including finches and sparrows. Nyjer or Niger seed is in fact thistle seed and is grown in North America, we sell this in our shop in various bag sizes, but home-grown thistles would certainly supplement your garden birds for a while.

Feeding the birds in your garden over the Autumn and Winter can actually benefit your garden in the Spring , the larger birds such as thrushes will feast on slugs and snails and the smaller birds like blue tits and sparrows will eat aphids too, so, if you encourage bird life into your garden it might become a more natural environment without the need for pesticides, just saying.

While you are in the garden a good job is to clean out feeders and bird tables too , getting rid of yukky residue to ensure that the birds can remain disease free as much as possible,and  perhaps clean out bird baths too. I’m suggesting loads of jobs for you all in the coming weeks, sorry about this, we're making bird feeders on my next blog post, so I'm keeping you all very busy.

Please don’t forget our lovely hedgehogs this autumn, they’re great garden visitors and will be preparing for hibernating so if you’re raking leaves up for bonfires please check them before you set fire to them or dispose of them in case a hedgehog has decided that your pile of leaves is going to be their winter home. I've used my favourite hedgehog picture for the title of this blog post - hope you like it too.

 https://www.laverockhallfarm.co.uk/wild-bird-food/niger-seed-12-55kg-detail