Live 24-Seven - Preserving Wildlife
Gardening With Lilly getting ready for winter
By Richard Fishbourne
Richard runs his own business
www.bugsandbeasties.co.uk He is a wildlife garden designer, landscaper and environmental education tutor.
If you think Richard can help with any project, he is always happy to offer advice.
2013 has been a wonderful year of proper seasons. A chilling March and marginally maritime April gave way to one of the most impressive summers I have ever known. Autumn has been wet and windy as it should be. Lilly has been party to plenty of winter prepping. I’m always keen to get the winter firewood under cover before the end of summer. There are always a few logs strategically scattered about the place though, and if I have to make a trip with a wheelbarrow of something or other I like to make sure my return journey is equally productive. Nowadays I invariably have some extra ballast to contend with. Wheelbarrow rides are very exciting, I’m sure I’d like to have a blast as a passenger if I could find someone willing to push me!
Earlier in the year I noticed a swelling in some underlay covering a portion of fallow veg patch. As things transpired it was a hedgehog nest; an unusual place to have a nest in many respects, but evidently the warmth-absorbing, black duvet effect is attractive real estate for these endearing little creatures. We have seen several hedgehogs of assorted sizes snuffling around the garden. On a couple of occasions the largest animal in the family has been clocked with its mouth full of runner bean leaves, obviously packing out the nest ready for winter. I think it’s unusual for a hedgehog to hibernate in the same place that it had its
offspring, but she’s obviously reluctant to give up the family home. It seems that a hedgehog needs to weigh around 1kg to stand a chance of sleeping the winter through and waking up in the spring. The smallest we have seen recently are not as big as that. I have to confess that sentimentality has got the better of me and I have become concerned about these lesser morsels. We now have an additional grocery in the form of multi-packs of cat food! Hedgehogs will often come out of hibernation periodically and the close proximity of a bowl of kit-e-kat ensconced under a roof ridge tile should keep them fed up subsequent to their autumnal feasting. Often on these short winter days I will get home after dark to be greeted by a little girl whose first request is to go up and feed the hedgehogs!
Whilst the majority of our hedgehog sightings have been at night we have seen them out in the daytime scrunching juicy earthworms adjacent to the many fallen Bramleys that have trundled down the garden path. It seems criminal to leave such a feast of rich reddened fruit strewn across the earth, but you can only store, freeze and give away so many. Aside from dropping my guard and shelling out hard cash to feed hedgehogs I am in most part reluctant to buy bird feed, but I’m conscious of their hardship in the depths of winter so other than hanging out strips of condemned fat from the butcher I also stash a good load of apples for the robins, thrushes and blackbirds. Lilly and I have been busy wrapping apples in newspaper to reduce the risk of a rotten one spreading to the others, latter on she will be able to unwrap these welcome gifts when the ground is covered in snow or impenetrably frozen; “happles for d birds daddy”!
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