Gardening: How to nurture birds, pollinators, and winter crops this season

Just like all living things we are natural barometers and change as the weather and air pressure does. Some more than others I might add.

Getting outdoors to experience more of a bright winter day is the best thing we could do. The antidote to rough weather is curling up indoors with a roaring fire, a drink and a book.

Fortunately from the 21st of this month the days will start to turn around and get longer as the downhill stretch to spring kickstarts. It’s not only humans that are trying to get through winter so it’s worth thinking of what presents we can give
wildlife.

Things we do already like layering shrubs and trees offer warmer places for birds and insects to forage and sleep. We are already doing it, so there’s little argument for doing more.

Leave the ivy alone if you can. Not only does it provide evergreen cover, they also fruit at an important time when there is little else around. Birds coexist in ivy with hibernating butterflies, ladybirds and lacewings. All these emerge in spring to help
out in the flower beds.

Even raking leaves and twigs into a pile encourages hedgehogs, beetles and frogs. If you're lucky there might be a few slow worms move in too.

A bird table visible from a window provides endless entertainment and before you know it you have a pair of binoculars and a bird guide to hand. If its near a tree you can strategically place feed balls in there to amplify the experience. They will also
need a birdbath that is defrosted and full.

Leaving seedheads in place and planting berry laden shrubs like holly, cotoneaster or hawthorn will attract different species that stay all year round. Bees, also like us, seem to have differing levels of intellect and will emerge from winter hibernation when there isn’t a lot of nectar or pollen around.

Snowdrops, hellebores and crocuses offer this. Shrubs like Lonicera ‘Winter Beauty’ offer attractive scent and blossom in late winter acting as a magnet for the less intelligent pollinators.

On the Plot

There is definitely a pause in midwinter when activities dwindle. Some days just having a potter and picking winter veg is all we do and this seems to dovetail with the conditions.

Ashes from fires can be sprinkled on a bed prepared for planting shallots or drop it around new garlic shoots for a potassium hit that will make them fatter when the time comes to pull them and hang them out to dry.

If you’re looking for something more therapeutic, parsley and chives can be sown indoors in trays and kept on a windowsill until they increase in size as the days stretch out. Other herbs can be started too so you can steal a head start by the time March arrives.

Alliums are the winter gardeners friend given they can be grown all year round and resist the frost like it's nothing. Onions can be sown in modules now. ‘Ailsa Craig’ and ‘Exhibition’ can be dropped in a hole or through a substrate for an early spring planting.

Doing it this way also ensures that they will root quicker than sets which can be vulnerable to blackbirds and pigeons looking for an easy meal.

Many garden centres turn into Christmas decoration units for December which means that they reduce the price of veg seedlings for a quick sale. These can be brought on in a greenhouse or indoor space for planting when the daffodils are out.

Broad beans, peas and fresh herbs can all look sorry for themselves until you take them home. With the bare minimum level of care they will provide an abundant harvest for next to nothing.

Create time for yourself over the holiday period to do what you do to relax and recharge.\

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas.