02 Sep Why Autumn Is the Perfect Time to Help Wildlife
When summer draws to a close, it’s easy to think that the gardening season is over. Flowers begin to fade, lawns grow more slowly and many of us start tidying the garden in preparation for winter.
But for wildlife, autumn is one of the busiest and most important times of the year.
The choices we make now can help birds, insects and mammals survive the colder months ahead and ensure they’re ready to thrive again in spring.
Berries Are Nature’s Winter Larder 🍒
As insects become scarcer, many birds switch to berries as an important food source. Shrubs such as holly, hawthorn, rowan, elder and cotoneaster provide nutritious berries that help sustain blackbirds, thrushes, robins and other garden birds through autumn and winter.
If you already have berry-bearing plants, try to leave the berries for wildlife rather than pruning them too early. If you’re planning new planting this autumn, consider adding a native shrub that will provide food for years to come.
Leave Seed Heads Standing 🌾
It can be tempting to cut back flowering plants once they’ve finished blooming, but those dried seed heads are full of benefits. They provide:
- Food for finches and other seed-eating birds.
- Shelter for overwintering insects.
- Structure and interest in the winter garden.
Plants such as teasels, echinacea and sunflowers continue to support wildlife long after summer has ended. Sometimes the best thing you can do is simply leave them where they are until spring.
Help Hedgehogs Prepare for Winter 🦔
Autumn is a crucial time for hedgehogs. Before hibernation, they need to build up enough fat reserves to survive the colder months. Gardens with log piles, leaf piles and access between neighbouring gardens provide valuable places to forage and find shelter.
You can help by:
- Leaving piles of leaves in quiet corners.
- Creating a log pile.
- Avoiding bonfires without checking for wildlife first.
- Leaving a 13cm x 13cm gap beneath fences to create a hedgehog highway.
These small actions can make a real difference to one of Britain’s most loved mammals.
Remember the Insects 🐞
Many insects spend the winter tucked away in hollow stems, leaf litter, long grass and dead wood. If we clear everything away in autumn, we remove the places they depend on to survive.
Instead, consider leaving:
- Hollow flower stems.
- Long grass in one corner.
- A log pile.
- Leaf litter beneath hedges.
- A bee hotel or insect house.
Your garden may look a little less tidy, but it will become a much more welcoming place for wildlife.
Give Your Pond a Little Care 💧
If you have a pond, autumn is the perfect time to give it a little attention. Remove excessive fallen leaves to prevent the water becoming overloaded with decaying material, but avoid clearing everything away. Some aquatic plants and natural debris provide valuable shelter for pond life over winter.
If you don’t have a pond yet, there’s still time to add a simple pond in a pot before the colder weather arrives. Even a small container of water can provide an important resource for wildlife.
Autumn Is Full of Opportunity
While many gardeners see autumn as the end of the season, it’s actually the beginning of preparing your garden for the year ahead. Every berry left on a shrub, every seed head left standing and every log pile left undisturbed helps create a safer place for wildlife to survive the winter.
There’s Still Time to Enter
The good news is there’s also still plenty of time to celebrate what you’re already doing.
The Wildlife Garden Awards deadline has been extended until 30 September, so whether you’ve added pollinator-friendly plants, created a wildlife pond or simply left part of your garden a little wilder, you could already qualify for an Award.
The Awards are free to enter, they’re not a competition, and everyone who qualifies receives a certificate recognising their contribution to local wildlife.
So before summer slips away, take a fresh look around your outdoor space. Autumn might just be the perfect time to make a difference—for wildlife and for your garden.