Leaves in your garden can hide vital wildlife at the end of winter (Image: Getty)
The snow has gone away, the sun has come out a bit and March is officially here.
With the dawn of the new month and spring finally in sight, some of us will be thinking about heading out into the garden and seeing some daylight and fresh air at long last.
The problem is, when you’ve been cooped up inside all winter, the garden has gone and got itself into a bit of a state when your back’s turned. Leaves everywhere, broken fence panels and moss and fungus taking over lawns and flowerbeds.
But many gardeningexperts are now urging people to resist the urge to clean and tidy and simply allow your outdoor space to become a bit of a mess.
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Especially in autumn and winter, gardens fill with dead stuff. Piles of rotting leaves, twigs and branches. Old flowers, rotting fruit and dying vegetation all add to the feeling of a garden in need of some maintenance.
But actually, garden experts are telling people that it’s better for the garden to stay hands-off and leave leaves alone because wildlife might still be calling them home.
Helen Baczkowska, conservation research and evidence manager at Norfolk Wildlife Trust, says that leaf piles often shelter hibernating hedgehogs over winter and into spring.
She told gardeners not to ‘hurry’ to tidy up the garden and to leave them alone for a bit longer. She said: “If you really don’t have to do it, and there’s a big mound of grass cuttings and leaves, just leave them because there could be a hedgehog in there. Don’t be in a hurry to tidy up your garden.”
However, you should remove old strands of gardening string, plastic ties and old netting at ground level, which hedgehogs can get caught in, she advises.
Isabel Losada, writing in The Joyful Environmentalist, agrees, and stresses that it’s not limited to just leaves. She says: “Don’t tidy up your garden. If something dies – anything – leave it alone.
“Insects are there to help decompose whatever they find and that process nourishes both them and the earth.
“If you are pruning your trees, leave the tree logs on the ground. We have so little rotting tree debris in our garden… Better to have decomposing wood in a garden. If you have a dying tree, let it die. Don’t tidy it up.
“If you have fruit trees, leave the fallen apples, pears or plums on the ground and in late summer butterflies such as red admiral and painted lady will feed on the juice.
“Basically, anything rotting is good news.”
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