Wildlife Hedge Tips – get ready for Winter! #wildlifegarden #hedges

Hello Wildlife Gardeners! Autumn is a great time for hedge care in British gardening for wildlife.

Here’s how to bed down a new wildlife hedge to leave plenty of habitat at the base of the hedge for hibernating invertebrates, small mammals, and amphibians – and make sure the young hedge trees have plenty of light, air, and moisture to their roots.

Strimmers are rubbish around young trees and shrubs – they just cause harm to trees and animals, so get in there and use manual tools to do the best job cutting back grass. A kitchen knife works fine! Take care not to hurt yourself, and sharpen often. Don’t forget to leave some thistles and other seedy plants standing to provide food for birds.

Leave several inches of vegetation cover for wildlife and to retain moisture for your hedge, and if possible, leave the cuttings in a pile nearby for more hibernation habitat. It’ll also rot down to provide shelter next Spring for invertebrates, amphibians, slow worms and grass snakes.

Top UK wildlife gardening take home tip: don’t weed out too much around the base of hedges – let your hedge provide plenty of cover for invertebrates, frogs, and small mammals.

Happy wildlife gardening! 🙂

#wildlifeconservation #wildlifegarden #gardening #plants #nature #frogs #insects #garden #hedges #biology #grass #autumn #winter #ukgardening #ukgardens #ukgardenbirds #spedup #timelapse #timelapsevideos

Hello! If you want that genuine ‘through 
a hedge backwards’ look, there’s nothing like actually working with a hedge! I’m here at a piece of public open space 
that was recently given to the village where I’m from. and the winter before last, 
I helped on a brand new hedging project. And that’s always really exciting because, you know you’re creating some brand new 
habitat for loads of different creatures. And what we’ve got here now is a hedge that has 
taken, but we didn’t go to the full lengths of fully weeding it out, because it needs to be able 
to survive on comparatively little maintenance. Anybody who says you’ve got to use weed killer – 
yeah, you don’t. You need to get that in the bin. We gave it some good mulch – a neighbor 
had chipped an old leylandii hedge, and even though a lot of people say 
you can’t use new leylandii chip, it will strip out the nutrients 
– that was not the case. It suppressed weed growth around the 
new trees, it kept in vital moisture, and it didn’t strip the nutrients as far as we can 
tell at all, because the trees have romped away. Give it two summers though, and the grass 
has really come up through the mulch, and it now needs a bit of work. So just before 
the winter sets in, September is a good time to cut back meadows, I’m cutting things back – not 
too far, leaving plenty of cover for insects. It doesn’t have to look furiously manicured and 
kept; this is a wild piece of open space where people can come to enjoy the species that 
are here. There’s great birds here, there are even kingfishers because there’s a pond. And 
there’s fantastic insects, loads of dragon flies. While I was cutting back, I found 
this huge conglomeration of tiny little buff and black ladybirds that were 
already gathering. Creatures are starting to think about hibernating. So bear 
that in mind as you’re working around. You don’t want big equipment around a new hedge. 
The sound of a strimmer is nature’s scream, you know. So, just get down on your hands 
and knees. Get in there. Cut grass back. I’m using a kitchen knife. Keep it nice 
and sharp. Sharpen every now and again, and that way if there’s anybody in 
here – there was a frog yesterday, there’s interesting fungi, there’s lots 
of insects – if there’s anyone in here, you can react and and you can 
let them go about their business. You need to bear in mind that little creatures are taking advantage of the 
habitat that you’ve provided. And also, it’s a lovely job, and it’s quite 
quick. It’s not going to take you hours, it’s great to be outside, especially 
as winter looms. (Obviously, be careful of your fingers.) You’re 
just grabbing it and cutting through. It’s very important not to manicure your space. That’s really important! If you want life 
in your garden, you have to let things grow, let things be, and then the creatures 
have got something to eat and something to bed down in as the months start to get 
colder. So, yeah, hedgerows, they rock. Oop!