Garden pond
Seed heads
Wood pile
As the final autumn leaves fall from the trees and with December bringing colder nights and frosty mornings; now is the time to prepare and protect your garden or outdoor space for winter.
Prepare
Prepare to support the local wildlife this winter. Leave seed heads on perennials and grasses for a winter food source and allow leaves to collect in some areas of the garden. Leaf filled pockets of your garden will encourage birds and small mammals such as mice, voles, and hedgehogs to feed and find shelter as the temperature drops.
Autumn through to March is the ideal time to plant native shrubs or trees such as buckthorn, holly, dogwood, and guelder rose, to prepare for the seasons ahead. Native shrubs will provide a mix of flowers for pollinators, berries for birds and leaves for caterpillars (and therefore food for baby birds) to help increase the biodiversity in your garden across the seasons.
Prepare ponds for winter by cleaning and carrying out regular maintenance to ensure water is healthy for fish and other wildlife. Make sure the water doesn’t freeze over the coming months as a pond is a lovely addition to any garden and can provide a rich habitat for a range of wildlife. It’s still possible to plant wildflowers around the pond ready for Spring or add some evergreen ferns to help with winter protection of wildlife. Check out our pond section or choose one of our ferns for inspiration.
Protect
Protect wildlife over the Winter months. This can be a tough time for birds, so always keep water and food well topped up. By putting out additional food, gardeners can make a significant contribution to supporting wildlife over winter. It is also a great way to watch wildlife even in the smallest of gardens or balconies, often at very close quarters.
Adding a wood pile of trimmed branches from Autumn prunings will give an area of protection for bees and insects to overwinter. Building a bug hotel is a fun way to use logs, bricks, broken terracotta pots and other natural garden materials. Don’t over tidy your garden as untouched areas are ideal habitats to protect wildlife overwinter.
Protect tender perennials by moving them into the greenhouse, or into a sheltered spot, but if you can’t, it is worth wrapping plants or pots with fleece and mulching with a thick layer of bark or garden compost to protect the roots and stems. Mulch your borders too to retain moisture and act as insulation to help prevent the ground from freezing which can damage roots and stems.
Recycling your garden waste into home-made compost is both easy and environmentally friendly. This is ideal to use as your mulch adding nutrients to your soil overwinter as well as bringing a food source of micro-organisms for birds and small mammals. Mulching also reduces weed germination, so there will be less work for you in the Spring!
Plan
Planning ahead for the next season is always fun; take stock of the plants that were successful this year; make a note of those to be divided in early Spring and the plants that may benefit to be relocated to a more suitable spot.
Make plans to buy new plants for your garden to ensure you have flowers for pollinators through the seasons. Native Spring bulbs, or early Spring flowers such as Primroses or Dog violets will make a great start to 2025. Plan for wildflowers of different heights, colours and flower shapes to attract as many different insects as you can. Or add some Ornamental grasses to create a more naturalistic look to your garden and help to build your local habitat, as grasses will provide a home, breeding ground and a hiding place for insects.
Adding wildflowers to your garden, can be a versatile addition and a solution for some of the tricky areas in the garden such as a shady spot, a damp area, or dry soil. Check out our wildflower categories to help you find the right wildflower for the right place. Even a small area can help to encourage local wildlife whilst attracting bees, butterflies and other pollinators to your garden during 2025.
