Our gardens play an important role in supporting wildlife and what we do in them every autumn can either enhance or inhibit that role.

Here are three things we can do in our Autumn gardens to help wildlife.

1. Provide shelter for the Native Bees
Many species of native bees need a place to spend the winter that is protected from cold and predators. They may hunker down under a piece of peeling tree bark, or they may stay tucked away in the hollow stem of an ornamental grass. Some spend the winter as an egg or larvae in a burrow in the ground.

2. Leave the Garden intact for Ladybirds
Most of them enter the insect world’s version of hibernation soon after the temperatures drop and spend the colder months tucked under a pile of leaves, nestled at the base of a plant, or hidden under a rock. Most overwinter in groups of anywhere from a few individuals to thousands of adults. Leaving the garden intact for the winter means you’ll get a jump start on controlling pests in the spring. Skipping an Autumn gardening clean-up is one important way to help these beneficial insects.
And, of course, we won’t need neonicotinoid sprays to “control” sap sucking insects.

3. Save Garden Clean-up Until Spring to Help You
If the previous two reasons aren’t enough to inspire you to hold off on cleaning up the garden, I’ll add one final reason to the list: You.

There is so much beauty to be found in a winter garden. Snow resting on dried seed pods, berries clinging to bare branches, goldfinches flitting around spent sunflowers, frost kissing the autumn leaves collected at the base of a plant, and ice collected on blades of ornamental grasses. At first, you might not consider yourself to be one of the reasons not to clean up the garden, but winter is a lovely time out there, if you let it be so.

Delaying your garden’s clean up until the spring is a boon for all the creatures living there. Instead of heading out to the garden with a pair of pruning shears and a rake this Autumn, wait until the spring temperatures warm up for at least 7 consecutive days. By then, all the creatures living there will be emerging from their long winter nap. And even if they haven’t managed to get out of bed by the time you head out to the garden, most of them will still manage to find their way out of a loosely layered compost pile before it begins to decompose. Do Mother Nature a big favour and save your garden clean up until the spring.

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