However, there are a few quick and easy steps you can take to help support them – with minimal time outdoors and by embracing a messy corner or two. A few actions will have the added benefit of attracting lots of lovely winter wildlife for you to watch. 

Food fit for a feast

There are lots of easy ways you can provide food for your garden wildlife over the winter. Stocking up your bird feeders is an obvious one – although garden birds benefit from feeding year-round, winter is the time to provide foodstuffs with a high fat content to help keep them warm. Make sure to top your feeders up regularly.

Dried seed heads from teasels, sunflowers and thistles provide a great source of nutrition during the winter months, as do berried bushes such as holly and ivy. These can all look beautifully sculptural in your garden – particularly after a heavy frost.

Water of life

It seems counterintuitive to think about providing water during winter – our wettest time of year especially if this week is anything to by! However, long periods of dry weather are just as possible during the winter as they are during the summer. Provide a shallow dish or container of water at ground level, which will benefit a huge variety of garden wildlife that needs to drink or bathe.

It is also important not to let your pond ice over completely or the water will become deprived of oxygen – bad news for overwintering toads and frogs. Leave a tennis ball floating in the centre.

Home sweet home

Your garden wildlife will battling the extreme elements of weather and a reduction in food – and shelter comes in the most unexpected of forms. Leave healthy herbaceous and hollow-stemmed plants unpruned until early spring, try to avoid clearing away large piles of leaf litter, bricks, pots or brash, and take care when turning compost piles. All of these can provide a vital refuge for your overwintering wildlife – insects, hedgehogs, frogs and more – and should be left undisturbed where possible.

Ringing in the New Year

Finally, if you’re looking to get ahead for 2024, there are a few jobs you can do in your garden over the winter to prepare for spring:

•  Make sure to disinfect your bird feeders and bird baths regularly to prevent the spread of avian diseases from increased visitors.
• Clean out your nest boxes ready for spring visitors – make sure there isn’t anything taking shelter there first, as birds like wrens roost communally in old nest boxes to stay warm.