To prevent feeders becoming a hotspot for the spread of disease, it is important to give them a warm and soapy cleaning once or twice a week. The birds might show little appreciation – pooping all over them again almost immediately after cleaning – but they are more likely to stay healthy. And reward the responsible garden bird lover with their calls and songs.
2. Growing fruits and/or vegetables, either for yourself or for wild visitors.
There is great joy in watching any plant grow from seed. A sense of accomplishment too. Nurturing them through the good days, and helping them through every adversity.
In these days of belts tightening and prices rising, it's a good way to save a bit of money too.
With fruits and vegetables, you can taste the results of the work you put in!
3. A dish of water on the ground. Any wild visitors – like hedgehogs, foxes, or badgers – will always be grateful for a much needed drink.
In summer heat, fresh water is vital. In the colder months too, when natural water sources might freeze over, birds and other animals will appreciate a drink.
Important to keep dishes, bowls, and baths clean, for health and hygiene reasons, just as with birdfeeders.
4. Be a little bit lazy. Leave, or even create, spaces that are a bit "messy".
Wild visitors appreciate somewhere to shelter or hide away. A patch left wild, an upturned plant pot left, or, as above, a little pile of bricks. All can be utilised by wildlife visitors.
I have enjoyed watching a visiting field mouse in the evenings scamper from that small brick pile to a little seed left on the ground.
5. Stop a little while. Watch, listen, smell, touch, and maybe even taste.
Having access to a garden is a wonderful thing. Not everyone has a little green space just outside their door.
It would be a shame not to stop and appreciate it for a while.
I have been languishing in bed for a couple of weeks, under Covid's dark spell. It's been an awful time.
I am now emerging from the illness and getting back to normal, but lingering exhaustion and weakened health has left me with less appetite for long walks and exploration. For the two weeks or so that I was very ill I didn't even have the energy to get out into the garden!
However, in the last few days, easing my way back into normality, it is in the garden where I have been reconnecting with nature. Watching birds at the feeders, checking up on plants.
Here's hoping that I can cast off this post-Covid exhaustion, like a snake sloughs dead skin, and get back to those neglected tasks. Coming winter means the garden demands attention.
What brings you joy in your garden? If you have no garden, do you utilise another space to connect with nature close to home?
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