1. If you don’t already have a water feature, bird bath or water trough in your garden, think about installing one now.  Water supplies are difficult to find in the winter months and by offering this precious commodity, it will help the wildlife survive the season.
2. Keep the dying and dead leaves of perennials and bulbs and grass stalks until the end of winter.  Many creatures like spiders, wasps, butterflies etc., will live under the leaves and amongst the grass stalks.  If you cut them down now, there will be no place for next season’s beneficial insects to live out the cold weather.
3. Keep seed heads on plants as they are a source of food for many creatures.
4. Have some casual rocks in the garden as they act as great hide outs from predators.
5. Build a compost heap which is a warm and safe home for many larvae and insect eggs.
6. Leave some pipe lengths in sheltered spots out of sight. There are many mammal species that would love a cosy ready-made burrow to shelter in.
7. Tie bird boxes into selected trees for birds to build homes in.
8. Allow leaf litter to collect where it falls – under the shrubs and trees it creates the best environment for ground feeding birds like robins, wagtails and thrushes to find food.

As we become sympathetic to nature and put some of these ideas into practice our gardens transform from two-dimensional to three-dimensional and then one can truly say your garden is so much more than meets the eye.