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Why Spring Starts Earlier Than You Think

By the time the first daffodils open, the breeding season is already underway. Blue tits and great tits begin prospecting for nest sites in late February and early March, robins may have laid eggs by mid-March, and queen bumblebees are already emerging from hibernation on the first mild days. If you leave your big garden tidy-up until Easter, you will be clearing away food, shelter and nesting material at precisely the moment wildlife needs them most.

The single most useful change you can make is to do less. A garden that looks slightly scruffy in March is a garden that is humming with life by May. What follows is a practical plan for the next few weeks, ordered roughly by urgency.

Put Up Nest Boxes Now, Not in April

Birds need time to find and inspect a box before they commit to it. Ideally, boxes should be up by the end of February, but a box hung in early March will still be investigated. Position it facing between north and east, which avoids the worst of the driving rain and the full heat of the afternoon sun.

• Use a box with a 32mm entrance hole for blue tits, coal tits and house sparrows; 25mm suits blue tits only and excludes larger intruders.
• Open-fronted boxes appeal to robins, wrens and spotted flycatchers, but must be tucked into dense climbers such as ivy or honeysuckle at least 1.5 metres up.
• Fix boxes 2 to 4 metres high, tilted very slightly forward so rain runs off, and never above a bird table where birds gather and disease spreads.
• Space boxes at least 3 metres apart, or use pairs facing different directions, since blue tits defend a small territory around the nest.
• Skip the perch below the hole. It helps predators far more than it helps the occupants.

Never open a box once nesting has begun. If you want to check on progress, watch from a distance with binoculars and keep away from the flight path to the entrance.

Tidy Less, and Tidy Later

Seed heads left standing over winter are a larder for goldfinches, siskins and greenfinches, and the hollow stems of teasel, sedum and aster are used by overwintering insects. Cut them back in late March or April rather than February, and when you do, leave the cuttings in a loose heap at the back of a border for a fortnight so anything sheltering inside can crawl out.

Resist the urge to strip ivy. A mature ivy plant is one of the best single pieces of habitat in a British garden, offering nesting cover in spring, nectar in autumn when little else is flowering, and berries in late winter. Trim it with secateurs rather than a hedge trimmer, and only where it is blocking a window or a gutter.

Compost heaps, log piles and untidy corners serve as hibernation sites for hedgehogs, frogs and queen bees. If you must move a log pile, do it in stages over a few days and shift the top layers first, giving slow-moving residents a chance to relocate.

Water, Food and a Clean Feeding Station

Natural food is scarce in early spring. Insects are only just stirring, and last year's berries are finished. Keep feeders topped up until at least the end of May, when caterpillars and aphids take over as the main supply for growing chicks.

• Offer high-energy foods: sunflower hearts, suet balls and pellets, and peanuts in mesh feeders from a reputable supplier.
• Avoid loose peanuts and dry bread in spring, as these can be taken to chicks and cause choking.
• Clean feeders every couple of weeks with hot soapy water and a dilute disinfectant, then rinse thoroughly and dry in the sun.
• Move feeders and baths around the garden occasionally to stop a build-up of droppings and disease in one spot.
• Keep a shallow dish of water at ground level as well as a hanging bath, and add a few stones so bees and hedgehogs can drink without drowning.

Fresh water matters as much as food. Birds need to drink and bathe daily, and a pond or a simple saucer will attract species that never visit a feeder.

Plant for Insects, and the Birds Will Follow

Almost every garden bird feeds its chicks on caterpillars, so the most effective bird-friendly planting is insect-friendly planting. Native species support far more invertebrate life than most ornamentals, and they are generally tougher in British conditions.

• Hawthorn, blackthorn, field maple and birch for caterpillars and nesting cover.
• Single-flowered roses, ox-eye daisy, foxglove, lavender and catmint for nectar and pollen.
• Honeysuckle and native ivy for moths and their larvae.
• Leave a patch of long grass through summer; it shelters larvae and gives frogs and hedgehogs somewhere to hunt.

If you have room, a small native hedge is worth more to wildlife than any feeder. It provides cover, food, nesting sites and a corridor that lets animals move safely between gardens.

A Few Jobs to Avoid Until June

Hedge cutting is the biggest one. Between March and August, hedges and shrubs are full of active nests, and it is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to damage or destroy a nest while it is in use. If a hedge genuinely must be trimmed, inspect it carefully first, and stop immediately if you find a nest with eggs or chicks.

Other jobs to postpone include mowing long grass, clearing ponds of frogspawn and newt eggs, and cutting back climbers on walls. Painting, creosoting and wood-preserving sheds and fences is best left until autumn, as the fumes are harmful to insects and can deter nesting birds.

Do the preparation now, then step back and let the garden get on with it. The reward, by late spring, is a border full of fledglings, a pond loud with frogs, and the sense that your patch of ground is pulling its weight for British wildlife.