The nature of an autumn garden Wildlife gardening guru Chris Baines invites us to discover the amazing, and sometimes surprising, flora and fauna that are hidden in an autumn garden.

In this article

Animals on the move Make room for mushrooms

Winter visitors Gimme shelter

Food for all A place to call home

There is a sense of urgency about the garden in autumn as the days shorten and the need for food and shelter grips local wildlife. The search for an adequate store of food and a safe place to spend the winter months means animals are constantly on the move. If your garden is the best place in the neighbourhood to stock up with nectar, fruit and berries, or to shelter from the worst of the weather, then you can expect plenty of entertainment from a wide variety of visitors.

Relatively few fungi are poisonous, but even if you don’t want to brave a gourmet breakfast, do try identifying the toadstools that pop up in your lawn and shrub-borders this autumn.

One of the great pleasures of gardening with nature is the way the changing seasons are given extra emphasis and ripe fruits, decaying leaves and fungi all combine to give the autumn garden a very special smell. In most of Europe, fungi are highly valued, with foragers galore searching the undergrowth for edible mushrooms. Some fungi grow exclusively in ancient woodlands, but there are many species that can be found in garden habitats, especially if the gardener uses natural composts and mulches, tolerates decay and avoids the use of fungicides. Relatively few fungi are poisonous, but even if you don’t want to brave a gourmet breakfast, do try identifying the toadstools that pop up in your lawn and shrub-borders this autumn. Many of them will be very beautiful, and one or two may even be quite rare.

Fungi are a sure sign of a healthy natural balance in the garden, so as you are tidying for the winter, look for places where twigs and logs, flower stems and fallen leaves can provide hibernation habitat as they slowly decompose. If you and your garden just can’t cope with such pockets of mild untidiness, put dead material through a shredder, store it in a compost bin, and use it as garden mulch next spring.

When the first icy blasts of cold weather sweep in from the north east, look out for a sudden influx of migratory birds. There is a mass movement of birds at this time of year and although wild swans and geese from Greenland and Siberia may grab the headlines, millions of other birds find food and shelter in our gardens. Redwings and fieldfares fly in to strip the berries from our Pyracantha, rowan trees and species roses, and they will welcome a scattering of chopped apples and pears on the lawn to boost their food supply. Siskins, bramblings and the spectacularly exotic waxwings are easy to spot as winter visitors because in most of Britain we never see them in the summer. However, many of our more familiar “resident” birds such as blackbirds and robins also migrate south in autumn and travel north again in spring. This means that birds you think of as your own may well be spending half the year in someone else’s garden many miles away.