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Wildlife gardening jobs for August
- BBC Gardeners' World Magazine
Published: Monday, 26 July 2021 at 2:05 pm
Set aside some time to care for the creatures visiting your garden - here are our wildlife gardening jobs for August.
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As summer fades out, there's plenty of wildlife gardening to be done in August, including helping house martins before their return journey to Africa.
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While it's tempting to deadhead many plants, it's a good idea to leave some to form seedheads, providing a nutritious food source for birds. Take a look at 10 berried plants for birds.
- What to plant in August
During periods of dry weather, or drought, it's important to leave dishes of water out for garden birds.
Discover more on this, plus other wildlife gardening jobs for August, below.
Leave seedheads to form
Light-purple verbena flowers
Leave seedheads on plants such as teasels, lavender and Verbena bonariensis, as they will provide food for birds and small mammals.
- Buy plants for wildlife from Suttons
Provide mud for house martins
A house martin collecting mud
Swifts and swallows will be making their way back to Africa this month, but house martins will stay to rear a second, or even a third brood. During dry weather, place a dish of mud in the garden that they can use to repair their nests.
Stop deadheading roses
Orange-red rose hips
Stop deadheading roses to ensure they develop hips that hungry birds can eat during the winter months. Here are some of the best roses to grow for hips.
- Buy roses from Thompson & Morgan.
Check hedges before cutting
Checking a birds' nest in a hedge is empty
Blackbirds and thrushes often continue nesting surprisingly late, well into August, so check your hedges for nests before cutting and wait until this season’s broods have definitely flown before you trim.
Once you're confident that all nests are empty, it's time to give them a cut - find out which hedge trimmers came out on top when we put them through their paces.
Leave food and water for hedgehogs
A hedgehog eating from a dish on a lawn
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Continue to leave out dishes of water and meat-based dog or cat food (ideally chicken flavour) for hedgehogs. The young hoglets need help fattening up before they go into hibernation in late autumn, when they might appreciate one of our favourite hedgehog houses.
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