GARDENING Advice Wildlife Give your garden wildlife some home-made Christmas treats By Hannah Stephenson, PA We could be feasting on delicious Christmas fare over the festive season at a time when food and shelter for our wildlife is scarce and a few gifts for our garden creatures could mean the difference between life and death.
“During the cold months, gardeners can significantly impact the survival of various species by offering food, water, and shelter,” says Helen Bostock, RHS senior wildlife specialist.
Making bird food cookies, shelters for insects and other small but vital gifts should make life easier for our garden visitors through the winter. Experts offer the following guides.
Festive bird cookies
Dawn Casey, author of RSPB Bird Tales (Bloomsbury Wildlife, £22), encourages readers to reconnect with nature through bird-related activities and suggests making cookies for robins.
Use one-third lard or suet to two-thirds mixture of seeds, nuts, dried fruits, raw oatmeal and cheese, she advises, and you’ll need cookie cutters to shape the mix, perhaps in star or other festive shapes. Melt the lard, pour it into a heatproof bowl and add the remaining ingredients, stir the mixture around. Put the cookie cutters on a layer of greaseproof paper on a freezer-proof tray. Spoon the mixture into the cutters, flatten it out and use a pencil or straw to make a hanging hole in each shape, then place the tray into the freezer for a few hours to allow the lard to go hard again.
Once it’s set, remove the ‘cookies’ from the cutters and thread twine through the holes, before hanging on the branches for winter birds.
The RHS suggests that you could also use pine cones as the basis of seed cakes. Simply push your seed mixture between the scales of each pine cone.
If you make a batch of bird cookies, you may want to take them out of the freezer two at a time, rather than putting the whole lot out in one go.
If you have cookie mix left over, you could drill a hole in one side of half a coconut shell (flesh and milk removed) then pour the mixture (while still warm) into the shell, leaving the drilled hole exposed, thread some string through it and once the mix is cooled and set, hang it sideways from a branch.
Bird feeder garland
You can use this garland on a balcony or to decorate an outdoor Christmas tree, says Bostock. It is also a fun festive activity for all the family to enjoy.
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