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Christmas at Secret Garden 2020

When the weather gets cold, birds need our help. Finding food gets harder, and they need to eat more to stay warm. Providing food and shelter in winter can make all the difference to your garden’s birds. Here are our top tips to help birds get through the winter.&nbsp;

When the weather gets cold, birds need our help. Finding food gets harder, and they need to eat more to stay warm. Providing food and shelter in winter can make all the difference to your garden’s birds. Here are our top tips to help birds get through the winter.&nbsp;
<h2>What to feed birds in winter</h2>
Unlike us, birds don’t have to watch the calories over Christmas. What they need is plenty of oil-rich, high-calorie food to replenish the fat stores that they burn up quickly in cold weather. Sunflower and nyjer seeds are ideal, as are suet balls (remember to take suet balls out of their mesh bags to stop birds getting their feet tangled in the netting).&nbsp; Peanuts are always popular, but make sure to buy good quality unsalted peanuts suitable for birdfeed, as some peanuts contain a chemical that’s toxic to birds.&nbsp;
Once you start feeding birds in winter, it’s important to stick to a routine and keep your feeders topped up. If birds know there’s food available, they’ll keep coming back, and you don’t want them to waste their valuable energy visiting an empty bird feeder.&nbsp;
<h2>Keep your birdbaths watered</h2>
Keep birdbaths topped up too. Most birds need to drink twice a day, even in winter, and they also need to clean their feathers regularly to keep them waterproof. In icy weather, it can be hard for birds to find sources of clean water, so check your birdbath regularly to make sure it hasn’t frozen over. A handy tip is to leave a ping pong ball floating in the water. The ball will move about in even the lightest breeze, disturbing the water surface and keeping it from freezing in light frosts. On icy days, you may need to thaw your birdbath with warm water. (Don’t use boiling water, as this can crack stone birdbaths.)
<h2>How to make your garden bird-friendly in winter</h2>
To make your garden more bird-friendly, plant a few evergreen shrubs to provide shelter and protection for small birds in winter. Thorny evergreens like holly and pyracantha are ideal, as their berries provide a ready source of food. Mature ivy is another very bird-friendly plant, with berries for winter food and evergreen leaves for shelter.
<h2>Feeding birds at Christmas</h2>
Want to give your garden birds a treat at Christmas? Here’s what you can and can’t give them from your Christmas dinner table.&nbsp;
Do give:
<ul>
<li>Small amounts of non-alcoholic fruit cake&nbsp;</li>
<li>Fruit</li>
<li>Unsalted nuts</li>
</ul>
Don’t give:
<ul>
<li>Any kind of cooking fat (it smears on birds’ feathers and is very hard for them to clean off)</li>
<li>Salty snacks, such as crisps</li>
</ul>
Don’t put out too much food at any one time, as you don’t want to end up with a pile of soggy uneaten food that could attract rats or other pests.
Whatever you’re after, whether it’s bird treats or garden plants, we’ve got everything you need in our centre to help you care for your birds this winter.

How to care for garden birds in winter

Why not do something different with your festive decorations this year?&nbsp; With colourful berries, striking seedheads and fabulous foliage, there’s a wealth of material in your garden to make spectacular decorations. We’ve put together our top tips to help you bring the outside indoors this holiday season.&nbsp;

Why not do something different with your festive decorations this year?&nbsp; With colourful berries, striking seedheads and fabulous foliage, there’s a wealth of material in your garden to make spectacular decorations. We’ve put together our top tips to help you bring the outside indoors this holiday season.&nbsp;
<h2>Top tips to bring the outdoors inside this Christmas</h2>
<ol>
<li>
Add a festive touch to your flower arrangements. Combine dried seed heads with fresh flowers, or use them on their own for long-lasting displays. Teasels, honesty, echinacea and ornamental grasses have beautiful seed heads, and red rose-hips and holly berries add a seasonal dash of bright colour. Coloured dogwood stems also make a spectacular addition to flower arrangements.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
To preserve the gorgeous colours of autumn leaves, make up a solution of one part glycerin to two parts water. Cut sprays of leaves when the colours are at their best, tap the cut ends with a hammer to crush them, and stand them in containers filled with the glycerin/water solution for up to a month. Once the glycerin starts to appear on the leaf surfaces, remove the sprays, wipe the leaves and use them to decorate your home. They should last for several months.
</li>
<li>
If you want fresh flowers in winter, now’s the time to plant a winter-flowering shrub. Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ flowers from late autumn to spring, bearing clusters of pink flowers with a fabulous fragrance. Cut a few flowering stems and place them in a vase to perfume the whole room.
</li>
<li>
If you didn’t get around to planting prepared daffodils or hyacinths in pots indoors in September, buy ready-potted bulbs and put them on a sunny windowsill to give you beautifully scented flowers at Christmas.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Few plants say Christmas like poinsettias, with their spectacular crimson flowers. To keep your poinsettia looking good, protect it from draughts and put it somewhere warm and bright, out of direct sunlight. Don’t overwater it – wait until the surface of the compost is practically dry to the touch before watering.
</li>
<li>
Save autumn leaves with interesting shapes, like maple or oak. Put them between two sheets of paper and press them under a few heavy books for a couple of weeks until dry. Then spray them silver or gold and scatter them over shelves or use them as table decorations.
</li>
<li>
Make a change from the traditional Christmas tree this year. A Corkscrew hazel (Corylus contorta) in a pot is like a natural sculpture with its quirky, twisted branches, ideal for hanging baubles. Or why not drape a potted olive tree or standard bay in Christmas lights?&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Get the kids involved in making Christmas pomanders. Tie ribbons around oranges to give them a festive look, then press cloves into the skins and hang the pomanders up to fill the house with fragrance as they dry.
</li>
</ol>
Whether you’re looking for colourful winter plants or traditional Christmas decorations, you’ll find them in our centre. Let us help you make your house spectacular this holiday season.

8 tips to bring the outdoors inside this Christmas

Whether you’re harvesting the last of your summer vegetables, tidying up your borders or planting spring bulbs, there’s plenty to do in the garden in November. Make the most of those clear autumn days with our top 15 November garden jobs.

Whether you’re harvesting the last of your summer vegetables, tidying up your borders or planting spring bulbs, there’s plenty to do in the garden in November. Make the most of those clear autumn days with our top 15 November garden jobs.
<h2>15 garden tips for November</h2>
<ol>
<li>
November is the best month to plant tulip bulbs in pots and borders. There’s still time to plant other spring bulbs like daffodils, crocuses, irises and fritillaries too.
</li>
<li>
Sow broad beans in the ground or pots, and sow salad leaves on sunny windowsills for winter picking.
</li>
<li>
Carrots, cabbage and celeriac can all be harvested now. Harvest parsnips after the first frosts, when they will have a sweeter flavour.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Net brassicas like cabbage against pigeons, and stake Brussels sprouts to keep them standing securely, ready for harvesting at Christmas.
</li>
<li>
Lift dahlias after the first frosts have blackened the foliage. Leave them somewhere cool to dry, then store them in trays, covered with a layer of newspaper or dry compost to stop the tubers drying out.&nbsp; You can do the same for cannas and tuberous begonias.
</li>
<li>
Clear fallen leaves from lawns and beds.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Mulch beds with compost or well-rotted farmyard manure to improve the soil structure. Put down planks to work off, to avoid compacting the soil.
</li>
<li>
Put pots on pot feet to stop them getting waterlogged. In cold areas, wrap pots with fleece or bubble wrap to insulate them against frost damage.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Prune roses by a third to prevent wind rock.
</li>
<li>
Keep cutting back faded perennials, but leave some seed heads for the birds and to provide winter interest in the borders.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Cut old hellebore leaves off at ground level. This reduces the spread of hellebore leaf spot and also makes the winter flowers easier to see.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
November’s a good time to prune apple and pear trees (but leave plum trees alone until midsummer). Prune blackcurrants, redcurrants, whitecurrants and gooseberries now too, removing deadwood and thinning out congested branches to achieve an open goblet shape. Prune autumn-fruiting raspberries, cutting all the old canes to ground level.
</li>
<li>
Leave ivy over winter, as the flowers and berries are a valuable food source for both birds and bees. It also provides shelter for overwintering ladybirds and butterflies. Don’t worry about it getting out of control, as you can cut it back in spring.
</li>
<li>
Clean your bird feeders and fill them up. Oil-rich, high energy foods like suet balls, peanuts and sunflower hearts will help birds get through the winter. Keep birdbaths topped up too.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Aerate your lawn by spiking it with a garden fork or a hollow tine aerator. Cut the lawn on a high setting to see it through winter.&nbsp;
</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
Whether you’re pruning trees, planting spring bulbs or planning next year’s vegetable garden, you’ll find everything you need in our centre, so come and visit us soon.
&nbsp;

Welcome to the Secret Garden

Christmas at Secret Garden 2020

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