Why native shrubs work hardest when the frost bites

When the first hard frosts arrive, gardens tend to look their most architectural and least alive. That is precisely the moment when the birds nearby are most desperate. Native shrubs earn their keep twice over: they carry berries when almost everything else is bare, and they offer the dense, tangled cover that small birds need in order to survive a long, cold night. A garden planted with even a handful of these stalwarts will be busy from November through to March.

There is a practical bonus, too. Native species are tuned to British soils, British rainfall and British winters, so they shrug off frost and wind with barely a complaint. Once established, most need no feeding, no watering and no cosseting — a genuine relief in a hard season.

Hawthorn, holly and guelder rose: the reliable three

If you plant nothing else, plant these. Between them they cover the whole winter, from the first haws in autumn to the last holly berries in February.

• Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna). The backbone of any native hedge. Its crimson haws are stripped eagerly by redwings, fieldfares, blackbirds and song thrushes, and its thorny interior makes an excellent roosting site — a place where a dozen small birds can huddle out of the wind. It will take heavy clipping, thrives in poor soil and tolerates exposed, frosty positions.
• Holly (Ilex aquifolium). Berries form only on female plants, so you need a male nearby for pollination, or buy a named female variety and hope a neighbour has done the decent thing. Holly is the insurance policy of the winter garden: its berries are low in appeal until the cold bites, by which point they are often the only food left. Mistle thrushes and blackbirds guard them jealously. The evergreen leaves also give birds somewhere to sit out sleet and snow.
• Guelder rose (Viburnum opulus). Less familiar than it deserves to be. Flat white lacecap flowers in early summer give way to translucent scarlet berries that hang on well into the new year. Add superb autumn foliage in shades of crimson and purple, and you have a shrub that works in a border as happily as in a hedgerow.

Round these off with rowan, blackthorn, dog rose, elder and ivy if you have room. Ivy in particular is quietly invaluable — its late flowers feed insects and its black berries ripen just as everything else runs out.

Leave the seed heads standing

The urge to tidy in October is strong, but resist it. Standing seed heads are a larder, and they look superb rimed with frost.

• Teasel holds its seed well into February and is a magnet for goldfinches, which cling to the heads and pick them clean.
• Sunflowers, coneflowers and rudbeckias feed finches and sparrows for weeks, and their hollow stems shelter overwintering insects.
• Sedums and ornamental grasses provide both seed and structure, and their bases give ground-feeding birds somewhere to scratch.

Leave the cutting back until late March or early April, once the worst of the weather has passed and the new growth is pushing through. Likewise, resist clearing every fallen leaf. A loose pile in a quiet corner is a foraging ground for robins, dunnocks and blackbirds, and it shelters the caterpillars and grubs that will feed nestlings in spring.

Keep a shallow drink ice-free

Birds need water in winter as much as food — for drinking, and for keeping their feathers in condition through long, freezing nights. A frozen bird bath is useless.

• Choose a shallow dish, no more than 2–3cm deep, with gently sloping sides.
• Raise it on a pedestal or stone, close to cover but with a clear view all round, so birds can spot a cat before it gets close.
• Refresh it every morning with a jug of warm — not boiling — water. Drop in a small floating object such as a cork or a ping-pong ball; it moves in the slightest breeze and slows freezing.
• Never add salt, glycerine or antifreeze, and clean the dish out weekly with hot water and a stiff brush.

If the forecast is severe, keep a second dish indoors overnight and simply swap them at dawn. It takes a minute and it is the single kindest thing you can do in a cold snap.

Plant now, prune with the birds in mind

Bare-root shrubs are cheapest and establish best when planted between November and March, provided the ground is not frozen or waterlogged. Fork in plenty of well-rotted compost, firm the plant in so the roots are snug, and mulch around it without piling compost against the stem. Water well in the first year, even through winter dry spells.

For a mixed native hedge, set plants roughly 30–45cm apart in a double staggered row. Pruning is where good intentions often go wrong: between March and August, put the shears away, as it is an offence to disturb nesting birds. Cut in late winter instead, after the berries have been taken. If you must tidy, do it lightly and in stages, leaving some fruiting wood for next year's crop.

Start small if you like. One holly, a hawthorn whip in the corner and a washing-up bowl of fresh water will bring more life to a frosty morning than you might expect — and by next winter, the birds will already have written it into their rounds.