Little help for friends
 
As the days get shorter, some garden residents are busy stocking their own pantries. Hedgehogs have a very busy time in the autumn. They have to eat as much food as possible before finding somewhere to hibernate for the coldest part of the winter. Making small shelters in quiet places will encourage wildlife to hibernate in your garden during the winter and may convince them to stay and help with pests control the following spring. Leaving piles of prunings to provide winter shelter for visitors, such as hedgehogs, will help to give slugs a hard time when they start emerging next year.

Fallen fruits make a lifesaving meal for many birds and mammals as they desperately forage for an ever-decreasing supply of food. So remember to leave few fruits for them after you finish your cropping or just leave the berries on the ornamental shrubs on the branches over the winter.
 
Autumn digging is also useful, turning and breaking the soil can expose food items such as slug eggs to foraging birds. Leave the perennials and grasses standing through the winter and cut them down in spring, rather than autumn. This will provide food and shelter for a wide range of animals. An old log pile or standing decaying wood will provide food and shelter for invertebrates, which in turn will be predated by higher animals.

For even a more organic approach create some overwintering positions where beneficial insects like hoverflies, lacewings and ladybugs can hibernate and emerge to feed on aphids the following spring. You could also make a pond and leave plant debris round the edge of the garden to protect spiders in winter. Dragonflies and amphibians like frogs also like water and will help in controlling garden pests. Leave an area of long grass for amphibians and moth larvae.
 
Did you knew that over 90% of all insects do no harm whatsoever to your plants. Many of these insects turn around and eat the other insects that are truly harmful. For example ladybirds feed on greenfly and some wasp species parasitize plants pests like caterpillars by laying their eggs inside the body, the larvae then destroy the pest.
 
You can even help your birds friends by placing feeders and water for them when the winters are too hard and the food is not too easy to find.