How to help animals and avoid errors in your French garden before spring
Gardening with care can make a big difference at this time of year
Mowing with care is a major way to avoid injuring or disturbing hedgehogs, insects, and other small animals
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When preparing your garden in France for the arrival of spring, try following these tips to protect its inhabitants as the temperature rises.
There are three common mistakes that gardeners make at this time of year, which can threaten garden life including hedgehogs, insects, and other nesting animals, notes L’Edition du Soir.
Mistake 1: Cutting the hedges, disrupting nests
Experts recommend leaving extensive hedge-cutting until summer, to avoid disturbing springtime nests, as April marks the beginning of the nesting period for many animals.
“By pruning, you risk knocking down a nest or leaving it in the sight of predators by pruning the branches,” said François Thoumy, from LPO Bretagne.
Legally, there are no restrictions on cutting hedges in your own garden, but Mr Thoumy recommends waiting until the end of July to give most of the young time to leave the nest.
Read more: Gardeners in France told to stop cutting hedges in bird nesting season
Read also: Homeowners asked to pause cutting garden hedges in France
Mistake 2: Mowing the lawn without checking for hedgehogs
Rescue centres in France always note an increase in the number of hedgehogs injured by lawn mowers in spring.
Read also: ‘The first baby hedgehog we rescued was love-at-first-sight’
Before attacking your lawn, consider:
Checking for hedgehogs that may be drowsy after waking from hibernation
Starting mowing from the middle of the garden, to give hedgehogs a chance to escape to the outside
Waiting until the beginning of summer to put away any old logs or clearing wood piles, which may contain a litter of hedgehogs. If the young are disturbed, the mother may abandon them.
If your property is subject to an undergrowth clearing notice (débroussaillage), be sure to stay aware of hedgehogs as you clear.
Read also: Watch out for hedgehogs when clearing overgrowth in your French garden
Read more: Wildfires: French law may require you to cut back at-risk vegetation
Débroussaillage (strimming or cutting back) laws require residents to clear away any plant life (living or not) that could allow a fire to jump from place to place. This might mean removing long grass, shrubs, bushes or log piles, pruning trees, or moving inflammable plants away from your house.
This is normally obligatory for those who live in departments that are particularly vulnerable to these fires, and whose property is within 200m of a forest or other woodland.
Mistake 3: Cutting your garden right back
As you mow, consider “leaving a patch of lawn or tall grass and untrimmed plants, for the insects and indeed the whole food chain”, said Mr Thoumy. This can provide food sources and hiding places for many insects that are crucial to the garden ecosystem, such as bees.
Small mammals also find refuge and resources in long grass.
Read more: Test your French with these nine expressions linked to insects
Read also: Millions of insects migrate over France from northern Europe to southern Spain
