(1/18) On a gray January afternoon, I sit in my sunroom looking out over my back yard habitat. We have had a number of very cold days and nights. All the deciduous trees and shrubs have lost their leaves which pile up on the garden floor. Small song birds are constantly foraging among the leaves. The lawn grass is still green. We mowed over it several times because I don’t like the look of leaves littering the lawn, but I like how the chopped up leaves nourish the green grass.

If you are a pristine gardener, you wouldn’t like the looks of my garden right now. I am more interested in providing winter habitat for the beneficial insects in the leaf litter, and allowing the leaves to add their nutrition to my garden soil. Song-birds feed on the insect larva and eggs they can find in that leaf litter all winter long. The garden in winter is actually a very busy place.

During November, I cleaned up all the annuals and added them to the compost bins. I cut off any daylily and hosta foliage because it really offers nothing to the winter wildlife, and can attract slugs. Most of the perennials are standing with their seed heads already mostly eaten.

Bird houses have been cleaned out for the winter to remove any mites or disease, but the houses are still standing so they can offer shelter and protection for the birds during the cold winter months. Bird feeders are full and well-attended. Our many conifers stand rather stark and drab waiting for the new growth of spring to renew their vigor and bright colors. They may look drab to us, but they are also offering shelter and protection to song birds and other small wildlife.

Some of the butterflies that we enjoy during the summer have left for warmer points south, but a surprising number spend the winter right in the backyard. Viceroys, the monarch look-a-likes, live as tiny caterpillars no bigger than a thread, wrapped in a leaf below the willow they probably will host on in the spring. Some species of butterflies spend the winter as a chrysalis camouflaged in a tree or shrub somewhere out there, and, a few actually survive as a butterfly wedged into a crevice of the bark of a tree or between some rocks. It may look pretty desolate out there right now, but there is plenty of life happening that is not readily apparent.

Many small wildlife animals such as rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks do what they need to do to survive. Rabbits burrow into a warm spot usually beneath the protection of a conifer, and continue to forage for food all winter. When snow covers the grass, they tunnel under the snow to feast on the bark of young trees and shrubs. This is why it is important to protect newly planted gems with tree wrap or chicken wire. Things that the rabbits ignore during the summer when they munch on green grass, may be damaged or destroyed during the winter.

Gray squirrels spend just about every waking minute during warm weather eat-ing and "squirreling away" food for the winter. When freezing weather is upon them, they don’t actually hibernate, but they tend to stay close to their "nest" so we don’t see nearly as much of them as we do during the growing season.

Chipmunks, on the other hand, do hibernate but not like a bear who sleeps all winter. Chipmunks wake up every few days to eat and perform other bodily functions, then they go back to sleep.

As a gardener, I am definitely not a fan of the rabbits. Although we have our share of squirrels and chipmunks, rabbits cause the most damage in my garden. Whenever I plant a new tree or shrub during the summer, I make sure I protect that planting with chicken wire in the fall. I pound some stakes into the soil, then wrap the chicken wire around the stakes encircling the plants. I use clamps I buy from a tool vendor at the flea market to secure the wire to the stakes.

Mixing strong smelling or fuzzy leafed plants into your garden — even a vegetable garden — will sometimes help to deter both rabbits and deer. But, beware, when they are hungry enough, they will eat anything!

Squirrels are notorious for digging up tulip and some other bulbs and eating them, especially in the winter. They will not eat daffodils, so mixing a few daffodils into your tulip plantings may help. Also, when planting the tulips, be careful not to drop pieces of the dried skin that may fall off the bulb onto the soil. These act as a calling card to the squirrel who can smell them and guess the bulbs are underneath. Best of all, if you have an area of newly planted bulbs, cover the soil with hardware cloth to prevent squirrels from digging. Remove it in the spring just before the bulbs come up.

Don’t let pests discourage you. Although I have been known to become extremely angry at rabbits, the truth is, I have learned to take the proper precautions, and now they destroy much less. Enjoy your garden habitat. It is an extremely interesting place with much to entertain and teach the attentive observer.

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