It is tempting to think we need to cut back all the plants that have kept us happy all spring and summer with colour, scent, and shape. We also enjoyed seeing all the birds and insects happily using our gardens as a food table, dating site and nursery.

However, do you know that leaving dead flower heads and brown stems are very important for those same birds and insects?

A couple of years ago I listened to a programme about how sparrows love to eat the seeds of the buddleia. Bizarrely a few days later I watched a small flock of sparrows doing just that. So, now I leave cutting back buddleia heads until Spring time when new sources of food are coming along. All it seems to mean is that flowering is just a little bit later.

There are many plants with seed heads that are useful food sources for birds, and did you know that insects over-winter both in seed heads and in the hollow stems of finished plants. I have come to love the sombre colours and unusual shapes of my winter garden. Here is my winter buddleia at the end of March.