Gardening well cannot be improvised, and if you want to respect biodiversity, you have to know some recommendations and apply them. The French Office for Biodiversity advises against trimming hedges between March 15 and July 31. This is not to spare the ears of your neighbours, but to protect the chicks that shelter there, in the company of pollinating insects and small mammals.
To let all this fauna live in peace, the best thing is still to prune as little as possible. (and especially with an electric hedge trimmer!), whatever the time of year. If you have a small garden, it is better to avoid the bulkier species. You can also remove exotic and ornamental shrubs from the list. (such as cedars), to give preference to those which produce nourishing berries for birds (European spindle or blackthorn, for example). And since birds also nest in trees, you should avoid pruning or cutting them down between mid-March and mid-July.
Do not take advantage of the holidays either to pull out the ivy that grows on the trunks: it protects the trees from the heat in summer, and offers fruit all winter long to blackbirds and thrushes. If you have dead wood, do not hesitate to leave some in your garden, it will serve as food for insects and shelter for hedgehogs.
To maintain the lawn, it’s the same: the less you cut, the better! Tall grass can feed passerines and their broods with caterpillars, flying insects, butterflies. If you can, keep areas unmowed, such as garden borders or around trees. For the areas you want to clear – under the children’s swing, for example – you have to take a few precautions, such as not mowing too early in the year, and leaving a thickness of at least seven centimeters of grass.
In terms of equipment, if you have a small garden, prefer shears and small scythes to mechanical or motorized mowers, because they risk crushing small animals. In large gardens, opt for what is called centrifugal mowing – from the center of the plot outwards –: this allows the fauna to carapate on the sides. And last thing, avoid at all costs to run a robotic lawnmower at night, because it is a lethal weapon for hedgehogs!