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The foxes have been busy in my garden again. I haven’t seen them recently, but they leave their tell-tale signs. Occasionally I have cause to curse them, notably when I move the kids’ climbing frame to mow the lawn and find a putrescent latrine

again, I’ve been dreaming about a big, leafy, watery garden. But why three ponds? Well, they would be of different sizes and depths, and therefore attract a wide range of wildlife. I would dig a large, deep pond, a medium-sized pond and a small, shallow

out of the ground when dormant. They weigh less and require less maintenance than container-grown plants, so are therefore cheaper. Bargains are to be had at garden centres and nurseries between now and March, so if you’re planning on growing a hedge

if it ventures out again.There's something really special about seeing a lizard in the garden. It's almost as if they shouldn't be able to survive in cold, rainy Britain, and that they only belong in a more exotic world, somewhere hot and dry. But despite

, but the discovery in 2011 that small tortoiseshell numbers had gone down by 68% in 10 years was pretty shocking. It has always been received wisdom that common generalist ‘garden’ species, like the small tort, were protected from some of the frightening declines

While many plants have been late to flourish this year, I’m pleased to report that the blue and great tits that forage in my garden every spring are bang on schedule.Regular readers of this blog will know that every year my tiny courtyard garden

Within days, two scientific reports on Britain’s wildlife have made national news headlines because of their dire prognoses. The State of the UK’s Birds 2012, produced by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, British Trust for Ornithology

Although, yes, technically it is a spider, I’m almost positive that nobody could really be scared of the zebra spider, Salticus scenicus. It lacks all those sinister characteristics that can cause unease among some people — it isn’t black and hairy, it doesn’t have long legs, it ...

Even a small pond will make a big difference to your garden, attracting a wide range of creatures. Let wildlife find your pond naturally and it will soon become a thriving habitat for anything from mayflies to hedgehogs.Give your pond the best

if we don’t get total extinction, we are likely to suffer biodiversity loss.Anyway, back to gardens. I had hoped to bring a live bumblebee into class. The very day before I had seen a huge buff-tailed (Bombus terrestris) queen sniffing out the daffodils