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of satisfaction. I'm always keen to attract wildlife, and I'm pleased that this time it worked. Old nesting material can harbour diseases, pests and parasites, which can carry over from one season to the next if it's not removed. So I need to get the ladder out

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 in the damp grass. Other times they...

For Christmas this year, all my friends and relatives will be receiving bird boxes. I’ve developed something of an obsession with DIY bird boxes, and currently have a pile of them in my front room, waiting to be wrapped in festive paper. I feel like Santa.It all started when the ...

, such as 'John Downie' and 'Red Sentinel', which seem to also have good wildlife value. They’re all hardy and do well in most soils, and are now usually grown on dwarfing rootstocks so they reach an eventual height of just 4m. But they do like a bit of sun

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

A friend of mine recently found a juvenile hedgehog. It was curled in a ball in the middle of the road, with cars whizzing past. Had my friend not been in the right place at the right time, this young hoglet would almost certainly have met a sticky end.In addition to dicing with ...

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

It takes quite a lot to tempt me outside in December, but once I’m coated, booted and scarved and do get outside, I suddenly realise quite how much there is to do. With my (rather unflattering) beanie hat snugly pulled down, it’s time to work through my Seasonal Checklist…1. Wrap...

Dog violets, Viola riviniana, appeared almost as soon as I laid the topsoil of my new garden. They’ve been here for three years now, slowly bulking up in corners where nothing else grows.They thrive in the shadiest parts of my garden, flowering just after the snowdrops and before...